Columbia Pro-Israel Professor's Campus Access Restricted
Columbia Pro-Israel Professor's Campus Access Restricted
The Facts
Columbia University has deactivated the ID card of Shai Davidai — an Israeli-American assistant professor at Columbia Business School — and banned him from entering the main campus.
Columbia University has deactivated the ID card of Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at its Business School, effectively banning him from entering the Morningside campus on Monday.
The Spin
Davidai is being punished for calling out Columbia's policies, which tend to favor support for the Palestinians and do little to address rampant campus antisemitism. Limiting his ability to counter-protest — while allowing the pro-Palestinian protestsprotesters to construct a tent city — is a clear act of violation of Davidai's rights.
Davidai isn't banned from campus — he's being restricted from certain areas for his own safety. By harassing students for their political views, he violated university policies, abused his power, and posed a threat to the university community, byattempting his attempts to ignite post-Oct. 7 campus tensions. He was rightly restricted from the type of protest he was planning.
