Columbia University suspends outspoken pro-Israel professor for harassment | News about protests

A divisive and outspoken pro-Israel professor at Columbia University in New York City has been temporarily suspended after the prestigious school said he “repeatedly harassed and intimidated university employees in violation of university policy.”

Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the business school, has become a fixture on campus and in the US for his aggressive, pro-Israel advocacy and criticism of pro-Palestinian students and faculty, whom he regularly accuses of supporting “terrorism.” become social media.

Davidai announced his temporary suspension on his Instagram account on Tuesday. In a video peppered with profanities, he said: “The university has decided to no longer allow me to stay on campus.” My job. Why? Because of October 7th. Because I wasn’t afraid to stand up to the hateful mob.”

He said he was suspended in retaliation for posting several videos of his conversations with university security officers online during a protest rally by Columbia University's Palestinian student group Apartheid Divest on Oct. 7. He suggested suing the university over the suspension and said he wasn't “going anywhere.”

“I don’t care about my future,” he later wrote on

Davidai recently used his to share what he said was “okay with rape and murder, torture and kidnapping.”

Complaints from students

Davidai has also harassed and doxxed countless students, many of whom have denounced his abuse over the past year. Some of these students took to social media following Davidai's suspension to criticize the university for its delay in taking action against him.

“I have been reporting him continuously since October 2023 for, among other things, making video edits of me, and only now, after he completely lost his mind with the Columbia administrators, did they finally take action against him,” one student wrote Wednesday on X

“The Columbia economics professor who targeted me for months, retweeted inappropriate comments about my body and claimed I was part of Hamas as we evacuated my family from Gaza (we are Palestinian Christians) is now facing harassment charges from Columbia. Banned from campus. “wrote another.

She added that, among other things, Davidai made a video that said the U.S. National Guard should be used against student protesters and called campus security officers “members of Nazi Germany.”

Despite numerous reports accusing him of harassment, Davidai's intimidation of Cas Holloway, the university's chief operating officer, appears to have crossed a line for the university administration.

“Threatening behavior”

“Columbia has consistently and continually respected Assistant Professor Davidai’s right to freedom of speech and expression. His freedom of expression has not been and will not be restricted,” university spokeswoman Millie Wert wrote in a statement to the Columbia Daily Spectator, the university’s student-run newspaper.

“However, Columbia will not tolerate threats of intimidation, harassment or other threatening behavior from its employees.”

Davidai was not allowed on campus, but the ban does not affect his compensation or status as a faculty member, and the university offered him alternative off-campus office space.

He will be allowed back on campus once he has “completed appropriate training on our employee conduct policies,” the spokesperson added.

Davidai was denied access to campus last spring after he announced he wanted to enter the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, a protest camp set up by students, and called on his supporters to join him.

Last April, Columbia University suspended a student activist after a video surfaced in which the student said, “Zionists don't deserve to live.” Three university deans also resigned after exchanging texts during a meeting about anti-Semitism on campus that the university said “touched disturbingly on old anti-Semitic tropes.”

The university suspended another student and former Israeli soldier who was accused of spraying chemicals on pro-Palestine protesters. At the height of protests last year, leaders twice called police to break up student demonstrations, leading to dozens of arrests.

Columbia University's protest camp inspired dozens of others on campuses across the United States last year.

The university has been widely criticized for its suppression of the protests, but also came under intense pressure from donors and lawmakers who accused it of supporting anti-Semitism on campus, leading to the resignation of Colombian President Minouche Shafik over the summer.