Columbia Law rejects student group fighting antisemitism under State Department-adopted definition
February 6, 2024
The Columbia Law School Student Senate refused to officially recognize a proposed student group fighting antisemitism under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of the term that the State Department adopted.
Marie-Alice Legrand, president of the proposed New York-based student organization Law Students Against Antisemitism, said students accused her group “of using that definition to silence free speech,” Jewish Insider reported Tuesday. “We have assured them that is not our mission, we want to educate.”
Columbia University has faced numerous controversial protests in support of Palestine since Oct. 7, when Hamas and other terror groups invaded Israel and killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others. Columbia also suspended two pro-Palestinian student groups for alleged violations of the university’s rules.
Meanwhile, the Hamas-run Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, said Tuesday that more than 27,500 people have been killed since Oct. 7.
The group was denied recognition during an anonymous vote of about 33 student senators last month, per the Columbia Daily Spectator.
Of the nine groups that have asked the Columbia student senate for recognition this year, Law Students Against Antisemitism is the only one that has been denied that status, a student senator told the student newspaper on the condition of anonymity out of concerns of repercussions.