Columbia University suspends student groups over Israel-Hamas protests

Columbia University has suspended two anti-Zionist student groups following campus-wide protests on the Israel-Hamas war that saw walk-outs and mass demonstrations.

The New York institution’s authorities said it was suspending the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) groups after unauthorised events on Thursday that included “threatening rhetoric and intimidation”.

Gerald Rosberg, Columbia’s vice president and chair of its campus safety committee, said both groups would be suspended until the beginning of next term, and cannot hold events on campus or receive university funding in the meantime.

It comes after mass students protests at campuses across the US saw pro-Palestinian groups project “glory to our martyrs” onto university buildings and clashes between groups supporting either side of the conflict.

At Harvard, dozens of student groups signed an open letter declaring Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence”, on the day last month that Hamas launched its terror attacks.

Students at UCLA, in California, were filmed beating an effigy of Benjamin Netanyahu while chanting: “Beat that f—ing Jew”, while at the University of Massachusetts, a student was arrested after allegedly punching a Jewish student and spitting on an Israeli flag at a demonstration.