Columbia University shuts down two pro-Palestinian student groups for violating school rules

Columbia University in New York City announced Friday that it would be shutting down two pro-Palestinian groups for the remainder of the 2023 fall term.

The groups being shut down are Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) for allegedly violating the school's rules. 

"Columbia University is suspending Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) as official student groups through the end of the fall term," the chair of the Special Committee on Campus Safety said in a statement, according to CBS News.

"This decision was made after the two groups repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event Thursday afternoon that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation," the statement continued. 

The groups will not be allowed to hold events on campus or get funding from the university.

Jewish Voice for Peace has been referred to by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as an antisemitic group that has “expressed support for violence and, occasionally, classic antisemitic tropes.”

The ADL also states that Students for Justice in Palestine “explicitly endorsed the actions of Hamas and their armed attacks on Israeli civilians and voiced an increasingly radical call for confronting and ‘dismantling’ Zionism on U.S. college campuses."

Some students told CBS News that they disagreed with the decision to suspend the groups, arguing that college campuses should be a place for free speech.