Exclusive | Masked students disrupt Columbia classes, distribute antisemitic leaflets as college named ‘national model’ for anti-Israel protest

Columbia University erupted in another round of anti-Israel protests Tuesday, with masked people disrupting classes and passing out flyers showing a boot stamping on a Star of David, witnesses told The Post.

Video shows the masked protesters bursting into a History of Modern Israel class on campus and handing out flyers showing an Israeli flag on fire and the words “Burn Zionism to the ground.”

The incident comes as Columbia was named the “national model” for anti-Israel protest — setting a template copied by others for coordinated protests across the country, according to a watchdog group.

In its report looking at protests on campus last year, the Canary Mission identified more than 300 Columbia faculty, students and others who were “influential in promoting Hamas ideology at Columbia” after the terror group’s October 7 attacks on Israel, which left 1,200 Israelis dead and saw 250 taken hostage.

However, most of the people who took part in the protests were “outside agitators” and only 68 were Columbia students, according to the 53-page study “From Tehran to Columbia: Inside America’s Student Intifada.”

Student Lishi Baker, 22, a Middle East history major whose class was disrupted Tuesday, told The Post the posters “looked like images we might see in 1930s Germany.

“This movement continues to reveal itself as pro-terror … they spit in the face of liberal values and create an intolerable hostile environment for Jewish students.”

Following Tuesday’s disruption, visiting professor Avi Shilon told The Post he was mostly concerned for the safety of his class.

“They just want to frighten my students … I was very much disappointed with the students who came to the class because if you are learning at Columbia, which is an Ivy League university, you should respect first and foremost the need to learn to study the subject before protesting.

“They act very aggressively … these things like that can happen in the street but not within the university, not within the class.” 

Elsewhere on campus Tuesday — despite a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war — protesters banged drums, chanted and distributed the clearly antisemitic propaganda.

Vowing to continue their protests in 2025, the groups Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Within Our Lifetime wrote “We will not stop” in a social media post calling on people to attend their rally.

“I don’t think anyone anticipated masked, intimidating protesters barging in with a drum,” Baker added.

“It goes against everything that higher education stands for. These people are openly against not just discussion, they’re openly against anyone in the university learning about the history of Israel. They’re against Israeli professors teaching at Columbia University.”

Last spring, Columbia students, with the help of faculty and outside agitators not associated with the university, organized “the Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Ivy League school’s lawn in Upper Manhattan.

The encampment was organized by the Columbia chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, who demanded “divestment and an end to Columbia’s complicity in genocide.”

Although the NYPD cleared out many of the participants in the protest after April 17, the first day, many returned to protest and stayed put for two weeks.

“The encampment cemented Columbia as the most infamous pro-terror hub, and
Columbia activists subsequently helped drive the movement nationwide,” according to the Canary Mission report.

Columbia students Aidan Parisi as well as Andrew Timberg, a student in the Department of Religion, have also been heavily involved in the protests. Timberg was the spokesman for Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of 80 anti-Israel groups, the study says.

The group demanded Columbia reinstate Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) a month after the Oct. 7 pogrom.

Parisi, who occupied the school’s Hamilton Hall building along with other protesters, was later suspended from the school, according to reports.

The Canary report alleges the suspension of SJP was little more than “a PR move” because the group came back under the CUAD umbrella.

“SJP chapters on college campuses across the US serve as student arms of Iran’s terror proxy, Hamas,” the report says, adding that Columbia hosted the first national SJP conference, during which it adopted “points of unity,” which included the destruction of Israel.

A spokesperson for Columbia said the school “strongly condemns antisemitism.”

“We are resolute that calls for violence or harm have no place at our University,” the spokesperson said.

“Since assuming her role in August, Interim President [Katrina] Armstrong and her leadership team have taken decisive actions to reinforce Columbia’s academic mission, make our community safe, and strengthen and clarify our disciplinary processes.”