On January 19, students at Columbia University held an emergency rally to protest the U.S. attacks on Yemen and Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. During the event, multiple protestors were attacked with a chemical spray, allegedly by students who are connected to the Israeli military.
The school originally responded to news of the attacks by criticizing the protesters for holding an authorized rally. However, after The Intercept‘s Prem Thakker published a story on the issue, Columbia announced that the alleged perpetrators had been suspended from campus and that the New York Police Department was investigating the situation.
breaking news spoke with Zainab Khan, a Columbia student and member of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Coalition about what she saw at the protest, the school’s response to the attacks, and the current campus climate.
breaking news: You were at the protest where the skunking occurred. Can you talk about your experience?
Zainab Khan: I am part of the Columbia University Apartheid Divest Coalition, which organized the demonstration. I was assisting with security.
There was a group of counter-protesters larger than we are usually used to at our marches and rallies. It just started to smell all of a sudden. There was a group of counter-protesters singling out a student in our coalition. They singled him out by name, they were giving him death threats. Columbia Public Safety was present, too, and they were not supporting our side of the rally or providing protection. They were facing us with their backs toward the other protesters, and they started shoving around the same student who was called out by the counter-protesters. He also received death threats from one or two IOF soldiers, so that was something that was just really infuriating to see.
We started to smell a really foul scent right before we started to march. I had my back to the counter-protesters since I was helping with security, and I felt that exposed me to it. I remember stepping away to get my water bottle out of my backpack, and it just reeked. We started marching, and it still smelled. People were making comments. “Why does it smell like there is trash nearby?”
At the end of the march, we went around the perimeter of the [Low Memorial Library]and we came back to the alma mater statue. The smell was still going on, and we all wondered what was going on. We thought it might be trash outside or a sewer.
We parted ways. Some students took the signs that were made for the protests into one building. I went into the library, and it still smelled really bad. As soon as I got home, I smelled my backpack and tossed everything in the wash.
Maybe that was a mistake on my end, and I should have kept them. People are bringing their clothes and other items that were affected to Public Safety, which is actually proving to be useless because Public Safety has been turning over information to the NYPD.
So, that’s what happened on Friday.
In response to these initial reports of students being sprayed, the school basically chided protesters for holding an unsanctioned rally. The NYPD didn’t seem to take the claim seriously either. On January 22, The Intercept runs a story by Prem Thakker laying out the sequence of events. Shortly after publication, the school declared the perpetrators are suspended from campus and the NYPD is investigating. What are your thoughts on their initial reaction and how it changed after The Intercept piece?
Just like all their responses to anything Palestine-related, the school’s initial statement was empty of any empathy or attempt to take accountability. It didn’t acknowledge, for example, that the two students who skunked the protesters were IOF soldiers who are housed in the School of General Studies. That school is known for its IOF soldier recruitment program. They have a very high number of IOF students who integrated into the school.
It wasn’t surprising. That’s how I expected the school to respond. It seems like they only respond when there’s bad press. We know the worst thing for Columbia University is bad press, and it’s only when students take to social media or try to shame the university that’s when they respond to do damage control. It’s been blatantly clear since October they don’t really care about their students. At sit-ins or protests, they’ll come out and threaten us with academic sanctions or arrest rather than ever trying to have genuine conversations about what our demands are and why we are there.
They can do more, and they don’t want to because there are relationships between the administration, the board of trustees, the SGA, other student organizations, and the University Dean that will all be impacted if we push for divestment from Israel. When you follow where our tuition money and endowment money are being invested, it becomes blatantly clear why these individuals don’t want to provide more tangible support for students.
Can you talk about the general climate for Palestine organizing on campus, not just since October since but also since SJP and JVP were suspended?
I think people were exhausted already at the end of winter break. A couple of my peers at the School of Social Work were given academic discipline notices through email from the administration following a teach-in on Palestine that was canceled at the School of Social Work because it was deemed controversial. So that kind of set the tone going into winter break.
Then, once the spring semester starts, people are looking forward to the Friday protest. It’s the first major action of the semester. The Teachers College just had a sit-in earlier that week. Then, SJP and JVP held a rally in support of Palestine and Yemen.
There was a protest yesterday, and there were more people there than there were at the Friday protest. I couldn’t even count. It reminded me of the first protest we had after October 7.
As for the mood, I think people are scared. But one of my friends who had received death threats told me that he’s not scared of being killed anymore after being threatened by these IOF soldiers.
I think I usually let these concerns go in one ear and out the other, but that definitely had me reflecting on what the possibilities are right now. That shook me a little bit. After the other day, I totally believe that an IOF soldier who is a Columbia student could physically harm one of our pro-Palestine protesters or, God forbid, even kill them. I know if it happened the school would scramble to do damage control.
What’s being done in response to the skunking? You say you have no faith in the school, but are there other avenues being explored?
Our coalition is made up of over a hundred student organizations. We have a legal team whose lead we are following, but because there were so many students suffering medical issues connected to the skunking, individuals are pursuing some legal action on their own. Our legal team is also taking steps to document and pursue everything, not just the skunking. That’s where things are at right now.