Such stress is the purpose: Republicans wish to silence Israel’s opponents. In one of many listening to’s most farcical moments, Rick Allen, a Republican from Georgia, requested Shafik whether or not she knew Genesis 12:3. She didn’t recall the biblical passage offhand, so he defined it to her. “It was the covenant that God made with Abraham, and that covenant was real clear: ‘If you bless Israel I will bless you, if you curse Israel I will curse you,’” he mentioned, explaining how this compact was confirmed within the New Testomony.
“Do you consider that a serious issue?” Allen requested heatedly. “Do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God?” Shafik responded, “Definitely not.” Allen continued, “Young people are being indoctrinated by these professors to believe this stuff, and they have no idea that they’re going to be cursed by God, the God of the Bible and the God over our flag.”
This wasn’t an trade, I’d enterprise, supposed to make sure that Jews really feel at dwelling in American establishments. One other Republican, Brandon Williams, in contrast D.E.I. statements to Nazi loyalty oaths. Naturally, nobody pushed again.
Simply earlier than the listening to started, a bunch of scholars from Columbia and its sister faculty, Barnard, organized a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on Columbia’s most important garden. On Thursday, Shafik took the extraordinary step of calling the police in to dismantle it, and dozens have been arrested. The final time the varsity’s administration introduced within the N.Y.P.D. to disperse demonstrations was in 1968, and plenty of on campus have been in shock.
“I never imagined I’d ever see my university acting like this,” mentioned the authorized scholar Katherine Franke, who was coordinating authorized protection for the arrested college students. “It breaks my heart.” (Throughout the congressional hearings, she’d been referred to as out for remarks she’d made about scholar veterans of the Israeli army.) Amongst these suspended for taking part within the protest was Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Consultant Ilhan Omar, a Democrat who sits on the committee overseeing the antisemitism inquiry.
