3 min readJun 4, 2026 03:29 PM IST
Labelled “kapos”, “Nazis”, “Hamas sympathisers” and “self-hating Jews” amid protests on campus against Israel’s war in Gaza, Jewish employees of Columbia University reached a settlement with the Trump administration last year for compensation, The Guardian reported. The agreement included a $21 million fund.
Several Jewish faculty members submitted claims to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as the filing deadline closed this week. They argued that they were targeted not because of anti-Israel protests, but because of their support for Palestinian rights. They claimed that Columbia fostered a hostile environment for Jews who dissented from pro-Israel positions, the report said.
The faculty members criticised what they described as the university’s assumption that all Jews identify with the state of Israel, calling it “textbook antisemitism”. They also argued that Columbia’s efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian speech in the name of Jewish safety had turned Jews into “scapegoats”, The Guardian reported.
Accounts of people harassed
In their complaints and interviews with The Guardian, Jewish faculty members said they had been doxed, which means a malicious act of publicly revealing an individual’s or an organisation’s private, identifiable information online without their consent. They were also spat on, and shouted at during meetings, accused of professional misconduct and, in some cases, investigated by the university because of their advocacy. They said they had been targeted in person, over the phone and online, and had received death threats.
In a claim accessed by The Guardian, Joseph Howley, a classics professor, wrote: “I no longer consider Columbia University a safe place to work for Jews who dare to dissent from the political agenda of its most ardently pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian donors and trustees.”
What is the settlement?
The settlement fund was described by the EEOC as the largest public settlement of its kind in nearly two decades. It is intended for “employees who may have experienced antisemitism on Columbia’s campus” following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.
The agreement was separate from a $200 million fine and other measures Columbia accepted to resolve its months-long dispute with the administration.
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The EEOC fund falls under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex and national origin.
A notice sent by the EEOC last year to potentially eligible employees stated that Columbia had engaged in unlawful employment practices by subjecting employees to harassment based on “their religion (Jewish), race (Jewish) and/or national origin (Israeli)”.
According to screenshots of the online questionnaire, claimants were asked whether they had been exposed to “antisemitic or anti-Israeli protests, gatherings, or demonstrations that made you feel threatened, harassed, or were otherwise disruptive to your working environment”.
An EEOC spokesperson declined to specify how complaints would be assessed.
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“Eligible claimants will start to receive notifications as the EEOC and claims administrator work through the submissions,” the spokesperson said.
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