NEW YORK – A Columbia University law professor has left the institution after an investigation found she discriminated against Israelis in violation of Columbia policies.
Longtime Columbia professor Katherine Franke was investigated for comments she made about Israeli students last year. In a January 2024 interview with “Democracy Now,” a New York media outlet, Franke said she and others were concerned about Columbia’s graduate program for Israeli students.
“A lot of these Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are just coming out of their military service,” she said.
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“They are known to harass Palestinian students and other students on our campus. »
Other law school professors filed an internal complaint against Franke the following month over his comments during the interview, Franke told Inside Higher Ed. The complaint, filed with the law school’s office, the university’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Act, said Franke “harassed members of the Columbia community based on their national origin,” she added.
Franke https://twitter.com/ProfKFranke/status/1846530229902143580 the investigation on social networks, claiming that it was “unfounded and politicized”, and Minouche Shafik, then president of Columbia, also acknowledged that investigations were underway before Congress last year.
Columbia University President Minouche Shafik testifying at a U.S. House Education Committee hearing on anti-Semitism on college campuses at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., March 17 April 2024. (Credit: Drew Angerer/AFP)
In an email sent Thursday to the faculty and consulted by the Times of IsraelLaw School Dean Daniel Abebe said Franke was “accelerating her retirement” and would leave Columbia on Friday. The email indicates she joined the law school in 2000.
Franke responded to that email by telling other faculty members that Abebe’s email “reflected material inaccuracies” and contained “misinformation,” but did not explicitly deny his retirement.
An investigation by an independent law firm found that Franke violated the university’s anti-discrimination policy during the “Democracy Now” interview and in November. The professor also violated university policies prohibiting retaliation by providing a reporter with the name of a professor who had filed a complaint against her. She also attacked the complainants on social networks, according to a copy of the conclusions of the investigation obtained by the Times of Israel.
Columbia said in a statement that the university is “committed to being a welcoming community for all and that [ses] policies prohibiting discrimination and harassment.
Illustrative: Anti-Israel and pro-Israel protesters clash in front of Columbia University, February 2, 2024. (Luke Tress)
“As the parties involved in this matter have made known, a complaint of discriminatory harassment in violation of our policies has been filed. An investigation was conducted and a report issued. As we have always stated, the university is committed to addressing all forms of discrimination in accordance with our policies,” the statement said.
Franke made the remarks on “Democracy Now” after anti-Israel protesters on campus claimed that IDF veterans had sprayed them with skunk spraya foul-smelling liquid used by Israeli police to disperse protesters in Israel. Some demonstrators said they had to be treated in hospital following this “chemical attack”.
“The students were able to identify three of these exchange students, actually from Israel, who had just completed their military service, and who were spraying the pro-Palestinian students with this foul-smelling water,” Franke said in the interview. to “Democracy Now.”
The allegations, however, were false: instead of skunk sprayit was a non-toxic gag, the fart spraypurchased on Amazon. Columbia paid $395,000 to a Jewish student after unfairly suspending him for the incident, according to a report released in November by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Personnel.
Protesters outside Columbia University in New York on April 30, 2024. (Luke Tress via JTA)
Franke sent a statement to Times of Israel confirming that she had left law school.
“The university allowed its own disciplinary process to be used as a weapon against members of our community, including myself. I was targeted because of my support for pro-Palestinian protesters,” the statement said.
“I have come to the conclusion that the Columbia University administration has created an environment so toxic and hostile to legitimate debate about the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or do research. »
In his statement, Franke said the students involved in the incident were members of Columbia’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University, although they were not actually involved in the exchange program, and she again called the incident a “chemical attack.”
Anti-Israel and pro-Israel activists outside Columbia University, February 2, 2024. (Luke Tress/JTA)
Franke’s Columbia faculty webpage says she was supposed to teach a course on gender justice during the spring semester.
Franke also came under scrutiny from Congress in April, when Shafik, then president of Columbia, appeared before the Congressional Committee on Education and Personnel. New York State Rep. Elise Stefanik had asked Shafik about Franke’s comments regarding Israeli students.
“These comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory,” Shafik said, adding that Franke and another professor, Joseph Massad, were under investigation for discriminatory remarks.
After this hearing, in a September interview with the show “Democracy Now,” Franke declared that she risked being fired, denouncing a “militarization of the disciplinary system” at Columbia. She affirmed that she had “not made any anti-Semitic remarks towards Israeli students”.
“The university will no longer tolerate protests and critical engagement,” she added.
Franke is a longtime anti-Israel activist who supports the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She has described herself as an “activist scholar” who focuses on issues such as queer theory, gender justice, racial justice, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Last year, protests linked to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas plunged Columbia University into turmoil. This resulted in the installation of an unauthorized protest encampment on campus, the forcible takeover of a campus building by demonstrators and dozens of arrests. Israeli and Jewish students said the protests and the rhetoric used – including by faculty – had created a hostile and dangerous environment for them on campus.
The university administration has attempted to ease tensions by implementing certain countermeasures, including the creation of a task force on anti-Semitism.
The protests have not been as disruptive this year — although student activists have stepped up their rhetoric, including calls for violence, which the university has condemned.
“As we have said repeatedly, discrimination and the promotion of violence or terror are unacceptable and contrary to the values of our community,” the university said Friday.
