Check out: Columbia University President Addresses Rise in Campus Anti-Semitism

Columbia University president Minouche Shafik gave congressional testimony Wednesday on the explosion of campus anti-Semitism. Facing questions from the Republican-led House Education Committee, Shafik said that “anti-Jewish protests” have not taken place at Columbia—then reversed course.

“You were asked, ‘Were there any anti-Jewish protests?’ and you said no,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), noting that there have been chants of “Jews out” on Columbia’s campus.

“So, the protest was not labeled as an anti-Jewish protest, it was labeled as an anti-Israeli government protest … but anti-Semitic things were said,” Shafik responded.

“I’m not asking what it was labeled. … It is an anti-Jewish protest, you agree with that? You change your testimony?” Stefanik said.

“Anti-Jewish things were said at protests, yes,” Shafik responded after pausing and shuffling in her chair.

Shafik also said the school’s “current rules” do not consider the chant “globalize the intifada” to be “not acceptable.” She pledged to ensure “faculty do not cross the line in terms of discrimination and harassment” and condemned a Middle Eastern studies professor, Joseph Massad, who called Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel “awesome” and “astounding.”

Shafik nonetheless confirmed that Massad remains on Columbia’s faculty.

“He has been spoken to,” she said. “In his case, he has not repeated anything like that ever since.”