Washington, DC – Jewish students who are involved in protests at Columbia University say that their propalestinian activism is driven by their faith-not anyway.
On Tuesday, a group of Jewish student activists met with members of the United States Congress in Washington, DC to tell their stories, of which they say they were left out of the mainstream narratives about anti-Semitism to the college campus.
When student protests against Israel’s war in Gaza swept the country last year, Columbia University in New York became a flashpoint.
The university saw one of the first student camps in the country, which called for an end to investments in companies that were involved in human rights violations. Shortly after the tents appeared, the campus also experienced some of the first mass arrests of student demonstrators in the Palestinian solidarity movement.
Columbia has made this visibility a focus on the efforts of President Donald Trump to affect what he described as “illegal protests” and campus anti-Semitism.
At the beginning of this year, the Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil was the first student activist who was arrested by the Trump administration and aimed at the deportation.
The delegation of Jewish students on Tuesday came to the congress to advance the case that Khalil and others, like him, must never be detained in their name. They met with at least 17 democratic legislators both from the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Al Jazeera spoke to several students who took part in the lobby day, which was organized by the Judal Voice for Peace (JVP) Action (an Advocacy organization). Here are some of their stories:
Tali Beckwith-Cohen
In the state of New York, the Major Tali Beckwith-Cohen grew up that it grew up in a community in which Zionism was the norm. She remembers that she was told “myths” about Palestine as a “country without people for a people without a country”: a slogan that justifies the foundation of Israel.
But when she began to learn the Palestinian history and to meet Palestinians, Beckwith-Cohen said that her beliefs were questioned.
Finally, after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, it was involved in Palestinian activism.
Human rights groups and experts from the United Nations have found evidence that the tactics of Israel in Gaza “match the genocide”. So far, more than 52,615 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict.
“For a long time I had such a feeling of discomfort, this feeling of wrestling, this feeling of perhaps cognitive dissonance, and how can I expect these values ​​that I care about Zionism?” Beckwith-Cohen said Al Jazera.
“We see the bomb attacks, the disregard of human life, for children, for hospitals, for schools. It forced me to make a choice.”
She emphasized that the protests are spaces of solidarity in which the students of all backgrounds of the idea are obliged that their security is intertwined.
“In the media narrative, there is so much about what happens on the Columbia campus, which is only insignificant and only so untrue what we have experienced,” said Beckwith-Cohen.
“So today we are here to say to our congress leaders that what we see on campus clearly is clearly an authoritarian, fascist approach to all dissent, not only students who stand peacefully for an end to the genocide.”
Carly Shaffer
When Carly Shaffer commented on the Israeli escalation in Gaza in a WhatsApp chat from the university, some of her fellow students questioned their Judaism.
From the hundreds of people in chat, she remembers that Khalil – the activist arrested for deportation – was the only person who contacted her directly to reject the comments that she was exposed.
When she met Khalil, she looked at him as a “embodiment” of someone who took care of the security of all students on campus.
Shaffer told Al Jazeera that she felt “sick” and “horrified” when Khalil was arrested. Her discomfort was then tightened when she saw that the Trump White House celebrated His detention on social media with the expression “Shalom, Mahmoud” – a Jewish greeting that was repeated as a mockery.
Shaffer, who is striving for a master’s degree in human rights and social policy, grew up in California and was brought up by a single mother in a household with low income.
She said it was a practice against which injustice – including in Palestine – is rooted in her Jewish faith.
“The Columbia protest movement, it is a movement of love. It is a movement of solidarity,” said Shaffer. “And Jewish students are also more integral and crucial for this movement.”
She said, as Jewish student demonstrators, organized religious events on the campus, her colleagues joined the camp and asked them about their traditions.
“These are the same students who are presented as anti -Semites who strive to experience a Jewish vacation with their Jewish friends and celebrate a Jewish vacation,” said Shaffer to Al Jazera.
She condemned the “weapon weapon of anti -Semitism” and said that the problem would be used to close talks about Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
“Jewish students are used as farmers in Trump’s political agenda,” she said. “And the weapon of anti -Semitism to reduce this movement is not just a threat to Jewish students. It is a threat to all of us. It is therefore so important for us as Jewish students to correct this wrong story directly.”
Sarah Borus
Sarah Borus, a student of Barnard College, who was arrested during the procedure against the Columbia camp, said she grew up in an anti-Zionist family in a “very Zionist community”.
She thought it was important that Jewish students like her convey her experiences directly to the people in Washington, DC.
“We talk to members of the congress to tell you our stories that are excluded from the mainstream messages,” said Borus about Al Jazera.
“Trump’s mission is not about protecting Jewish students. It is about using fears from anti-Semitism-because of the Gaza solidarity camp in the past year-in order to set student activists on non-citizens to really put academic freedom, freedom of speak and people in danger.”
When asked how she felt about the potential counter reaction to her activism, Bor admitted that the current political climate left her anxiously.
“I’m afraid, but in the great scheme of things I am proud of the decisions I made,” she said. “I wouldn’t do any other and I am ready to take the risks if that has to be done.”
Shay Order
Shay of ordinary people do not regret participating in the camps of Columbia University despite the administrative and political approach.
Oral said that Christian nationalists try to extinguish the perspective of propalestic Jewish students and to define Judaism in a way that corresponds to their political purposes.
But to protest against the killing of the Palestinians, it was more important that it was both Jewish and humanistic values ​​out of the expression. And more oral believes that the demonstrations have contributed to Columbia nationwide to raise awareness.
“Despite the oppression that, despite the suffering and despite the despite the worry that we did not have enough to stop the genocide, in order to adhere to the Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank, we think we have postponed public discourse in a really important way,” said Orter.
“And we also built a really beautiful community. And I don’t regret what I did at all. I wouldn’t change anything.”
Raphy
Raphy, who only identified with his first name, said he grew up “very Zionist”. But when he learned more about the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, he had the feeling that he was deceived.
“The Jewish primary school, for example, to which I had a map of Israel, and it was like a diamond – no West Bank or Gaza,” he said.
“When I saw the actual map with the occupied areas, I said: ‘Wait, I was lied to.’ And this kind of mine let me examine this whole trip what zionism is, which is a crew, which is the settler colonialism.
Raphy that studies mathematics said that the war against Gaza, the protests of the campus and the counter -reaction with which the protesters of the students were confronted gave him a “personal responsibility to fight for what is right”.
In his experience, the demonstrations were inviting, not anti -Semitic. What was anti -Semitic, he said, is the fact that the University of Jewish student protesters aimed at their political views.
Several students, including raphy, said Columbia refused to grant students who are associated with a Jewish voice for peace to organize religious celebrations in public areas. You described this rejection as a form of discrimination.
At the time of publication, the university did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Raphy also distinguished between the feeling of feeling about ideas that challenge the worldview and are actually insecure.
“It is normal in college to meet new points of view to meet new perspectives. So I became a propalestinis and anti -Zionist,” he said. “At first I felt uncomfortable when I met anti -Zionist views, but then I became to understand them. This is normal.”
Raphy emphasized that true suffering is happening in Gaza.
“The students who are currently not safe are the students in Gaza. Every university in Gaza has been destroyed. They have had no food for 60 days.”