12 suspended Columbia students reinstated just days after anti-Israel protest, as lawyer vows to take ‘fascist’ school to NY Supreme Court
Twelve Columbia University students who were suspended over an anti-Israel event on campus last month had their punishments lifted shortly after, their lawyer claimed — as the school continues to weather backlash over its handling of protesters on and near the Morningside Heights campus.
About 16 students were initially suspended for failing to provide information about “a host of student activities,” including an “unauthorized” teach-in on the history of Palestinian resistance on March 24, Stanley Cohen told the Village Sun.
The university suspected that the March 24 teach-in titled “Resistance 101” spotlighted a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is a US-designated terrorist organization, the Spectator reported.
Cohen claimed he got 12 of the suspensions thrown out — though the Columbia Daily Spectator previously reported that only six students were suspended, two of whom were quickly reinstated.
“I spoke to 16 students who were suspended — the grand total was initially 16 — unless I was hallucinating about it and spent 40 hours talking to ghosts,” scoffed Cohen, who said he was working on the case pro bono.
Columbia did not immediately return The Post’s request for clarification about the incident.
Cohen mentioned taking the case to the New York Supreme Court as an issue of free speech.
“Speech, no matter how unpopular it may be, is the essence of academia. Protest against Zionism in Israel is pure protected speech. … If Jewish students are made uncomfortable by it, f— them!” Cohen, who was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home, told the Village Sun.
“Speech is supposed to make you uncomfortable. This is not lighting candles and kumbaya. … All speech is protected unless the imminent intent is to commit violence — like shouting ‘Fire!’ in a crowded movie theater,” he added.
“These are students that have been targeted for activism. It had nothing to do with the teach-in.”
Cohen was kicked out of Columbia when he was a student, after transferring there from Long Island University, he told the outlet.
“I got f—ing suspended from Columbia 50 years ago. I got thrown out of Columbia after a week for anti-war protesting,” he lamented.
“Columbia is fascist,” he said.
Shortly after Cohen’s conversation with the Village Sun, Columbia’s campus made international headlines when a group of students built up a Gaza Solidarity Encampment on one of the main lawns.
The group was warned to evacuate several times before NYPD officers entered the area and arrested over 100 participants.
In the week since the incident, the Ivy League university has come under fire for failing to adequately discipline those whose statements and behaviors are perceived as threatening to Jewish members of the community.
Cohen himself dismissed the 10 Cooper Union students who sued the art school for supposedly failing to protect them during an October protest by anti-Israel students as simply “butthurt.”
“They peed their pants because there were people saying, ‘Death to Israel,’” he shrugged. “I have no sympathy for people that are hurt by words. Zero.”
Cohen made his name by representing members of Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as a family member of Osama bin Laden, the Village Sun noted.
When asked about his stance on Israel’s counterattack on the Gaza Strip following the Oct. 7 attack, Cohen said it was “genocide.”
“I’ve been accusing Israel of genocide for 50 years,” he added.
