NFL Owner Withdraws Support from Columbia University Following Anti-Israel Demonstrations – Disheartened by Recent Developments

As Columbia University wallows in a seething stew of anti-Semitic hate, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft said he will no longer send money to the New York City campus.

In a statement released through his Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, Kraft said, “[T]he school I love so much — the one that welcomed me and provided me with so much opportunity — is no longer an institution I recognize,” according to Fox News.

“I am deeply saddened at the virulent hate that continues to grow on campus and throughout our country. I am no longer confident that Columbia can protect its students and staff, and I am not comfortable supporting the university until corrective action is taken,” he said.

Kraft called on the college to do something to right the wrong taking place.

“It is my hope that Columbia and its leadership will stand up to this hate by ending these protests immediately and will work to earn back the respect and trust of many of us who have lost faith in the institution,” he said.

JUST IN: Columbia & Barnard faculty hold walkout in protest of the school’s decision to call the police on pro-Palestine students.

Enjoying every second of this 🍿

The liberal college is engaged in a “civil war” as professors are taking sides in the Israel-Hamas war, with 54… pic.twitter.com/ggZja6iQgl

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) April 22, 2024

On Monday, after touring the campus with a group of other Jewish legislators, Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey condemned what he saw. according to CNN.

“We saw it firsthand as we walked past the encampments on the university’s main lawn full of protesters spewing incendiary anti-Semitic hate and vitriol. Many aren’t even Columbia students I’ve been told. Their campaign of intimidation is sickening and shocking and as the White House said yesterday, ‘echoes the rhetoric of Hamas terrorists,’” Gottheimer said,

“[T]oothless combinations from administrators aren’t going to stop the anarchy we’re seeing,” he said. “The only way to do it is with deeds, not words.”

Gottheimer said Columbia has a civil rights obligation that is not being fulfilled.

“Colleges have a legal obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to provide students, including Jews and Muslims, a school environment free from discrimination and harassment based on race color or national origin. Yet just feet from here, Jewish students are being verbally and even physically assaulted,” he said.

On Monday, Columbia barred a Jewish professor who tried to enter the campus to lead a pro-Jewish rally there, according to the New York Post.

Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School, said he was told his ID was deactivated, even as protesters were able to use their IDs to enter the campus.

Earlier today, @Columbia University refused to let me onto campus.

Why? Because they cannot protect my safety as a Jewish professor.

This is 1938.

— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) April 22, 2024

“They are not letting me on main campus,” he told a crowd of supporters.

Pro-Israel protesters called out “Let him in!” and “Shame!”

“I have not just a civil right, a civil right as a Jewish person to be on campus. I have a right as a professor employed by the university to be on campus,” Davidai said.