The world must win its battle against a global intifada, from America’s campuses to India
Trump cutting grant money for Columbia University is about ‘accountability’: GOP lawmaker
Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah, joins ‘Fox Report’ to break down the Department of Justice’s investigation into antisemitism on college campuses.
President Donald Trump’s decision to cancel $400 million in federal grants from Columbia University for its culture of antisemitism should be a moment of self-reflection for leftists and liberals worldwide.
As an alumna of Columbia University with a master’s degree in international affairs, it was painful to watch Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., shame my alma mater on Wednesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, titled, "Never to Be Silent: Stemming the Tide of Antisemitism in America," chaired by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. I covered the proceedings as journalist Asra Nomani testified before the committee, warning the senators about an "industry" fomenting anti-Jewish hate.
While some may argue that violent protests against Jews and Israel on American campuses are trivial compared to the thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza, the decline of safety for Jewish students in American universities is significant and lies at the heart of this conflict. At the hearing, witnesses testified that antisemitism has risen in the U.S., especially after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel. Kennedy highlighted Columbia’s historical antisemitism and how hatred of Jews has been normalized under the Biden administration’s DEI program. Watching anti-Jewish violence at Columbia in 2023 from India horrified me.
Muslim journalist Asra Nomani testified before a Senate committee probing antisemitism. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
As a student at Columbia in the late 2000s, it was evident to me that many academics and student groups sympathized more with perpetrators of terror than victims. In 2007, they hosted then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not Iranian women subjected to enforced hijab. The next year, they were silent when militants trained in Pakistan attacked India on Nov. 26, 2008.
In 2009, leftist and Islamic student unions shut down the university to cancel a talk by conservative Dutch politician Geert Wilders. I was among the few who attended his lecture, asking him a difficult question about his anti-Islam views. However, a mob of students heckled him instead of engaging in debate. This intolerance for differing viewpoints was evident at Columbia, a supposed temple of free speech.
Though the signs were there, I never imagined the leftist-Islamist nexus at Columbia would push the campus into a spiral of violence, reminiscent of developing countries. I never thought Ivy League campuses would exhibit scenes of violent threats by Islamists, as seen at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India in 2016. When Kennedy recalled assaults on Jewish students at Columbia in 2023, I felt deeply troubled.
The partition of India and the Palestinian territories have historical parallels. After World War II, the British withdrew from their colonies, creating the new states of Pakistan and Israel. While Arab Muslims violently opposed the creation of Israel, India accepted the British partition, giving a large portion of its territory to create Pakistan. Unlike the Arabs, India’s new leaders chose Gandhi’s philosophy of ahimsa, or non-violence, and allowed Muslims to flourish in their own country. However, Pakistan’s Army chose jihad against India, ruining the country over 75 years. Meanwhile, Arabs and Iranians have used Palestinian Muslims as fodder to fight Israel, perpetuating terrorism and conflict. Co-existence among Jews, Arabs and Iranians is possible, but hatred and violence continue.
Worldwide, no country has drawn as much condemnation as Israel, and no conflict has drawn as much sympathy as the Palestinian issue. Muslims worldwide rarely express the same sympathy for the genocide of Bangladeshi Muslims by the Pakistani Army or the oppression of Muslims in Islamic theocracies. Human rights organizations, advocacy groups, and think tanks have spent billions demonizing Israel over seven decades, which reeks of a sinister design.
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At the Senate hearing, Nomani recounted the beheading of her friend and Wall Street Journal colleague, Daniel Pearl, by Pakistani terrorists who saw his Jewish identity, American citizenship, and Israeli roots as a crime. She revealed that a network of about 1,500 organizations spreads antisemitic propaganda and radicalizes youth in the U.S. against Jews. I witnessed this hatred ahead of the hearing, speaking to anti-Israel activists from the group Code Pink in the Senate hallway outside the hearing room. Some wore pink shirts and Palestinian keffiyehs, advocating a one-state solution and opposing Israel as a Jewish state.
Two years ago, a New York Times investigation exposed Chinese funding, led by American millionaire Neville Roy Singham, pumping money into liberal media, think tanks and advocacy groups, including Code Pink. Singham is married to Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans. In India, this network funded NewsClick and other platforms to promote an anti-India agenda. In the U.S., organizations like Code Pink have led campaigns against Israel and the U.S.
Nomani referred to antisemitism in the U.S. as a long war of "malign foreign influence". The bigotry against Jews at Columbia and other universities suggests foreign support mobilizing this sentiment. As this hatred is weaponized, the conflict in Gaza will continue.
President Donald Trump's decision to cancel $400 million in federal funding to Columbia is a good start. Next, his government must prosecute individuals and organizations involved in weaponizing antisemitic sentiments. A win in America is a win for the world.
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Aarti Tikoo Singh is the founder and editor-in-chief of The New Indian, a digital media outlet based in New Delhi, India. She is a former journalist for The Times of India.
