Anti-Israel students protest at Columbia University in New York City. Photo: Reuters/Jeenah Moon

Columbia University in New York has launched an investigation of Shai Davidai, a Jewish Israeli professor who has loudly denounced members of the campus community who defend terrorism and called for the destruction of Israel, for alleged misconduct.

“I am being persecuted by Columbia, which is retaliating against me based on groundless complaints,” Davidai said in a lengthy statement posted on X/Twitter on Friday. “I spoke up against the university. And now the university is weaponizing an internal investigation to silence me. In so doing, Columbia reveals the depths of its hostility toward its Jewish community: ‘How dare a Jewish professor speak up on behalf of Jewish students who are under siege!'”

On Friday, Davidai told The Algemeiner that he will not be silenced nor chased off campus.

“I’ll say this in no uncertain terms: I have no plans to leave Columbia. If ever I plan to leave Columbia, it will be on my own terms,” Davidai said. “Because, if they can do this to me, one of the most vocal faculty against antisemitism, then imagine what they’re already doing to faculty that are much less vocal.”

Davidai first made headlines in October after delivering a thunderous speech before a crowd of students and others gathered on campus in which he called the school’s president a “coward” for refusing to condemn Hamas apologists and anti-Zionist demonstrations on campus.

In many ways, becoming a public figure has been a detriment. Davidai’s email has been flooded daily with notes from antisemites accusing him of being an “Elder of Zion” and a “genocidal baby killer.” Last month, he discovered that an anonymous group of graduate students had accused him of anti-Palestinian racism and demanded that a professional association of which he is a member publicly censure him.

In Friday’s statement, Davidai said that he has retained counsel and pledged to “fully cooperate” with the university’s investigation.

“At the same time, I will call out Columbia’s bad faith in retaliating against me,” he explained. “An even cursory examination of my advocacy shows the absurdity of this investigation.”

The investigation against Davidai comes amid numerous allegations that since Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, the university has refused to address antisemitic rhetoric and violence on campus and allegedly coddled students engaging in antisemitic behavior.

Last month, a student group, Students Against Antisemitism (SAA), claimed in a lawsuit filed with the help of the StandWithUs Legal Center for Justice that pro-Hamas students beat up five Jewish students in Columbia’s Butler Library and that another attacked a Jewish student with a stick, lacerating his head and breaking his finger.

Following the incidents, pleas for help went unanswered and administrators told Jewish students they could not guarantee their safety while Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) held its demonstrations, according to the lawsuit. The school’s powerlessness to prevent anti-Jewish violence was cited as the reason why Students Supporting Israel, a recognized pro-Israel school club, was denied permission to hold an event on self-defense. Events with “buzzwords” such as “Israel” and “Palestine” were forbidden, administrators allegedly said, but SJP continued to host events while no one explained the inconsistency.

A Task Force on Antisemitism created by the university has also expressed concern about the treatment of Jewish students, detailing a slew of problems in a new report issued on Monday.

Most notably, the report explained that Columbia has not treated Jews the same as other protected groups, allegedly ignoring their concerns about antisemitic speech uttered by anti-Zionists despite issuing tendentious statements about other “protected classes” in times when “policing, affirmative action, sexual assault, transgender rights, and other important issues” are the subjects of tense public debate.

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.