An assistant professor at Columbia University was barred from campus starting Tuesday night, with the school accusing him of harassment and intimidation directed at other employees.
Shai Davidai, who teaches at Columbia’s Business School, has been a vocal pro-Israel professor on campus who has taken videos on campus of student activists and university officials, accusing individuals of pro-Hamas sentiments and questioning the actions allowed on campus.
“Columbia has consistently and continually respected Assistant Professor Davidai’s right to free speech and to express his views. His freedom of speech has not been limited and is not being limited now. Columbia, however, does not tolerate threats of intimidation, harassment, or other threatening behavior by its employees,” a university spokesperson said.
“Because Assistant Professor Davidai repeatedly harassed and intimidated University employees in violation of University policy, we have temporarily limited his access to campus while he undertakes appropriate training on our policies governing the behavior of our employees,” the spokesperson added.
A university official said the decision to bar Davidai from campus this week was due to his actions on Oct. 7 of this year, accusing him of harassing university employees.
On that day, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s deadly attacks against Israel, Davidai posted a video of himself asking Cas Holloway, the university’s chief operating officer, why pro-Palestinian protests were allowed on campus and following the official around.
The professor was previously banned from campus for a day back in April when he said he was going to sit in the middle of the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.
In a video on Davidai’s Instagram account posted Tuesday, he said “the University has decided to not allow me to be on campus anymore. My job. Why? Because of Oct. 7. Because I was not afraid to stand up to the hateful mob. And because I was not afraid to expose Mr. f—ing Cas Holloway.”
Columbia is a private university with policies on ethical conduct that say individuals must act with respect and civility.
While he is barred from the New York City campus, he does not lose pay or his position. A university official said he willl be allowed on campus after completing a training and will provide him an off-campus space to work in the meantime.
“I told my lawyers, I’m happy to complete the training if Cas Holloway completes it with me,” Davidai told the school’s newspaper, The Columbia Spectator. “Innocent people don’t get punished, not in a democracy, and I refuse to take a punishment for something that I’m innocent for.”
Columbia has continued to struggle with tension on campus between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian individuals, with the university’s former president stepping down due to the controversy.
