Two Barnard College students have been expelled more than a month after masked anti-Israel protesters stormed a Columbia University class about the Jewish state’s history and flung hate-filled flyers around.
The students, who haven’t been publicly identified, had already been slapped with suspensions in the wake of the Jan. 21 caught-on-camera saga that erupted when keffiyeh-clad agitators barged into the “History of Modern Israel” class on the first day of the semester at the Ivy League campus.
They were officially thrown out on Friday following a probe, according to Columbia’s Apartheid Divest — a student-led anti-Israel group.
“When rules are broken, when there is no remorse, no reflection, and no willingness to change, we must act,” Barnard College President Laura Rosenbury told The Post in a statement, noting she couldn’t comment directly on a student’s disciplinary record, citing federal law.
“Expulsion is always an extraordinary measure, but so too is our commitment to respect, inclusion, and the integrity of the academic experience.
“At Barnard, we always fiercely defend our values. At Barnard, we always reject harassment and discrimination in all forms. And at Barnard, we always do what is right, not what is easy,” Rosenbury added.
The action comes weeks after the group of rowdy rabble-rousers were filmed entering the classroom and distributing pamphlets to students, including one brandishing a boot stamping on a Star of David and another with the Israeli flag on fire and the words “Burn Zionism to the ground.”
Footage of the commotion showed some students begging the protestors to get out as one peeved pupil crumpled up a flyer and defiantly declared, “We don’t want your sh-t.”
“Take off your mask,” one peer could be heard urging the agitators. “Why don’t you take off your mask?”
“This is a civil rights violation, we’re trying to learn,” another said.
Interim Columbia School President Katrina Armstrong denounced the disruption at the time, vowing to investigate those responsible.
Still, one of the expelled students claimed the disciplinary action was baseless, according to a statement put out by Apartheid Divest.
“[At Barnard], I was told countless times the value of voicing my opinion and standing up for what I know to be true and good,” the unnamed student griped.
“The fact that my removal has taken place so baselessly, simply because I believe that a Holocaust of the Palestinian people is unequivocally wrong has completely shattered the illusion of what I thought Barnard stood for.”
The disruption unfolded after Columbia students, with the help of faculty and outside agitators not associated with the university, staged a tent encampment on the Upper Manhattan campus last year that, at times, descended into chaos.
The elite institution has been roiled by anti-Israel demonstrations ever since the Oct. 7, 2023 bloodshed at the hands of Hamas terrorists.
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