US government cuts $400 million funding to Columbia University over pro-Palestine protests

The move comes in response to students’ pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s genocidal offensive on the Gaza Strip over the past year and a half, with demonstrations and encampments having spread throughout universities across the US and other Western nations, demanding that their institutions stop investing in companies that support Israel’s offensive and its military occupation of Palestinian territories.
Many across the American political spectrum and particularly in this second Trump administration, however, have consistently accused those protesters of propagating antisemitism, and have called for a harsher crackdown on those students and the universities involved. Columbia has been at the forefront of those within the US, notoriously drawing significant negative media attention.
In the statement announcing the funding cut, the head of the Justice Department’s antisemitism task force, Leo Terrell, called the move “our strongest signal yet that the Federal Government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff”.
In response to the Trump administration’s decision, a spokesperson for Columbia University, Samantha Slater, stated that its staff “pledge to work with the federal government to restore Columbia’s federal funding”. She insisted that “We take Columbia’s legal obligations seriously and understand how serious this announcement is and are committed to combating antisemitism and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our students, faculty, and staff”.
Many have criticised the funding cut as a crackdown on freedom of speech, though, with even some pro-Israel groups condemning the move. One example, according to Reuters news agency, is the pro-Israel advocacy group J Street, which expressed its belief that the cut would only hinder efforts to resolve the alleged presence of antisemitism on the Columbia campus.
“This decision is part of the Administration’s broader attack on academic institutions, and may cause these same institutions to overcorrect – stifling free speech for fear of having all of their funding cut”, stated the director of the J Street’s student wing, Erin Beiner.