Columbia Professor Retires After Investigation Found She Discriminated Against Jewish Students
A tenured Columbia University law professor says she was effectively terminated after an investigation found she discriminated against Jewish and Israeli students.
Katherine Franke, who was investigated after she gave an interview claiming that Israeli students were harassing students on campus, on Friday announced she was retiring and released a statement criticizing the university.
“For the last year and a half, as students at Columbia University and across the globe have protested against the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Palestinians after the October 2023 attacks, a response that has resulted in horrendous devastation in Gaza, I have ardently defended students’ right to peaceful protest on our campus and across the country,” Franke began her statement. “I truly believed that student engagement with the rights and dignity of Palestinians continued a celebrated tradition at Columbia University of student protest.”
She said she had been “targeted” for her “support of pro-Palestinian protesters – by the president of Columbia University, by several colleagues, by university trustees, and by outside actors.”
“This has included an unjustified finding by the University that my public comments condemning attacks against student protesters violated university non-discrimination policy,” she added.
Those public comments, however, suggested Israeli students were the ones harassing other Columbia students, particularly Palestinian students.
“So many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service,” she said in January 2024. “They’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus.”
In that interview, Franke also repeated the false allegation that Israeli students had sprayed anti-Israel protesters with skunk spray, with Franke claiming they were hospitalized due to a “chemical attack.” She also claimed the students responsible were part of Columbia’s dual degree program with Tel Aviv University – but they weren’t.
“The students were able to identify three of these exchange students, basically, from Israel, who had just come out of military service, who were spraying the pro-Palestinian students with this skunk water,” Franke said in her interview with the leftist organization “Democracy Now.”
The “chemical attack” was actually a non-toxic gag spray from Amazon, and Columbia paid $395,000 to a Jewish student after it suspended him for the incident.
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Other professors at Columbia Law filed a complaint against Franke following this interview, arguing that Franke “harassed members of the Columbia community based on their national origin,” according to The Times of Israel. The investigation determined that Franke violated the school’s anti-discrimination policy during her interview and also violated school policy regarding retaliation by revealing to a reporter the name of a professor who reported her. On social media, Franke also targeted the professors who filed the complaint.
“As made public by parties in this matter, a complaint was filed alleging discriminatory harassment in violation of our policies,” Columbia said in a statement to the Times. “An investigation was conducted, and a finding was issued. As we have consistently stated, the University is committed to addressing all forms of discrimination consistent with our policies.”
Franke also supported the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which aims to harm Israel economically for perceived slights while targeting no other nation for similar or worse aggressions.
Protesters at Columbia and other Ivy League universities have promoted open calls for violence, the Times previously reported. As The Daily Wire reported, these student protests likely caused Columbia’s annual “Giving Day” donations to plunge nearly 30% in 2024.