By Palestine Chronicle Staff  

The University spokesperson said that while Columbia respects freedom of speech, it cannot tolerate acts of harassment and intimidation.

Columbia University temporarily banned Zionist professor Shai Davidai from campus for “repeatedly “harassing and intimidating” staff members, a university spokesperson announced.

According to a statement by Columbia’s spokesperson received by CNN, the academic institution stated that “because Assistant Professor Davidai repeatedly harassed and intimidated University employees in violation of University policy, we have temporarily limited his access to campus while he undertakes appropriate training on our policies governing the behavior of our employees.”

Columbia revealed that the ban on the pro-Israeli professor is in relation to his conduct during the commemoration of the one-year Al-Aqsa Flood Operation last week, CNN reported.

Actually, you're a petulant child, as demonstrated by yourself in this video.
Your father is a filthy rich fuck, head of a weapons manufacturer that murders innocent children & commits genocide.
Your grandfather was a strike breaker.
Moreover, you've proudly served in the IOF. https://t.co/t9KjCgUOr7 pic.twitter.com/wtJz5IThSm

— Chai Guevara | ☕ ☭ 🔻 (@_ChaiGuevara_) October 16, 2024

According to Columbia’s spokesperson, while the school respects Davidai’s right to free speech, it does not tolerate acts of harassment and intimidation.

“His freedom of speech has not been limited and is not being limited now. Columbia, however, does not tolerate threats of intimidation, harassment, or other threatening behavior by its employees,” the spokesperson stressed as quoted by CNN.

Columbia informed Davidai of the ban decision on Tuesday.

Who is Davidai?

Shai Davidai has been an assistant professor at Columbia’s Business School since 2019.

He has been vocal about his pro-Israeli stands since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocide on Gaza on October 7 of last year.

According to the Lebanese news platform Al-Mayadeen, Davidai has slammed Columbia on several occasions for its handling of the pro-Palestinian protests on campus, which he accused of being “antisemitic” and “supportive of terrorism.”

The business professor has reportedly recorded videos of student activists and posted them online which has been widely criticized for crossing “the line between civility and policy,” Al-Maydeen reported.  

Shai Davidai’s latest crybullying performance just dropped 😂🤡 pic.twitter.com/lQlXA9lwx5

— B L A K E L E Y™℠©® LLC (@_iamblakeley) October 9, 2024

The professor, who identifies himself as a Zionist, has accused various pro-Palestine student groups of being in support of “terrorism” on his X account, loaded with ant-Palestinian content.  

He did not content with that but went as far as sharing the name and email address of a certain Columbia professor whom he insinuated was “OK with rape, murder, torture, and kidnapping,” Al-Mayadeen said while labeling respected Palestinian professor Rashid Khalidi as a “spokesperson for Hamas.”

In a recent video posted last week, he was seen chasing Columbia’s chief operating officer, Cas Holloway, pressing him for an answer on why there were pro-Palestinian protests on campus on the one-year anniversary of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

“How did you allow this to happen on Oct. 7?” Davidai was seen asking Holloway in the footage on X.

“You have to do your job. And I will not let you rest if they won’t let us rest,” he added.

Now that Shai Davidai is banned from Columbia he can switch over to name-searching full time. Happy for him 🥰 pic.twitter.com/5IrROicz4R

— National Students for Justice in Palestine (@NationalSJP) October 16, 2024

Hub for Pro-Palestine Protests

The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on September 3 by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

Columbia temporarily suspended Business School assistant professor Shai Davidai’s campus access, University spokesperson Millie Wert confirmed in a statement to Spectator on Tuesday. https://t.co/T5pIuInnck

— Columbia Daily Spectator (@ColumbiaSpec) October 16, 2024

“We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine vowed to continue their protests until Columbia halts all financial involvement in the genocide in Gaza.

“As we begin our new semester, students in Gaza have no universities to return to. Instead of listening to the student body, Columbia University is doubling down. We will not stop & and will not rest until Columbia divests from apartheid and genocide. This is just the beginning,” the student group wrote.

(PC, Al-Mayadeen)