In an open letter sent on November 17, elected officials urge Columbia President Minouche Shafik and Senior Executive Vice President Gerald Rosberg to reinstate Students for Justice in Palestine and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace for the remaining part of the semester.

On Friday, 21 city and state elected officials sent an open letter to President Minouche Shafik and Senior Executive Vice President Gerald Rosberg in support of reinstating Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and BC/CU Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) for the fall semester. Among the elected officials were nine city council members, including Alexa Avilés, CC ‘95, seven state assembly members, four senators, including Kristen Gonzalez, CC ‘18, and three house representatives, two of which are AOC and Jamaal Bowman. This open letter comes in response to the November 10 announcement from Gerald Rosberg, Senior Executive Vice President of the University and Chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety, that SJP and JVP would be suspended for the remainder of the Fall 2023 semester. The full text of the letter can be found below. 

In his announcement, Rosberg wrote, “The two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” This statement appears to be in reference to the “Shut It Down! For Palestine” demonstration, which occurred the day before. In their letter, the elected officials described it as a “peaceful student walk-out and art installation that occurred on the Low Steps of Columbia University.”

In their letter, the 21 elected New York officials argued that the November 9 demonstration did not amount to “threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” a term Rosberg had previously used to describe SJP and JVP demonstrations. Furthermore, they went on to write that equating pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel speech antisemitic speech is a “dangerous narrative” that has had “harmful consequences at Columbia,” citing the doxing of students around campus and “offers of employment withdrawn by employers.”

In addition, the authors referenced an October 30 open letter signed by over 100 Barnard and Columbia faculty members. In this letter, faculty members call on Columbia administration, alumni, and future employers to condemn the “vicious targeting of our students with doxing, public shaming, surveillance by members of our community, including other students, and reprisals from employers.” In their letter to President Shafik and Mr. Rosberg, the officials state that the faculty urged Columbia to not “unfairly label [Columbia] students as violent, disruptive, or antisemitic for expressing empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians.” 

President Shafik and Mr. Rosberg have not responded to the letter at this time.

Open Letter from Elected Officials to Columbia University, published November 19, 2023:

Elected Officials Letter to Columbia University

On behalf of the Columbia community and our constituents, we, as elected officials from New York, urge you to reverse your decision to suspend Jewish Voice for Peace (“JVP”) and Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) as official student groups through the fall term.

We were disturbed to read Mr. Rosberg’s statement from November 10, 2023, announcing that JVP and SJP had been suspended for “holding campus events” that had not been approved by the University, particularly “an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon.” We understand this “unauthorized event” to be a reference to the peaceful student walk-out and art installation that occurred on the Low Steps of Columbia University, on November 9, 2023. As the Columbia Spectator described this event, it involved “hundreds of students” engaging in a “silent gathering,” followed by student speeches calling for a ceasefire that included remarks from a Palestinian refugee who had been shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier at the age of 15. The organizers were peacefully demonstrating for the basic human rights of Palestinians and should not be punished for their speech.

We support the University’s stated desire to maintain an atmosphere that is safe and free of hate; however, suspending these student groups based on the pretext of “safety” does the opposite. Unfairly implying that JVP and SJP protesters engaged in “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” at the November 9th event—a suggestion refuted by multiple sources, including the Columbia Spectator—aligns with the dangerous narrative that those who express empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians, or who speak about the historical context of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, are antisemitic or inherently dangerous. This narrative has had harmful consequences at Columbia over the past few weeks: students have been doxxed, trucks have circled with their names as “Columbia’s Leading Anti-Semites,” and some students who expressed solidarity with the Palestinians—or were merely affiliated with student groups who have expressed such viewpoints—have had offers of employment withdrawn by employers.

We urge you to listen not only to us, but also to your own faculty. On October 30th, over one hundred members of Columbia’s faculty wrote you an open letter rightly warning against “unacceptable” attempts “to chill otherwise protected speech on campus.” They reminded you to uphold your vision of the institution “as a beacon for ‘fostering critical thinking and opening minds to different points of view.’” As critical scholars, they urged you to leave room for “robust inquiry about the most challenging matters of our time,” and specifically warned against attempts to unfairly label your students as violent, disruptive, or antisemitic for expressing empathy for the lives and dignity of Palestinians. 

Reflecting deep concerns from the Columbia community and our constituents, we urge you to reverse the suspension of the SJP and JVP groups.

Sincerely,

Hon. Jamaal Bowman

Hon. Nydia M. Veláquez

Hon. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Senator Kristen Gonzalez, Class of ‘18

Senator Jabari Brisport

Senator Julia Salazar

Senator Robert Jackson

Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani

Assembly Member Phara Soffrant Forrest

Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes

Assembly Member Harvey Epstein

Assembly Member Sarahana Shrestha

Assembly Member Emily Gallagher

Assembly Member Jessica González-Rojas

Council Member Alexa Avilés, Class of ‘95

Council Member Tiffany Cabán

Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez

Council Member Shahana Hanif

Council Member Sandy Nurse

Council Member Charles Barron

Council Member Kristin Richardson Jordan

Low Library via Bwarchives