A Columbia Law School professor who vocally defended students after they faced persecution from Columbia for protesting in support of Palestinian rights says she was terminated after 25 years in her job. Katherine Franke accused Columbia’s administration of creating a “toxic and hostile” environment for debate and of failing to protect its students and faculty. Columbia was at the center of a firestorm around campus protests for Gaza last year after it violently cracked down on student demonstrations, calling in the NYPD to dismantle a peaceful encampment.
Former Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who last year also gave a disastrous congressional testimony on Capitol Hill, ultimately resigned. U.N. special rapporteur Francesca Albanese decried Franke’s termination, saying she was “yet another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression.” Click here to see our interviews with Katherine Franke about this case and more.