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COLUMBIA, OTHER UNIVERSITIES, SYSTEMATICALLY SUPPRESSED
PRO-PALESTINIAN SPEECH, ACLU AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT ALLEGES
 
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Simon Leton and Emily Pickering
October 2, 2026
Columbia Spectator
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_ The 322-page joint report from the ACLU and Amnesty International
claims that the University violated free speech rights and imposed
more punitive punishments for pro-Palestinian demonstrations. _

The 322-page joint report is the result of a two-year investigation
that covered 80 universities across the country., Photo by Jackson
Dilks / Deputy Photo Editor / Columbia Spectator

 

Columbia, alongside other U.S. universities, systematically suppressed
pro-Palestinian speech, the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty
International USA claims in a Sept. 23 report. 

The report alleges that Columbia suspended student groups for peaceful
protest in an “unlawful” manner that exposed student activists to
“excessive force” by calling law enforcement to campus, and was
disproportionately harsh in its issuance of suspensions and expulsions
against activists. 

The analysis used the University’s disciplinary responses,
concessions made in negotiations with the federal government, and
testimony from student protesters and other University affiliates to
substantiate its findings. 

The 322-page document comes after a two-year investigation that
covered 80 universities across the country. Columbia is featured as
one of the report’s six university case studies. 

Jennifer Turner, principal human rights researcher at the ACLU and
main author of the report, told Spectator that, during the course of
the investigation, “what became clear was that there’s a really
widespread pattern of suppression of speech” across U.S.
universities. 

In addition to Columbia, the report provided detailed case studies on
the City College of New York; the University of California, Los
Angeles; the University of Michigan; Tulane University, and the
University of Texas at Austin. Turner explained that they had chosen
those universities because they were “particularly problematic” in
their responses to student protests. 

“Columbia, we included for a number of reasons having to do with its
response being particularly punitive,” Turner said. She added that
Columbia was also featured due to the federal government’s
“attempts to weaponize the civil rights laws to force, of course,
universities like Columbia into broad-ranging agreements that are
frankly unconstitutional.” 

“Our University rules clearly establish how members of our community
can exercise their free speech rights, regardless of their viewpoint,
while respecting the rights of others to study, teach, research, and
participate fully in campus life,” a University spokesperson wrote
in a statement to Spectator. “Protest and activism have been a part
of the fabric of Columbia for decades. The University regulates the
time, place, and manner of protests in a content neutral manner to
ensure we can fulfill our academic mission.” 
RESPONSE TO CAMPUS PROTESTS

 
Columbia gained notoriety as a hotspot for student protests following
Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the start of Israel’s
war in Gaza. An Amnesty International investigation
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the same year stated that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to
genocide, accusations which the Israeli government has denied. 

Tensions on campus remained high, peaking during the April 2024
“Gaza Solidarity Encampment
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After President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, his
administration cut
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$400 million in federal funding to Columbia, later alleging
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that the University had violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 by failing to prevent antisemitism during pro-Palestinian
protests. The University issued
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a list of commitments to the federal government in March 2025, and in
July 2025, the University agreed on a $221 million settlement with the
federal government to restore
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the “vast majority” of its funding. 

“Columbia’s capitulation only emboldened the administration to
keep up these kinds of attacks,” the report states. 

The report includes information from a questionnaire distributed to
student protest organizers from October 2024 to February 2025. The
questionnaire asked participants about their experience at
demonstrations and whether they experienced an “excessive use of
force by law enforcement and campus security, use of crowd control
weapons, and arrests, among other issues.” 

The report alleges that universities violated free speech rights by
calling on law enforcement to arrest pro-Palestinian protesters,
resulting in “unlawful and unnecessary use of force.” Citing
disciplinary actions such as expulsions and suspensions, the
investigation also discovered that universities’ responses to
pro-Palestinian advocacy were “more punitive” in comparison to
their historical responses to other types of demonstrations “over
decades.” 

The report describes this imbalance as being particularly stark at
Columbia, which has a rich history
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of student activism stretching back past 1968. 

The report argues that while past protests often involved tactics such
as sit-ins, building occupations, and blockades similar to those used
in recent years, punishments have become significantly more severe. 

Since 2023, Columbia has asked the New York Police Department to
assist in handling pro-Palestinian protesters, including at the
“Gaza Solidarity Encampment
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during which the NYPD made a total of 217 arrests, and at the May 7,
2025, protest at Butler Library, which resulted in 78 arrests. 

“We also conducted interviews and meetings with students and
faculty, where we learned more about the ongoing disciplinary
punishments and punitive punishments of students and faculty involved
in activism, as well as instances of censorship and suppression of
speech and association that’s been ongoing,” Turner said.
 

In total, the report estimates that more than 100 students who
participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia received
severe punishments, including expulsion, suspension, and revocation of
academic degrees. 

“By doing so these universities directly or indirectly have made it
easier for the Trump administration to crack down on student activism,
causing long-term damage to higher education,” the report notes. 
CRACKDOWN ON INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS

 
The report includes a series of case studies on six individuals it
describes as being targeted “solely because of their political
viewpoints and constitutionally protected expression” by Immigration
and Customs Enforcement. 

“The Trump administration has crafted and carried out a policy of
revoking the visas and green cards of noncitizen students and scholars
who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy, and of arresting, detaining,
and deporting them,” the report alleges. 

