A divisive and outspoken pro-Israel professor at Columbia College in New York Metropolis was quickly suspended after the celebrated faculty mentioned he “repeatedly harassed and intimidated College staff in violation of College coverage”.
Shai Davidai, an assistant professor within the enterprise faculty, has turn into a fixture on campus and on social media for his aggressive, pro-Israel advocacy and criticism of pro-Palestine students and college, whom he often accuses of supporting “terrorism”.
Davidai introduced his short-term suspension on his Instagram account on Tuesday. In an expletive-laden video, he mentioned “the college has determined to not enable me to be on campus anymore. My job. Why? Due to October 7. As a result of I used to be not afraid to face as much as the hateful mob”.
He mentioned he was suspended in retaliation for posting a number of movies on-line of his conversations with college public security officers final October 7, throughout a protest by the pro-Palestine Columbia University Apartheid Divest scholar group. He advised he would sue the college over the suspension and mentioned that he was “not going anyplace”.
“I don’t care about my future”, he later wrote on X. “I care about what this acceptance of anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-American terrorism means for the scholars on campus”.
https://x.com/ShaiDavidai/standing/1846347729355559296
Davidai has just lately used his X account, which has greater than 100,000 followers, to accuse outstanding Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi of being a “spokesperson for Hamas”, and to share the title and e-mail of one other professor he advised was “OK with rape, homicide, torture and kidnapping”.
College students complaints
Davidai has additionally harassed and doxxed numerous college students, a lot of whom have denounced his abuse over the past 12 months. A few of these college students took to social media after Davidai’s suspension to criticise the college for belatedly taking motion towards him.
“I’ve been reporting him nonstop since October 2023 for a lot of issues together with making video edits of me and solely now that he completely misplaced his thoughts at Columbia directors did they lastly take motion towards him,” one student wrote on X on Wednesday.
“The Columbia enterprise professor who has: focused me for months, retweeted inappropriate feedback about my physique, and claimed I used to be a part of Hamas as we evacuated my household from Gaza (we’re Palestinian Christians) is now banned from Columbia’s campus for harassment,” wrote one other.
She added that Davidai had, amongst different issues, made a video saying the US Nationwide Guard ought to be known as in towards scholar protesters and known as campus safety officers “members of Nazi Germany”.
https://x.com/itslaylas/standing/1846329303006695454
Regardless of the various stories accusing him of harassment, it’s Davidai’s intimidation of Cas Holloway, the college’s chief working officer, that seems to have crossed a line for the college’s administration.
‘Threatening behaviour’
“Columbia has constantly and regularly revered Assistant Professor Davidai’s proper to free speech and to specific his views. His freedom of speech has not been restricted and isn’t being restricted now,” college spokesperson Millie Wert wrote in an announcement to the Columbia Every day Spectator, the college’s student-run newspaper.
“Columbia, nevertheless, doesn’t tolerate threats of intimidation, harassment, or different threatening habits by its staff”.
Davidai was restricted from getting into campus however the suspension received’t affect his compensation or standing as a college member, and the college supplied him various workplace area off campus.
He might be allowed again on campus as soon as he “undertakes acceptable coaching on our insurance policies governing the habits of our staff”, the spokesperson added.
Davidai was denied entry to campus final spring after he introduced that he deliberate to enter the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment”, a protest camp arrange by college students, and known as on his supporters to affix him.
Final April, Columbia College suspended a scholar activist after video emerged by which the scholar mentioned “Zionists don’t need to stay”. Three college deans additionally resigned after exchanging texts throughout a gathering about anti-Semitism on campus that the college mentioned “disturbingly touched on historic anti-Semitic tropes”.
The college suspended one other scholar and former Israeli soldier accused of spraying chemicals on pro-Palestine protesters. On the peak of the protests final 12 months, directors twice known as police to interrupt up scholar demonstrations, resulting in dozens of arrests.
Columbia College’s protest encampment impressed dozens of others on campuses throughout the US final 12 months.
The college was extensively criticised for its suppression of the protests, but in addition got here underneath intense stress from donors and legislators accusing it of supporting anti-Semitism on campus, resulting in Columbia President Minouche Shafik’s resignation over the summer time.
