Former Columbia University Prof. Robin D. G. Kelley has ripped Columbia President Nemat Minouche Shafik for trampling on academic freedom and protecting Zionist zealots by her “draconian, unethical, illegal, and dishonest actions toward your own students and faculty.”

Shafik was accused of trampling on academic freedom and protecting Zionist zealots. I Photo: Columbia University
In an open letter published by Boston Review, Kelley, now the Gary B. Nash Professor of American History at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), author of “Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination” and a contributing editor at Boston Review, said “in the name of keeping students safe, you bring the NYPD on campus to break up a peaceful encampment, thereby endangering hundreds of student protesters—many of whom are Jewish students and students of color—and the campus community at large… And your administration’s decision to evict students from their dorms, strip them of their meal cards, and have them charged with trespassing is nothing less than vindictive."
"After taking their tuition and fees, you render them houseless and potentially food insecure. How does this make students safe?” Kelley added.
“In 40 years, I have never seen such brazen cruelty toward students and faculty. In the name of keeping students safe, you suspend chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) for organizing a peaceful protest in order to draw attention to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its escalation of violence in the West Bank. When two students attacked an antiwar rally on the steps of Low Memorial Library on January 19, what did you do to keep students safe? Instead, you brought the NYPD to campus to suppress a follow-up protest organized to call attention to the attack,” Kelley said.
Shafik has not disciplined Prof. Shai Davidai, who targets and identifies antiwar students on his social media account, putting their safety in jeopardy while peaceful student protesters have not only been arrested but also suspended and denied their right to finish the academic term?
Shafik also threatened Profs. Joseph Massad and Mohamed Abdou, two distinguished scholars, with removal, suspension, or outright dismissal.
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