Barnard College at Columbia University has expelled three students in less than two weeks, for taking part in pro-Palestine protests on the campus.
The school expelled two demonstrators for reportedly disrupting a History of Modern Israel course taught by Avi Shilon, a former soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), on February 21, The Nation reports.
The most recent expulsion, ordered on February 28, is the first to be directed at a Hamilton Hall (now called Hind's Hall by pro-Palestine protesters, after five-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed by the IDF during their invasion of Gaza) occupation participant since April 30 of last year.
This is the first time in 57 years that the institution has dismissed someone for protesting, and it is the sole formal expulsion linked with Israel's assault in Gaza.
According to Columbia University Apartheid Divest, this run of harsh punishments is "completely unprecedented," with the last expulsion for peaceful political protest being in 1936, when Robert Burke was expelled for demonstrating against Columbia's Nazi affiliations.
The last reported expulsions for non-violent actions were in 1968, when students occupied buildings and kidnapped a dean to protest the Vietnam War and Columbia's gentrification of Harlem. Even then, acting Columbia President Andrew W Cordier urged for "maximum leniency" in the instances of over 400 jailed students, and more than half of those punished were reinstated.
In subsequent years, 1972, 1985, 1987, 1996, and 2016, students staged sit-ins, multi-building takeovers, and blockades on issues of public concern.
These issues include American foreign policy, South African apartheid, on-campus racism, and the university's ties to the fossil fuel industry.
However, according to The Nation, none of the participants in these demonstrations faced the same disciplinary consequences as those opposing Israel's war on Gaza.
