At a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Columbia University president Minouse Shafik refused to characterize the popular chant “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic.
Instead, Shafik told legislators that the phrase was “hurtful” and declined to comment on whether or not it is permitted under official school policy, per the New York Post.
The remarks came during a heated congressional hearing from members of the House Education and Workforce Committee over the Ivy League university’s handling of violent anti-Israel demonstrations on campus since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
Also present in the hearing were Columbia Law Dean Emeritus David Schizer and two members of Morningside Heights University’s board of trustees, David Greenwald and Claire Shipman.
Schizer, who is the head of the antisemitism task force at Columbia, testified that the phrase “from the river…
