MINOR EDIT IN 4TH GRAF
By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - The Trump administration on Friday canceled approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University, citing the school’s alleged failure to address anti-Semitism amid pro-Palestine protests in its campuses.
“Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer,” Trump's Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
Columbia University, in a statement to NBC News, stated it would work with the federal government to restore the lost federal funding, emphasizing its commitment to "combatting antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff."
The move comes amid a broader crackdown on pro-Palestine students, who have protested Israel’s war on Gaza and called for divestment from Israel-linked companies. The actions against student protestors sparked free speech concerns on American campuses.
Columbia was a focal point of last year’s campus encampments, leading to arrests and disciplinary actions against students.
The countrywide anti-war student movement was sparked last April by a pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia University, where dozens of students were arrested and others were forcibly removed when the university called police to the campus.
On Wednesday, A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators have occupied the Milstein Library in protest of the decision by Columbia University's Barnard College to expel a third student demonstrator for campus activism in support of Palestine.
Trump signed an executive order last month to combat anti-Semitism, which lays a framework that could lead to the deportation of foreign students participating in pro-Palestinian protests.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Thursday that foreign visitors in the country, including international students, supporting groups like Hamas would face visa denial and deportation.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, which Tel Aviv said killed around 1,200 people.
More than 48,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities. The onslaught, which left the enclave in ruins, was paused under the ceasefire agreement that took hold on Jan. 19.