GOP lawmakers demand FBI probe pro-Palestine coalition at Columbia: 'Imminent violence'

NEW YORK CITY (TNND) — Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., on Tuesday called on the FBI to intervene at Columbia University over what they believe are credible threats stemming from a pro-Palestine coalition.

Columbia has found itself entangled in controversy since the onset of the Israel-Hamas war, often related to pro-Palestine movements on its campus. One coalition leading such movements is Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which is self-described as the joining of “100+ groups who see Palestine as the vanguard for collective liberation.”

In a statement invoking the names of Marxist leaders Fidel Castro and Frantz Fanon last week, CUAD announced it condoned violent protest of the ongoing war, writing “violence is the only path forward.”

Sen. Ernst and Rep. Stefanik claim in a letter to FBI Assistant Director in Charge James Dennehy CUAD is responsible for making repeated credible threats of violence against Jewish students at the school. These actions require a response from the nation’s highest criminal investigators, the letter reads.

“It’s rare for potential perpetrators of violence, particularly school-based violence, to widely and publicly broadcast their intent in such a way as it becomes national news,” it reads. “But that’s exactly what the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a coalition of student groups, did on October 8, 2024.”

CUAD, the lawmakers wrote, should be considered a “medium threat” under the FBI’s own threat assessment criteria for school shooters. The agency, they added, should respond by taking immediate action.

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“The time to act is now,” they wrote. “Rarely has the FBI had such public and obvious evidence of potentially imminent violence. This cannot become another instance in which a terrible case of violence takes place at a school and the FBI issues a statement after the fact that the perpetrators were ‘on its radar’ but did nothing.”

Columbia told The National News Desk Tuesday (TNND) it condemns calls for violence on campus.

Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded,” a spokesperson said. “Calls for violence have no place at Columbia or any university.”

Several university leaders last week also issued a joint message further denouncing calls for violence.

“Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded,” it reads. “This has seemed so fundamental that it did not require saying; to hear such things in our community is an aberration, whether or not protected by the First Amendment. We must be clear: calls for violence have no place at this or any university.”

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TNND.

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