January 23, 2024

We, the undersigned coalition of student organizations across the so-called United States, stand in unwavering solidarity with Columbia SJP, JVP, and the Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition as they demand immediate action from Columbia University following the use of illegal chemical weapons against Columbia students during a recent demonstration; a hate crime.

On January 19, 2024, hundreds of Columbia students were attacked with Skunk spray by former soldiers of the israeli Occupation Forces (iOF) while protesting the continued genocide in Gaza on Columbia’s campus. Skunk, a chemical weapon, was developed by the israeli arms industry to suppress Palestinian demonstrations and later exported to militaries and law enforcement agencies around the world. Following this heinous attack, Columbia students have been hospitalized for chemical inhalation, requiring testing and treatments ranging from chest X-rays and nebulizers to EKGs. Students are experiencing severe symptoms, including chest pain, abnormal heart rates, difficulty breathing, nausea, burning eyes, debilitating headaches, and vomiting.

It took Columbia days to release the first email admitting that an incident had occurred at the protest—in that time, students were left without official University correspondence, forced to undertake their own investigation into the chemical weapons used against them, conducting interviews, collecting testimonials, and doing research from their hospital beds. This email still fails to identify the cause of the life-threatening harm done to Columbia students, even as more students are being admitted to the emergency room. Zionism continues to manifest in our lives as direct violence against Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students.

For months, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and anti-Zionist students have been threatened, doxxed, and harassed on campus. As the Zionist entity continues its genocidal assault on Gaza, students have remained determined and resilient in their organizing, mobilizing on campus in support of Palestinian liberation while facing dehumanizing vilification, racist hate speech, and physical violence for their constitutionally protected activism.

Despite continual reports to the administration, Columbia has repeatedly ignored and dismissed calls to action from its students. Violent rhetoric does not exist in a vacuum—speech that dehumanizes and incites violence against Muslims, Arabs, and student protesters has real, tangible effects on our communities. And now, after months of failing to fulfill their most basic responsibility—the protection of students on their campus—Columbia University has left its students without support as they lie severely injured in hospitals. 

This depraved attack—an extension of the racist, colonial logic used to justify the genocide of the Palestinians—constitutes a targeted hate crime. We, the undersigned, affirm our steadfast support for Columbia SJP, JVP, and all other students who have been targeted. We condemn Columbia University’s cultivation of a racist political culture that shields white supremacy while criminalizing pro-Palestine student organizing. As Columbia’s delayed investigation is still underway, we, as students, hold the University responsible for allowing this indefensible violence to occur. Our universities have the responsibility to protect their students—we declare that Columbia has aided and abetted this racist attack against its own students through its negligence and inaction.

The student movement for Palestinian liberation will not be intimidated or silenced. We call on Columbia University to: 

1. Launch an immediate investigation into these crimes and take legal action against the students responsible for assaulting student protestors with chemical weapons.

2. Declare the constant hateful attacks on students across the nation as an immediate threat and take appropriate action before—to be blunt—one of us is killed.

3. Institute university policies that protect Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students from racist violence, doxxing, and threats to safety on campus. 

4. Institute active university policies that enshrine protection for pro-Palestine speech, activism, lectures, and campaigns on campus, including the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

Meet all Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) demands, including support for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, divesting from companies profiting from israeli apartheid, canceling the opening of the Tel Aviv Global Center, ceasing the dual-degree partnership with Tel Aviv University, changing university policy to allow students to organize under urgent circumstances, and reinstating Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, accompanied by an official apology for their unjust suspension.