New York (EFE).- Donald Trump’s istration canceled 400 million dollars in grants and contracts with Columbia University in New York on Friday “due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students” after receiving a government-commissioned report on antisemitism on college campuses.
“These cancellations represent the first round of action and additional cancellations are expected to follow,” warned a t statement, adding that Columbia currently has 5 billion dollars in federal commitments.
According to the statement, the decision to cancel grants and contracts was made tly by the United States federal departments of Justice, Health, Education, and istrative Services after the “Task Force,” created by the government to identify and report antisemitic behavior, did not receive a satisfactory response from Columbia.
“These cancelations represent the first round of action and additional cancelations are expected to follow. The Task Force is continuing to review and coordinate across federal agencies to identify additional cancelations that could be made swiftly,” the t press release read.
Allegations of antisemitism at Columbia and other universities began to surface shortly after Hamas Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the subsequent war on Gaza, one of the deadliest in decades.
The war led to anti-Israel demonstrations not seen on college campuses for 50 years, with Columbia at the forefront.
Anti-Jewish incidents during the protests prompted the Joe Biden istration (2021-2025) to intervene and summon the directors of several universities (including Columbia) to Congress, several of whom were forced to resign.
Despite the fact that the intensity of the protests has considerably reduced, Trump took a step further: first, by creating a Task Force on campus focused on antisemitism, and second, by threatening to revoke visas or residency permits for students accused of ing organizations like Hamas.
“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,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in the statement.
“Freezing the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in antisemitism. This is only the beginning,” said Leo Terrell, who leads the Justice Department task force to combat antisemitism and also serves as senior counsel to the assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Left-wing Jewish groups have been very active in the anti-Israel protests, denouncing the subsumption of legitimate political criticism of the State of Israel under the discourse of antisemitism. EFE
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