Barred Columbia professor says battle is for ‘Western values’

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TORONTO – Shai Davidai, an assistant professor of business at Columbia University, was temporarily barred from campus this month, for what the school deems was “repeatedly harassing and intimidating university employees.” His social media posts show videos of him publicly asking questions of administrators, as to why they have permitted antisemitic protests on campus.

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But the 41-year old Israeli told an audience of 600 at Toronto’s Beth Tikvah synagogue on Sunday that the university has yet to provide evidence of their claim.

Davidai was on a speaking tour that also included a stop in Winnipeg on Tuesday, to share the story of how he became one of the faces of fighting Jew-hatred on campus, and to offer his advice on standing up for liberal values. The talks were organized by advocacy group Tafsik.

According to Davidai, he was the “little problem” that the Manhattan-based school could stamp out easier than large swaths of haters.

He pins the catalyst on an October 7, 2024, memorial service conducted by Jewish students, marking the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel. What he referred to as “Pro-Hamas” students and faculty held a protest against it, holding signs saying, ‘long live the Al Aqsa flood’ and ‘peace and glory to our martyrs,’ he said at the Toronto talk.

Davidai claims he stood amongst the anti-Israel protestors while filming, as he was elbowed and kicked. His goal, he said, was to expose the administration, who he believes should be held accountable. The stunt had two outcomes: two million people saw the videos, and his lawyers called to tell him that the university had banned him from campus.

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“Think about that,” he said incredulously. While people were “openly supporting Hamas,” countering a memorial service with Jewish students, “their first concern is to get me off their campus.”

“My goal is to change the university; if it’s through the court of public opinion, or if it’s through the court of law, I’ll do whatever it takes, but I am not trying to be a provocateur. I am trying to change the system,” said the assistant management professor at Columbia Business School.

He told the Toronto audience that “being peaceful and being non-violent does not mean being submissive. That is a big difference.” He said he has “never crossed a line into breaking the peace.”

Columbia did not respond to the Post’s requests for comment by deadline.

In a statement provided to Fox News Digital, the university confirmed his barring from campus, and attributed it to his actions on Oct. 7, 2024. However, no further details were provided regarding his actions. Columbia has upheld Davidai’s right to free speech and expression, according to university spokesperson Samantha Slater, who also told Fox that his return to campus is preconditioned on completing training on university policies.

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Davidai became a public figure shortly after his impassioned Oct. 18, 2023, outdoor speech on Columbia’s campus, to about three dozen students. He lambasted U.S. universities for being a haven for “pro-terror student organizations,” and expressed fear for the safety of his own children and Jewish students. The 10-minute video of it went viral, attracting some 15 million hits and significant media attention, he said.

His said his eyes had been opened on Oct. 12, 2023, when 150 Jewish students formed a vigil, holding posters of kidnapped Israelis. They were silent for 21 minutes – a second for every person killed by Hamas. But facing the vigil were some 800 students and faculty “all masked up, wearing keffiyehs,” and shouting “globalize the intifada” and “there is only one solution, intifada revolution.”

“At that moment something changed inside me,” he said. “I could see that this is hate.”

Separating the two groups were a line of New York police – the first time since the Vietnam War that they were brought onto campus, he believes.

In the weeks and months that followed, the university would gain notoriety among critics as a flashpoint for being inhospitable to Jewish students. The issue of the university’s handling of antisemitism became even more public when its president, Minouche Shafik, resigned in August 2024, after her testimony to the U.S. House Education Committee. Reports say that three Columbia deans were removed a week earlier, for engaging in texts that had antisemitic overtones.

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Administrators, Davidai said, should be held responsible for professors who indoctrinate students, year over year, decade over decade.

The problem is made more acute when students are taught to shun opposing views, he said.

“Baked into the other side, is the ideology of non-engagement” with those that disagree, he told the Post. It is premised on the concept of “anti-normalization.”

“That is why they protest any Jewish or Israeli speaker, even if it’s a lecture in physics by some renowned Israeli physicist. Because it’s normalizing the existence of a Jew in Israel.”

At that moment something changed inside me. I could see that this is hate

But he is clear: he does not want to silence professors; he just demands “equal treatment,” which for him means treating antisemitism like hatred against any other group.

For Jew-hatred to be most effectively fought requires non-Jewish allies to speak out, he told the Post. “You’re also telling their haters, ‘you mess with them, you mess with all of us.’”

He suggested that non-Jewish university alumni should pull their donations “en masse” until antisemitism is dealt with on campus. “That is when the university will start saying, ‘Oh, we have a problem here,’ because it hit them where it hurts,” he told the Post.

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He also would like people to phone their politicians and ask them what they are doing about antisemitism – irrespective of whether they have many Jewish constituents.

That said, antisemitism is only part of the battle, he insisted.

“This is about Western values. Do we stand for the rights of all minorities, or do we not stand for the rights of all minorities? Do we stand for people that wave the Canadian flag, or do we stand for the people that burn the Canadian flag?” he told the Post.

“If tomorrow, Canada gets rid of all its Jews, do you believe the protests will end? Absolutely not. The protesters are telling you they are not just against Israel. They’re not just against Jewish collective life. They are against a certain way of life. If you value that way of life, you should be worried.”

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