Columbia University suspended the daughter of Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar and two other students, one day after Ilhan Omar interrogated a number of university administrators regarding the mistreatment of students protesting on campus against Israel’s war on Gaza.
The American website The Intercept reported that the university administration arrested the three female students from among hundreds of participants in a camp on campus to protest against the Israeli government.
Olhan’s questions to officials during a congressional hearing on anti-Semitism at Columbia University touched on the university’s response to students who were sprayed with a chemical during a pro-Gaza student protest at the university last January, and the university’s policy regarding professors who harass students online.
University President Nimat Minouche Shafik announced that two students had been suspended in connection with last January’s protests, and that a professor was under investigation for complaints about his social media posts about students.
During the congressional hearing that relied on the idea of widespread anti-Semitism on university campuses, Ilhan Omar’s pressure on Minouche Shafiq led her to say that there were no protests targeting specific ethnic or religious groups, Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, or Jews.
“I think the line of questioning that my mother asked for was definitely putting pressure on Columbia,” said Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi, a student at Barnard College, Columbia’s women’s school.
Hersey, who was an active participant in campus protests against the war, said she received no prior disciplinary warning.
Last Thursday, the college sent temporary suspension notices to Hirsi, Maryam Iqbal, and Souf Dino for participating in an on-campus camp that gathered hundreds of students for more than 24 hours. The demonstration began in the early hours of Wednesday morning, ahead of a House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on anti-Semitism at the college.
According to the notice, the three female students received repeated requests from Barnard College and Columbia University to leave the camp on Wednesday.
The college determined that the continuation of the unauthorized encampment on campus poses an ongoing threat to the continuation of the normal operations of the college and university, and prohibited female students from entering residence halls, dining facilities, and classrooms while the full disciplinary process is being implemented.
Iqbal indicated that she, Hirsi, and Dino were prominent participants in the protests and made statements to the media using their full names. She added that the school had previously known Iqbal as an organizer with the Students for Justice in Palestine movement.
The three female students had participated in a march last January, in which participants were sprayed with a harmful chemical substance. Iqbal said she was among those who went to hospital for treatment afterward.
In a pseudonymous lawsuit filed this week, a student at the university said he sprayed a non-toxic spray “into the air and not directly at any individual.”
During the congressional hearing on Wednesday, Minouche Shafik revealed publicly for the first time that two students had been suspended in connection with the incident.
Source/agencies
