Pro-Israel professor at Columbia banned from campus after harassing and intimidating other employees

NEW YORK (AP) — An outspoken pro-Israel professor at Columbia University has been temporarily banned from campus, a university spokesman said Wednesday.

Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Manhattan University’s business school, restricted access to campus on Tuesday after repeatedly harassing and intimidating other employees, university spokesman Ben Chang said.

Davidai, an Israeli citizen, is among the most prominent campus critics of pro-Palestinian protests and says school officials have not done enough to crack down on the demonstrations, which he views as anti-Semitic.

He also helped lead pro-Israel counter-protests in Columbia last spring. On X, formerly Twitter, where he has more than 100,000 followers, he has accused pro-Palestinian student groups of supporting terrorism.

Chang said the university had “consistently and continuously” respected Davidai’s right to express his views, but that the restrictions were a “direct result” of his conduct on Oct. 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack on Israel, which prompted the attack on Israel. last conflict in the region.

“His freedom of expression has not been and will not be restricted,” he wrote in a statement. “However, Columbia will not tolerate threats of harassment, intimidation or other threatening behavior from its employees.”

Davidai did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, but told X that the ban was in response to social media videos of him confronting university officials during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus.

“He has now retaliated and had me suspended from campus,” Davidai wrote in his Tuesday post, referring to Cas Holloway, the university’s Chief Operating Officer. The post also linked to a video on Instagram that has since been deleted.

“I don’t care about my future. It was never about me. I care about the future of Columbia,” Davidai wrote in another post on ”

Chang emphasized that Davidai, who is not teaching this semester, has not been suspended from his faculty post and that his compensation has not been affected by the disciplinary action.

But he will be required to complete a training program on the university’s policies regarding employee conduct before being allowed back on campus, he added.

“Education, training, access restrictions and other measures are available and used by the university when faculty and other employees violate university policies,” Chang said. “As in other cases, we expect that Assistant Professor Davidai will successfully complete the training and return to campus soon.”