The U.S. government’s effort to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Hamas ringleader of the chaos at Columbia University, has cast a bright light on the university’s moral collapse.
Khalil is the admitted spokesperson and “mediator” for Columbia University Apartheid Divest. CUAD, as it is known, is an intersectional, neo-Marxist/Islamist group that sees “Palestine as the vanguard for our collective liberation.”
Utilizing classic Soviet verbiage, it seeks “an end to all interlocking systems of oppression through collective action and solidarity with oppressed people worldwide.” CUAD was reconstituted shortly after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, leveraging “Palestine as central to broader movements for collective liberation.”
In its Nov. 14, 2023, manifesto, published in The Columbia Spectator school newspaper, CUAD listed 94 student groups as members. It is not known how many of these groups are officially recognized student clubs by Columbia, but presumably, many are. Columbia did derecognize the two lead groups—Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace—for their disruptive activities. It is not known whether CUAD is officially recognized by Columbia, but the university’s Undergraduate Student Life office does not permit unrecognized groups to use the name “Columbia University.”
On Nov. 7, 2024, a year and one month after the atrocities on Oct. 7, CUAD took its radical mission to a new extreme, publishing a “Tribute to Yahya Sinwar,” the mastermind behind the assault that amounted to Hamas’s declaration of war against Israel. It was Sinwar who led Hamas as it killed more than 1,200 people (including more than 40 Americans) and took 251 hostage back to Gaza.
In its tribute, which was dripping with KGB and Islamist-inspired bombast against Israel and America, CUAD virtually deified Sinwar, saying, “Yahya Sinwar was not afraid to die. Throughout his time with the resistance, Sinwar consistently upheld martyrdom, discipline, and self-sacrifice as fundamental tenets of the revolutionary lifestyle. … As members of the collective pursuit of Palestinian freedom, each of us should look to him as a clear illustration of what it means to devote a full lifetime to the intifada.”
CUAD continued writing, “Yahya Sinwar and his resilience will live in the hearts of many, and he will be remembered as a brave man who did not give up on his goal to defeat the zionist [sic] entity until his last breath. The Palestinian people and their steadfast resistance remain our compass, and we continue to work towards our goals here at Columbia.”
There is no publicly available information that any member of CUAD resigned in the wake of this screed or that Columbia took any action in response.
Columbia’s Undergraduate Student Life office governs the recognition and derecognition of student groups. It requires groups to submit constitutions for review and approval to ensure that they comply with all university and USL policies.
How is it possible that membership in a coalition spouting the bile coming out of CUAD complies with “all policies” of Columbia University? In what universe does lionizing a mass murderer a legitimate campus activity?
Why does Columbia permit CUAD to trade on Columbia’s name and reputation? How many of CUAD’s members have the rights and privileges of campus clubs, including booking space and obtaining funding?
It is unthinkable that CUAD could be a recognized club at Columbia, and it is also unthinkable that CUAD’s members are allowed to maintain that status. This is not about free speech; Columbia students are free to express their views within the parameters of campus rules and regulations, as well as governing law. The issue is what groups have the right to the imprimatur of Columbia University and the benefits of official recognition? Why are student groups that have lost all sense of decency and civility, as reflected by their membership in CUAD, entitled to be recognized and supported by Columbia?
Columbia’s hands-off policy regarding CUAD and its constituent members reflects Columbia’s descent into a bastion of neo-Marxist and Islamist radicalism. Faced with multiple lawsuits brought by Jewish and Israeli students, and with the federal government breathing down its neck regarding its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, not to mention the upheaval in its president’s office, now is the time for the school to act against CUAD.
Columbia must demand that CUAD cease and desist from using Columbia’s name. It should require that each student club associated with CUAD end that affiliation immediately or face deregistration proceedings by Columbia’s Undergraduate Student Life office or any other or any other appropriate department.
It is long past the time for this Ivy League school to establish moral leadership. It must recognize, as Benjamin Franklin put it, that the purpose of the university is “education for citizenship.”
That scores of student groups are rallying to CUAD’s malign messaging should horrify Columbia’s faculty, administrators and donors—not to mention the students, Jewish or not, who want no part of CUAD’s radical and malign ideology.