Anti-Israel student protesters at Columbia University, seemingly unfazed by President Trump’s pledge to crack down on pro-terror campus activism, kick off the first day of the spring semester Tuesday with a walk out in support of the “student intifada.” 

The demonstration, organized by student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest, comes as the university is slated to issue disciplinary verdicts for student activists involved in last year’s “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” The school’s judicial board held hearings over winter break, a university official confirmed to the Columbia Spectator.  

“Demand the university drop the suspensions, drop the charges,” CUAD wrote in its announcement of Tuesday’s protest. “There will be no school as usual as long as Columbia is participating in a genocide.” The group further declared that the administration’s “repression” has “only fueled” its members’ commitment to their cause and they praised “suspension for Gaza” as “the highest honor.” The recent ceasefire, they add, “is only the beginning.” 

The pro-violence messaging was in full force during Tuesday’s walkout, with student activists handing out fliers with menacing slogans like “The enemy will not see tomorrow” and “Burn Zionism to the ground.” One flier included the image of a boot stomping on a Star of David along with the line “Crush Zionism.” 

The students eventually made their way to Columbia’s main quad and began to chant their usual rallying cry “long live the intifada” while loudly banging on drums. In light of the recent hostage exchange and prisoner release deal, the group also previewed a new chant: “1, 2, 3, 4, open up the prisoner door!” 

A smaller group of Keffiyeh-clad protesters took its demonstration to a university classroom, disrupting the first session of a Jewish studies class on the history of modern Israel. Videos of the incident shared online depict a masked individual barging into the classroom and proclaiming, “We’re giving you an inside scoop on Columbia University’s normalization of genocide.” The class’s professor, Avi Shilon, can be heard asking the protestors to “please get out.” 

“Columbia is out of control,” a coalition of Jewish and Israeli students at Columbia declared. The group cited the protest as evidence that the school’s student activists are not, actually, pro-peace. “Note that there currently is a ceasefire,” the group wrote on X. “These protests are anything but peaceful. They are pro-violence, glorify terror, and spread antisemitism.” 

The timing of the protest — just one day after Mr. Trump’s inauguration — left some scratching their heads. “Yesterday Trump signed an executive order threatening international students’ visas,” a Jewish student at Columbia, Eliana Goldin writes. “I don’t get it … are my classmates not afraid of the consequences? Of deportation?”

Mr. Trump has promised to crack down on pro-terror and antisemitic protests on college campuses through various financial and legal means. He made good on that promise during his first day in office, signing an executive order enabling the deportation of international students for expressing support for organizations that the country has identified as terrorist groups. 

Senator Cruz, during an interview with the Free Press, said that the Trump administration’s Justice Department will go after any university that tolerates antisemitism on campus and named Columbia university specifically as “right at the top of the worst, worst offenders.” He added that “if they don’t change their conduct dramatically, I think you’re going to see the Trump administration cut off their federal funds.”

The university’s president, Katrina Armstrong, issued a statement later in the afternoon condemning the protesters for interrupting the Israeli history class, which she described as a “violation of the Rules of University conduct.” She also denounced the fliers handed out during the protest, noting that their “violent imagery” is “unacceptable on our campus and in our community.” Ms. Armstrong closed out her statement by pledging to “move quickly” to investigate and address the incident. 

Columbia’s Jewish and Israeli students praised the statement as “the clearest and most forceful statement they’ve posted yet” while noting that there is “nonetheless” a “low bar.” Now though, “we wait to see what, if any, action will be taken,” they write.