Four of these individuals are Columbia affiliates: Mahmoud Khalil,
SIPA ’24; Mohsen Mahdawi, GS ’25, SIPA ’27; Yunseo Chung, CC
’26; and Rümeysa Öztürk, TC ’20. 

Turner said that, “in cases of Columbia students,” the Trump
administration “had no evidence whatsoever to support the revocation
of their visas, for instance, or their attempts to revoke their green
card, and in fact went ahead and pursued this despite it being these
actions being based entirely on constitutionally protected lawful
speech and association.” 

In a statement to Spectator, a spokesperson for the Department of
Homeland Security wrote, “It is a privilege to be granted a visa or
green card to live and study in the United States of America. The
Trump Administration has acted well within its statutory and
constitutional authority with any alien who advocates for violence,
glorifies and supports terrorists, harasses Jews, and damages
property.” 
BARNARD

 
Barnard is also included as an example of where the report alleges a
school overreacted to student protests.
 

“The expulsions of two Barnard College students in February 2025 for
their participation in a protest disrupting a History of Modern Israel
class mark the first official expulsions for nonviolent political
protest on a Columbia University campus since 1936,” the report
notes. 

During the incident, masked student demonstrators entered
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a Columbia classroom, gave a speech alleging that the University was
normalizing genocide, and handed out flyers, one of them depicting a
boot stomping on the Star of David alongside the words “Crush
Zionism.” Two of the protesters who were affiliated with Barnard
were subsequently expelled
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“When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and
no willingness to change, we must act,” Barnard President Laura
Rosenbury wrote in a statement to Jewish Insider at the time. 

The report also includes a Sept. 18 letter from Akilah Rosado, interim
dean of Barnard and vice president of inclusion and belonging,
responding to the ACLU and Amnesty’s findings. 

“Barnard’s approach to conduct matters is careful and
fact-specific. While your letter suggests that Barnard’s response to
the ‘History of Modern Israel’ disruption was ‘more punitive’
than its response to other (unspecified) incidents, we are not aware
of any comparable incident in which Barnard students intentionally
targeted and shut down an academic class,” Rosado wrote. 
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FREE SPEECH AND EXPRESSION

 
The report included a list of recommendations for both universities
and the federal government to uphold First Amendment values.
 

The report called for universities to allow students to demonstrate in
multiple areas of campus, including “outdoor, high-traffic
locations,” during a broad time period. Another recommendation was
to ensure that students are able to “spontaneously protest in
response to unanticipated events, when speech is often the most
essential.”
 

Columbia’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish
Voice for Peace were both suspended in November 2023, following a
series of violations of the University’s event policy regarding when
and where students could protest. Seventeen days before the University
suspended the pro-Palestinian student groups, Columbia added
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a new section to its University Event Policy web page, emphasizing the
administration’s power to “regulate the time, place and manner of
certain forms of public expression.” 

“Universities cannot impose their rules specifically because of the
content of the protest, simply because the university finds it
divisive or abhorrent or problematic in some way that isn’t
unlawful,” Turner said.
 

In March 2024, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York state
affiliate of the ACLU, and Palestine Legal filed
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a lawsuit against the University challenging the suspensions. The
lawsuit was subsequently dismissed
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the following November, and both student organizations remain
suspended today. 

The University has since further narrowed the circumstances under
which protests can occur, and the current Rules of University Conduct
do not allow for spontaneous protests on certain dates. As stated in
the 2026 prenotification policy, “During periods of increased
activity or heightened risk of disruptions to University functions,
pre-notification is required at least 48 hours (two business days) in
advance.” 

[R_EAD MORE: __Columbia quietly changes rules governing protests and
discipline for first time in 10 years_
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The recommendations also tackled anti-discrimination policies, asking
universities to refrain from policies “that rely on overly broad and
vague definitions, including definitions of antisemitism,” that can
lead to violations of “lawful political speech.”
 
In 2025, the University adopted
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the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of
antisemitism, a decision that received pushback from activists on
campus. 

“The new commitments to ‘combat antisemitism’ are a dangerous
escalation of Columbia’s commitment to silencing opposition to
genocide,” Columbia JVP wrote in a statement to Spectator following
the adoption. 

The report also stressed the role of universities in protecting
student privacy, specifically by resisting “unlawful government
requests for personal information” and rejecting “any federal
pressure to surveil or punish noncitizen students and faculty for
their lawful speech.”
“I hope it documents what has happened and is happening, and showing
that both the pattern of suppression of free speech, showing that
it’s still going on today, and that there’s a profound chilling
effect because of both universities’ actions and the Trump
administration’s actions that we are experiencing,” Turner said.

[_Staff Writer SIMON LETON can be contacted at
[email protected]__. Follow him on X __@simonoleton_
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_University News Editor EMILY PICKERING can be contacted at
[email protected]__. Follow her on X
__@emilypckk_ [[link removed]]_._] 

* Palestine solidarity
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* Gaza protests
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* Student protests
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* Columbia student protests
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* police brutality
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* Academic Freedom
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* Columbia University
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* ACLU
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* American Civil Liberties Union
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* Amnesty International
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* Israel
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* Palestine
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* zionism
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* Antisemitism
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* Donald Trump
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* pro-Palestine protests
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