A Palestinian protester outside Columbia University called a Jewish donor a “Nazi” in a heated exchange Wednesday as tensions flared at the school.
The donor, who only identified himself as Elliot, told DailyMail.com he was a 76-year-old lawyer who had contributed to the university for years after studying law at Columbia in the 1960s.
He recalled protesting against the Vietnam War and said he only became curious about today’s protest when he heard the crowd chanting “from the river to the sea” and demanding the entire State of Israel.
As he approached the crowd on 116th Street, the middle-aged man in a keffiyeh shouted: ‘I’m not going to talk to the damn Nazis.
While he supports the next generation of students’ right to demonstrate, he believes many have been “crossing the line” by making Jewish students fear for their safety.
The donor, who identified himself only as Elliot, told DailyMail.com he was a 76-year-old lawyer who had contributed to the university for years after studying law at Columbia in the 1960s.
A middle-aged man with a keffiyeh around his head called the Jewish donor a Nazi.
‘Protest all you want and say that the Zionist regime should be abolished, which I don’t agree with, but don’t make people feel unsafe because of their ethnicity.
“There is no possible justification for that.”
Elliot added that he is “a big fan of Columbia for many reasons” and that he donates a “small amount” to his alma mater each year.
He said Columbia President Minouche Shafik, who has called for the camp in “Gaza Square” to be dispersed, was doing “the best she can.”
“The situation you’re in is very difficult,” he said, adding that he was leaning toward increasing his donation to the university this year.
People take part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in front of Columbia University in New York, United States, on April 23, 2024.
The Columbia camp, which began last week, sparked similar demonstrations on college campuses across the country, including Yale, Boston and Michigan universities.
Today, students from Austin and USC in California also came to blows.
Dozens of police dressed in riot gear patrolled the perimeter of Columbia’s campus Wednesday as security guards barred non-students from entering the campus.
On Wednesday morning, the NYPD gave the students 48 hours to leave the camp or face arrest.
But defiant students have vowed to stay.
Tahia, a New York resident in her 20s who was leading the demonstration on the sidewalk of 116th Street, said older protesters would also take to surrounding streets as the student encampment continued.
A protest camp over the genocide in Gaza enters its second day, on the grounds of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, on April 23.
Student protesters occupy the pro-Palestinian ‘Gaza Solidarity Camp’ on the West Lawn of Columbia University on April 24.
“We are here in solidarity with the student camps in Columbia, and in full solidarity with their demands for divestment, for complete financial transparency,” Tahia, wearing a keffiyeh over her hair, told DailyMail.com.
“We will be here every day for the duration of the camp,” he added.
‘We will take to the streets to demand ever greater demand to stop the genocide in Gaza, an end to all US funding to Israel, an end to Western complicity with Zionism.
“The fact that 40,000 Palestinians have died, have been murdered, and that the United States is complicit in the 75 years of occupation by the Israeli state.”
As protesters began chanting ‘genocide, Joe has to go,’ he added: ‘There’s no way I’m voting for Biden.
‘I think the uncommitted vote speaks for itself.
‘Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States say the two-party system does not represent them.
“Whether it’s Biden or Trump, both sides are supporters of genocide…Biden does not represent us.”
Texas took a different tact and immediately expelled the protesters from campus.
Tahia added that he considered Biden, Hillary Clinton and Eric Adams “war criminals.”
President Mike Johnson will hold a conference in Columbia in support of Jewish students on Wednesday afternoon after describing the pro-Palestine protests as a sign of “a disturbing rise in virulent anti-Semitism on American college campuses.”
Tahia rejected this characterization, telling DailyMail.com that “students are on the right side of history right now.”
“We know that we are on the side of justice and peace and we will remain on that side,” he said.
Another protester, Emmanuel, 19, said he “didn’t even know Palestine was a place” until Hamas’s attack on Israel last year.
“October 7th was when I opened up to the situation,” the teenager, who is not a student and lives in upstate New York, told DailyMail.com.
‘To begin with, I didn’t even know Palestine was a place until what happened recently.
‘It has opened my eyes to a lot of things that are happening now politically.
“I’m just here trying to help the students.”