Speaker Mike Johnson says he will visit Columbia University as pro-Palestine protester chaos continues

Other House Republicans will travel alongside Mr Johnson, including Rep Anthony D’Esposito

Speaker Mike Johnson is set to visit Columbia University on Wednesday amid pro-Palestinian protests at the university and colleges across the country.

The Republican speaker said he will visit the New York-based university to meet with Jewish students to discuss the “troubling rise of virulent antisemitism on America’s college campuses”, after more than 100 people, including many students, were arrested on campus last week during a pro-Palestinian protest.

Other House Republicans will travel alongside Mr Johnson, including Rep Anthony D’Esposito.

“Tomorrow, I will meet with Jewish @Columbia students alongside @SpeakerJohnson to offer our full support as they celebrate #Passover — all while antisemitic bigots lay siege to their school,” he said in a statement posted to X. “@HouseGOP will always stand firmly against antisemitism.”

Columbia University has been dealing with days of pro-Palestinian protests and pro-Israel counterprotests.

The demonstrations began last week when hundreds of protesters set up an encampment on campus to protest against the Biden administration’s response to the Israel-Hamas war, backing a ceasefire in the conflict and urging Congress to stop sending military aid to Israel. They have also demanded Columbia divest from companies with ties to Israel and increase financial transparency.

Speaker Mike Johnson is set to visit Columbia University on Wednesday amid pro-Palestinian protests at the university (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

However, the protest took a turn on Thursday when New York police stormed the campus, arresting more than 100 people, including Isra Hirsi, daughter of Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

She was also suspended from the university. Since then, the protests have only grown, with demonstrators setting up a new encampment on campus and hundreds of faculty members walking out to protest against the university president’s handling of the situation.

Classes were also moved online for the rest of the semester to “reset” the situation and “de-escalate the rancour.”

On Tuesday, Columbia president Minouche Shafik issued a deadline for protesters to agree by midnight to vacate the pro-Palestinian encampment, and warned that if an agreement is not reached, the school will “consider alternative options for clearing the West Lawn and restoring calm to campus”.

The deadline passed without a resolution.

Meanwhile, protests have also spread to colleges across the country, including Yale and NYU, where at least 195 people have been arrested, as well as Tufts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Emerson College, Boston University, the University of California Berkeley, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Since protests emerged, some Jewish students have reported antisemitic harassment and even physical assaults. One Jewish student at Columbia claimed that protesters told him to “go back to Poland” after he arrived at their protest with Israeli and American flags, while another student at Yale who was covering a protest on Saturday as a student journalist said that she was hit in the eye with a Palestinian flag after the attacker realised she was Jewish, resulting in a hospital visit.

Columbia University faculty members staged a demonstration on Monday, pictured, condemning last week’s arrests of some 100 pro-Palestine student protesters (Reuters)

The accusations have seen politicians travel to campuses to meet Jewish students, with a group of four Jewish Democrats visiting Columbia on Monday. Rep Josh Gottheimer was among the group, and threatened that university president Shafik must quickly act to quell protests or face consequences from Congress.

“We are all standing here today as Jewish members of Congress to make one thing clear: Jewish students are welcome here at Columbia. And while the leadership of Columbia may be failing you, we will not,” Gottheimer said during the visit.

“We will do everything in our power to keep you safe and do everything in Washington we can to make sure that you feel welcome at this university or any university across the United States of America,” he continued. “And Columbia University, if they don’t follow through, will pay the price.”

New York University students set up a ‘liberated zone’ tent encampment in Gould Plaza at NYU Stern School of Business on 22 April 2024 (Getty Images)

Kathy Hochul, governor of New York, also visited the campus on Monday and denounced the protests. A White House statement Sunday similarly called the demonstrations “blatantly antisemitic”.

In a statement on Sunday, protest leaders rejected claims that participants encouraged violence against Jewish people or advocated for antisemitism.

“We are frustrated by media distractions focusing on inflammatory individuals who do not represent us,” the leaders wrote. “Our members have been misidentified by a politically motivated mob.”

“We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students,” they continued. “Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, Black and pro-Palestinian classmates and colleagues who represent the full diversity of our country.”