Columbia University students file lawsuit against organizers, supporters of anti-Israel campus encampments

Five Columbia University students and graduates filed a class action lawsuit on Monday against the students, activists and unions that they claim organized and backed anti-Israel encampments that forced the university campus to shut down at the end of the 2024 spring semester. 

The case, which includes Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, N.Y., Jamaal Bowman, N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, Minn., as defendants, alleges the Columbia students were subject to bullying and harassment, refused access to in-person classes and campus facilities, as well as denied a commencement which was canceled because of unrest on campus. 

The student plaintiffs remained anonymous for fear of retaliation given certain "hateful rhetoric," disregard for the law and ties to terrorist organizations among defendants, according to the complaint. The suit, filed on July 26, was formally received Monday in New York County.

Campus protesters screamed chants such as "Death to Israel," "Death to America," "Death to Jews," "Hamas we love you. We support your rockets too!," "Is‐ra‐el go to Hell," and "The 7th of October is going to be every day for you,'" the lawsuit states. Two Jewish Columbia students were reportedly called "Nazi B----es" and Jewish students were punched, shoved, spat at and physically blocked from moving freely throughout campus by participants in the encampment, the suit claims.

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"This case is brought on behalf of the students who were forced to pay that high price by the tortious acts of on-campus students and faculty and their off-campus allies who conspired to organize and continue the two-week encampment. That encampment, and the safety threat that it created, forced Columbia to move classes online, restrict access to campus immediately before finals, and ultimately cancel commencement," the suit states.

The anti-Israel activists wanted the university to divest its financial support of Israel, become more transparent with the university's investments and provide blanket amnesty to students who had taken part in the demonstrations.

"These past two weeks have been among the most difficult in Columbia’s history," Columbia President Minouche Shafik said of the anti-Israel encampment and its impact on the broader campus in April. "The turmoil and tension, division and disruption, have impacted the entire community. You, our students, have paid an especially high price. You lost your final days in the classroom and residence halls. For those of you who are seniors, you are finishing college the way you started: online."

Daniel Suhr, lead counsel on the case and partner at Hughes & Suhr LLC, said the 36,000 students at Columbia University deserve financial compensation for being wrongfully denied access to the education, experience and campus they pay to attend.

"Radical protesters are burning the American flag, vandalizing the homes of community leaders, and shutting down entire universities," he told Fox News Digital. "We are fighting back to stop this lawbreaking, expose the people behind it, and provide justice to the victims of the chaos at Columbia."

The suit's organizers told Fox News Digital the plaintiffs are seeking $30 million in damages, although that specific total isn't listed in the suit.

Columbia University itself is not a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, the students are targeting the student groups that organized the encampments, including Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and the Graduate Students Union, as well as the faculty groups that the lawsuit claims defended them from accountability, like the Columbia/Barnard Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. 

In addition, the lawsuit names groups like National Students for Justice in Palestine, Within Our Lifetime, the People’s Forum, the United Auto Workers (UAW) and politicians like Ocasio-Cortez, Omar and Bowman.

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"This case is vital not only to secure justice for the students affected at Columbia but for all university students nationwide who pay to receive an education and are disrupted by violent and well-funded agitators whose only mission is to cause disruption and chaos to pursue their own radical political beliefs," case attorney Patrick Hughes said. 

The protests at Columbia intensified after it began issuing mass suspensions. Anti-Israel protesters at Columbia took over Hamilton Hall, an academic building used by the dean and other senior offices shortly before 1 a.m. on April 30 and began "moving metal gates to barricade the doors, blocking entrances with wooden tables and chairs, and zip-tying doors shut," according to the student newspaper Columbia Spectator, Fox News Digital previously reported. 

In June, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dropped cases against 30 Columbia University students and staff members who were arrested during the campus unrest, including those who occupied and barricaded themselves in Hamilton Hall in April. The DA's office claimed insufficient evidence of damage to property or injury to individuals as an explanation for dropping the charges. 

Suhr said the lawsuit is about holding accountable those who shut down the university, forced the cancelation of classes and broke the law. 

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"It's been months since the encampment at Columbia, and we are no closer to answers or accountability," Suhr said. "The DA dropped the criminal charges, and the university is desperate to get back to business as usual. This lawsuit will finally bring some justice for all of the Columbia students who saw their school year ruined by the lawbreaking and harassment of these unhinged activists."

"Doing so wasn't an exercise of First Amendment rights - it was a violation of the rights of every other Columbia student to the education they paid for," he added. 

Fox News Digital reached out to the defendants for comment.

Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.