She also rejected the protesters’ main demand: that the university stop receiving funds related to Israel or from companies that benefit from the war.
More than 350 people were detained at universities across the country over the weekend, amid calls from the White House for demonstrations to be peaceful.
Anti-war demonstrations in Gaza and its huge civilian toll pose a challenge for university authorities as they try to balance the right to freedom of expression with complaints that the protests have sparked anti-Semitic actions, violence and threats.
The rector had promised last week not to use the police to dismantle the camp, as happened last April 18, when a hundred students were arrested and later suspended by the center.
“For many of our Jewish students and others, the environment has become intolerable in recent weeks. Many have abandoned campus and this is a tragedy,” Shakif said.
“Anti-Semitic language and acts are unacceptable, and calls for violence are simply abhorrent,” she said, before recalling that “one group’s right to express its views cannot be exercised at the expense of another group’s right to speak , teaching and learning”.
Tags: Columbia suspends students hold proPalestinian acts campus
