UNIVERSITY VP REFUSES TO SAY PALESTINIANS ARE HUMAN

A video of Columbia University's Senior Executive Vice President Gerry Rosberg refusing to respond to the question, 'Are Palestinians human?' has angered the public.Show more

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine shared the 6 December video on X (formerly Twitter) on 12 March. In response to the students, Rosberg was heard replying, 'I will not be intimidated.'

On 10 November, Rosberg announced student groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) were suspended until the autumn semester ended on 22 December, saying they 'repeatedly violated university policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event [on 9 November] that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.'

While support for Palestinian liberation has raged for decades on US campuses, social media has amplified the solidarity movement, bringing more people into the struggle against Israel's occupation, military attacks, evictions, checkpoints, surveillance, intimidation and the blockade of Palestinian territories.

For example, 34 Harvard University student groups issued a statement on the day the 7 October escalation began in the Gaza Strip. It mentioned, 'We … hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. Today's events did not occur in a vacuum.'

The US Congress ordered four university presidents to testify on 6 December about alleged anti-semitism on their campuses. Within a month, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned.