Columbia University's Middle East faculty has anti-Zionist ideology across the board, antisemitism task force finds

Columbia University’s antisemitism task force released its fourth and final report, finding a glaring lack of full-time staff in the Middle East faculty who do not hold an anti-Zionist ideology. 

The report, which looked at the classroom experience of Jewish students at the university, concluded that “Columbia lacks full-time tenure line faculty expertise in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy that is not explicitly anti-Zionist.” 

The task force was created in November 2023 to address the rising antisemitism on the school’s campus which had become readily apparent following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. In the months and years that followed, the university became the scene of multiple anti-Israel demonstrations, which often contained blatant antisemitic messaging and provocation, with little response or pushback from the university administration. 

The fourth report is the first one released since the university made a deal with the Trump administration, which had frozen around $400 million in federal funding to the school over the lack of progress in dealing with the problem of antisemitism on the campus. As part of that agreement, the school agreed to pay the U.S. government $221 million to settle government antisemitism investigations related to the pro-Palestine encampments and harassment of Jewish students. 

Classes at the university often treat Zionism as an illegitimate ideology, the task force found during listening sessions with students. 

“We heard from many students that an academic perspective that treats Zionism as legitimate is underrepresented in Columbia’s course offerings, compared to a perspective that treats it as illegitimate,” the report says. “The University should work quickly to add more intellectual diversity to these offerings.” 

The report called on the university to “establish new chairs at a senior level in Middle East history, politics, political economy and policy,” noting that “academic resources available for teaching and research on Jewish and Israeli topics at Columbia are insufficient, especially in comparison to the resources available for teaching and research on other parts of the Middle East.” 

“In particular, an academic perspective that treats Zionism as legitimate is underrepresented in Columbia’s course offerings, compared to a perspective that treats it as illegitimate,” it stated. 

The report cites numerous instances where the academic freedom of Israeli and Jewish American students was infringed upon, or the students were made to feel uncomfortable and unwelcome due to the behavior of professors, even outside of classes related to Middle Eastern studies. 

“A student told us in a class on feminism, the professor opened the first session by announcing it had been 100 days since Israel began waging war on Gaza,” the report says. “We heard similar reports, where harsh condemnations of Israel were made a central element of classes in ways that blindsided Jewish and Israeli students, in a class on photography, a class on architecture, a class on nonprofit management, a class on film, a music humanities class, and a Spanish class.” 

“The University should ensure that undergraduate Core courses, as well as graduate and professional schools’ required courses, do not turn into exercises in anti-Israel advocacy and activism,” the report warned. 

Acting President Claire Shipman issued a statement thanking the antisemitism task force for its work, and saying the university “will continue to work on implementing the recommendations of the task force and addressing antisemitism on our campus, guided by the Office of the President.”