Columbia University has banned the alleged perpetrators of the chemical attack that took place during a pro-Palestinian rally on Friday from the university's campus.
In An email message to students and staff, the university's interim provost Dennis Mitchell wrote that since the incident, in which protesters reported being sprayed with “a foul-smelling substance that required students to seek medical attention,” Columbia has been working with its police department New York”. in the investigation of what appear to have been serious crimes, possibly hate crimes.”
“The University received additional information on Sunday evening. As a result, the alleged perpetrators identified at the University were immediately barred from campus while the law enforcement investigation continues,” Mitchell wrote. The University did not specify whether those being banned were students or how many people were involved.
According to Columbia Spectator, which reported for the first time about the incident last week, 18 students present at the rally described being enveloped in a foul smell during the protest. 10 students reported experiencing physical symptoms such as headaches, nausea and burning eyes. and several reported damage to their property. According to groups involved in the protest, at least 8 students they sought treatment for their symptoms in a hospital.
Three students who spoke at Viewer claimed to have identified the stink bomb as “skunk,” a substance used by the Israeli army which has been described as smelling of raw sewage or decay.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Columbia Chapter of Jewish Voices for Peace, two groups that participated in the demonstration, released a joint statement on Instagram after the incident. The groups claimed that the perpetrators of the disturbance were “two
former Israeli soldiers”. The identities of those involved have not been confirmed by law enforcement, but according to the Viewer students present at the event reported seeing two people behaving “unusually” and trying to disguise their identity by wearing a keffiyeh and sunglasses.
“They referred to the students as 'Jew killers' and 'terrorists,'” said one student.
At the end of last year, Columbia University was banned Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The decision led to mass walkouts by students and professors who objected to the merging of advocacy for Palestinian human and civil rights with support for Hamas. Friday's protest was, according to the university, an unauthorized assembly and he threatened “Interim sanctions by the President up to suspension for the rest of the semester”.
Dalia Darazim, a Palestinian student at the university, wrote in an op-ed for it Viewer on Monday that Columbia created a “Palestinian exception” to its culture of being a well-known “protest school.”
“While in this supposed safe haven of progressivism in Columbia, I have felt more targeted, unprotected, and completely despised in the last three months than I ever felt growing up as a Palestinian Muslim in the rural South in the last 18 years. Darazim wrote.
“Despite the disappointment, however, I have received a once-in-a-lifetime education these past few months at Columbia. Not from professors or peers who are profoundly lacking in moral courage, but from my fellow Palestinians at Columbia,” he added. “They have shown me that while Columbia is not our ally in this pursuit of liberation, its students are united against apartheid.”
Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace wrote in a next statement that they hope news of the attack “means the administration will take meaningful, serious steps toward accountability.”
“This despicable attack comes after months of brutal targeting and repression of Colombia
defense of Palestinian students, contributing to a dangerously hostile environment
encourages violent attacks like these, they wrote. The administration must repair the damage it has done.”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/columbia-university-bans-alleged-perpetrators-protest-attack-1234952008/
