Columbia Protest Mobs Attack Order and Rule of Law

A mob now rules Columbia University. University administrators are keeping the police off campus and refusing to enforce school policies. Students and outside agitators have occupied the school’s southwest lawn to “free Palestine.” Rather than restore order, administrators forced classes to go at least partly virtual for the rest of the semester while they negotiate with “representatives of the student encampment.” The mob action goes beyond the issue of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza or this one campus. It is an attack on basic American ideas of order and rule of law as well as a bigoted smack at the Jews.

The mob surged initially on April 17, as Columbia president Minouche Shafik faced questions from Congress about how the school is handling its antisemitic faculty and students. Students pitched tents and declared a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Protesters on and around campus shouted, “We are Hamas,” “Long live the intifada,” and “We don’t want no two state, we want ’48” (that is, the undoing of Israel’s founding in 1948).

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Dore Feith

Dore Feith is a J.D. candidate at Columbia Law School.

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A mob now rules Columbia University. University administrators are keeping the police off campus and refusing to enforce school policies. Students and outside agitators have occupied the school’s southwest lawn to “free Palestine.” Rather than restore order, administrators forced classes to go at least partly virtual for the rest of the semester while they negotiate with “representatives of the student encampment.” The mob action goes beyond the issue of Israel’s military campaign against Hamas terrorists in Gaza or this one campus. It is an attack on basic American ideas of order and rule of law as well as a bigoted smack at the Jews.

The mob surged initially on April 17, as Columbia president Minouche Shafik faced questions from Congress about how the school is handling its antisemitic faculty and students. Students pitched tents and declared a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” Protesters on and around campus shouted, “We are Hamas,” “Long live the intifada,” and “We don’t want no two state, we want ’48” (that is, the undoing of Israel’s founding in 1948).