Over 200 attend pro-Palestinian protest near Columbia University

NEW YORK (AFP) : More than 200 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered Tuesday in front of Columbia University in New York to demonstrate against former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett, who was at the campus for a speaking engagement.

After more than a year of protests at the campus by both supporters of Israel and opponents of the assault on Gaza after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, the appearance of the former leader of Israel’s far-right was met with expected pushback.

“The decision to host a man with such a violent and openly discriminatory record sends a message that the university values some voices over others,” a spokesperson for Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition – one of the groups taking part in the protest – said in a statement.

None of the individual protesters at the event, many of whom wore masks or traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, agreed to speak with AFP journalists.

Police at the scene worked to separate the protest from a small group of pro-Israel counter-demonstrators nearby, though the two demonstrations passed without any incident.

The protest was held at the same time as US President Donald Trump’s administration threatened federal funding for the New York university over an anti-semitism row.

The federal government on Monday said it was considering ending contracts it has with Columbia worth over $50 million, blaming it for failing to protect its Jewish students from anti-Semitism amid the protests.

“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote Tuesday on his platform Truth Social.

“Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on …the crime, arrested,” the post continued.