An anti-Israel protester was caught on camera near Columbia University on Saturday night screaming at opposing demonstrators holding an Israeli flag, “Go back to Poland!” and “Go back to Belarus!”
Video shows the offensive marcher, dressed in a bright yellow jacket, black baseball cap and black face mask, waving the Palestinian flag in front of several demonstrators, including those carrying a rolled-up Israeli flag, and hissing, “Get the hell out of here!
“Go back to Poland! Go back to Belarus!” the man bellows outside a gate to the Ivy League university’s campus on Amsterdam Avenue in Upper Manhattan, as the two opposing sides yell and film each other with their cell phones.
Jewish populations in both countries’ regions were decimated during the Holocaust.
Antisemitism controversy at Columbia University: Key events
- More than 280 anti-Israel demonstrators were cuffed at Columbia and the City of New York campuses overnight in a “massive” NYPD operation.
- One hundred and nine people were nabbed at the Ivy League campus after cops responded to Columbia’s request to help oust a destructive mob that had illegally taken over the Hamilton Hall academic building late Tuesday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams and police said.
- Hizzoner blamed the on-campus chaos on insurgents who have a “history of escalating situations and trying to create chaos” instead of protesting peacefully.
- Columbia’s embattled president Minouche Shafik, who has faced mounting calls to resign for not cracking down sooner, issued a statement Wednesday saying the on-campus violence had “pushed the university to the brink.”
- Columbia University president Minouche Shafik was accused of “gross negligence” while testifying before Congress. Shafik refused to say if the phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is antisemitic.
- More than 100 Columbia professors signed a letter defending students who support the “military action” by Hamas.
The anti-Israel protesters were seen later that night chanting, blowing whistles and banging on drums and lighting green and red flares outside the gate.
Rabbi Elie Buechler urged Jewish students Sunday morning to return home, noting he does not believe the university’s law enforcement or the NYPD can guarantee the safety of Jewish students in the face of rising antisemitism.
“It deeply pains me to say that I would strongly recommend you return home as soon as possible and remain home until the reality in and around campus has dramatically improved,” the rabbi said over WhatsApp.
“It is not our job as Jews to ensure our own safety on campus,” he said. “No one should have to endure this level of hatred, let alone at school.”
Follow The Post’s coverage of the pro-terror protests at colleges across the US:
- Tear gas sprayed at UCLA encampment as cops face off with anti-Israel protesters wielding fire extinguishers
- Stanford submits ‘deeply disturbing’ photo of campus anti-Israel protester wearing Hamas headband to FBI
- Iranian college offers free tuition to US students expelled for participating in anti-Israel protests: ‘Our people’
- MAP: US colleges where students have been arrested over anti-Israel protests
Jewish students who showed up on campus Saturday night to protest antisemitism at the Ivy League university carried Israeli flags and sang “One Day,” a song of peace by reggae singer and rapper Matisayhu — only to be promptly attacked by hate speech and threatened with calls to violence, witnesses told The Post.
Their protests Saturday follow this week’s congressional hearing with Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who spoke about the university’s response to antisemitism.
