Associate Professor SLAMS Colombia, Barnard leader creates chaos as anti-Israel instigator
Anti-Israel protests broke out last week at Barnard College, with Colombia Associate Professor Shai Davidai called on students and faculty.
“These protests we saw two days ago were a hall in Barnard, one of the protests that began on October 12, 2023,” Davidai told Fox News Digital. “Hate doesn’t go away on its own. Extremism doesn’t go away alone. If you don’t deal with it, it stays.”
The latest protests were in response to two students allegedly breaking into Columbia University classrooms in January and throwing leaflets filled with hatred and anti-Semitism.
Anti-Israel protesters were presented at Barnard College in February 2025. (Getty; X)
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Avi Shilon, a professor who teaches the course, told the Times of Israel that he invited protesters to join the class, but they refused and continued to yell.
More than 50 anti-Israeli agitators have taken over a building on Barnard’s campus after Barnard’s students were deported, echoing last year’s takeover of Columbia University’s Hamilton Music Hall.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Davidai pointed out that although the protests were conducted at Barnard, they were organized by organizations approved and funded by Colombia.
“It’s the result of 20 years of indoctrination,” Davidai told Fox News Digital. “We have instilled students who instilled, and that’s not a problem. The problem has been instilled with their professors.”
But Davidai said he had heard from Jews and non-Jewish students that they were tired of the protests.
“They don’t see accountability, they’re just tired of it,” Davide said. “I got an email from my parents saying ‘We’re paying $90,000? So, can Barnard go and clean up the mess of students who have to walk?’ It doesn’t make any sense.”
Anti-Israel student protesters were presented outside Barnard College in New York on February 27, 2025. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
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Davidai said he tried to interact with other teachers on these issues, but in one case one student intervened and pulled other faculty members out of the conversation. He said there were some “radical students” telling teachers “how to do and what to say.”
In addition to faculty, Davidai also saw problems with Colombia’s leadership. He said former Columbia University president Minouche Shafik “don’t know what she’s going to get into” and “a coward.” He has a greater responsibility to interim President Katrina Armstrong, who said “incompetent”.
Davidai believes Columbia has not lost all hope and believes that universities have a way to turn things around.
“You kick out the indoctrineters, kick out the professor [who] Openly support Hamas and other U.S. designated terrorist organizations. You kick out students who blatantly support the Jewish and Israeli Holocaust and provide space for students who want to teach and learn. ”
An anti-Israel protester held a flag on the roof of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York on April 30, 2024. (Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Neither Barnard College nor Columbia University immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Barnard College and Columbia University have a legendary history. Originally, Columbia was an all-male university, while Barnard was an all-female school that became part of the Columbia system in 1900. Both still share academic resources, and both institutions have courses that can be offered to Columbia and Barnard students.
On February 26, Colombia posted a statement on Twitter saying that “the destruction of academic activities is unacceptable.”
After the class severance in January, interim President Armstrong condemned the incident in a statement saying the incitementists’ actions violated university rules. In addition, Colombia suspended participants suspected of contacting the university and conducted an investigation.
President Barnard Laura Ann Rosenbury published an op-ed on the situation in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Monday titled “Student protests too far.”
“This kind of destruction is not intended to expand thinking or advance civil discourse. Instead, it is an act of inquiry, where destruction ridicule and speak loudly on professors, distribute anti-Semitic flyers, and refuse to participate in the discussion even if the professor generously invites them to the classroom.” She continued, the protesters’ actions “are completely inconsistent with our mission.”
