Pro-Palestine Protest Arrests Shake Columbia Campus, As Daughter of US Muslim Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is Suspended for Activism in Affiliated College
Day before suspension, Omar voiced concerns to the university’s president about her administration's management of pro-Palestinian expression on campus during House hearings
Just a day after Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar questioned Columbia University President Minouche Shafik about the treatment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators on campus, its emerged that Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi, has been suspended for her role in organizing a peaceful pro-Palestinian protest at Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia.
There are growing concerns that Columbia is over-reacting and clamping down on free speech in response to political pressure from Congress and the media, just months ago several College presidents were forced to resign after criticism that they did not act decisively on claims of anti-Semitism.
In an email to the suspended students, including two additional individuals among hundreds of protestors, Barnard Dean Leslie Grinage stated: "This decision is made on the basis of information provided by Columbia University Public Safety, indicating your involvement in an unauthorized encampment on the Columbia University campus. Despite repeated requests from both Barnard and Columbia on April 17th, yesterday, you have persisted in your participation in this unauthorized encampment."
Following her suspension, Hirsi released a statement on X, saying: "I am an organizer with CU Apartheid Divest. Throughout my three years at Barnard College, I have never faced reprimand or received any disciplinary warnings. It's evident that I am one of three students suspended for standing in solidarity with Palestinians who are confronting genocide."
The move also comes a day after Columbia asked the New York Police Department to intervene and arrest over a hundred protesting students on campus. Shafik had been testifying before Congress earlier in the day in a hearing addressing anti-Semitism, saying she wanted the university to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all.
Scores of students had reportedly set up camp on the university campus for two days, demanding the institution, which maintains an exchange program with Tel Aviv University, boycott all engagements linked to Israel following the deadly ongoing siege of Gaza.
Witnesses testify police were called to break up the sit-in-style protest in which participants were peacefully chanting and singing.
Hirsi, who has been an active participant in campus protests over the war and said she hadn’t received any prior disciplinary warning, noted that other factors may have been at play in her case.“And then added pressure from me also giving interviews and people knowing that I am the daughter of Ihan Omar at the same time,” she said. 
During the House hearing, Omar voiced concerns to the President about her administration's management of pro-Palestinian expression on campus, including the suspension of numerous students for their participation in peaceful protests.
"There's been a recent assault on the democratic rights of students nationwide," Omar told Shafik. "I was appalled to discover that in April, Colombia suspended and expelled six students for their participation in the pro-Palestinian panel event on campus," she said.
Shafik was forced to admit that no protests specifically targeted ethnic or religious groups such as Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, or Jews.
Omar questioned Shafik about the school’s policies regarding professors who harass students or criticize the president online, specifically referring to Columbia professor Shai Davidai, who was accused of harassing pro-Palestine students on Twitter for months, labeling them as "pro-Hamas" or supportive of terrorism, while also repeatedly attacking the school for not taking more stringent action against those students.
Broken Trust: University Leadership Under Scrutiny 
Egyptian American Shafik sought to refute Republican House Representatives' claims that her university was still not challenging anti-Semitic behavior on campus.
However, critics say yesterday’s heavy-handed tactics show overreach in a desperate bid to avoid the same fate as presidents of Penn and Harvard- both had lost their positions following hearings last year where they were attacked for perceived leniency towards pro-Palestine students.
One adjunct faculty member found the decision to involve the police in dispersing the peaceful protestors ‘troubling’, given that the school has its public safety department ostensibly trained to help manage student and campus affairs. “I was there yesterday and these students were just singing and chanting and handing out flyers,” said the professor, who requested anonymity out of concern for workplace reprisal. “Shouldn’t the cops have been required to disarm before entering campus to avoid the possibility of accidental discharge or some other horrible thing?”
In response to Hirsi’s suspension announcement, criminal lawyer Olayemi Olurin replied to her on X, “Columbia University is making a mistake. Their eagerness to police and criminalize their own students will not only fail to suppress the voices and activism of those students, but they’re also going to radicalize countless others who witness this abuse of their rights.”
Is Being Pro-Palestinian the Same As Being Antisemitic?
This isn't the first time that Columbia University's administration has displayed a concerning readiness to silence pro-Palestinian voices.
Last year, it suspended two student groups, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace, for expressing opposition to Israel's actions in Gaza.
In January, the college failed to safeguard peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters on their campus when a young man, believed to be an Israeli Jew, approached and sprayed them with an abrasive substance believed to be skunk, a chemical weapon used for crowd control by the IDF.
Universities in the U.S. have become the focal point of intense cultural debate since the October 7 Hamas attack and Israel's subsequent bombardment of Gaza. Many students expressing pro-Palestinian sentiments have faced accusations of antisemitism because they are calling out the retaliatory conduct of Israel.
Over 32000 Palestinians have been slaughtered, mainly women and children, in response to Hamas killing over 1100 Israelis.
The US House only just passed a resolution denouncing the popular Palestinian chant “from the river to the sea” as being ‘antisemitic’ further fueling unease among Palestinians and their supporters worldwide.
