Demands

We, the Columbia Law Coalition for a Free Palestine, unequivocally and unapologetically stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their ongoing struggle against Israel's genocide of Palestinians, Israeli settler colonialism, and its apartheid regime. We call on Dean Lester and Columbia Law School leadership to respond to our demands by noon on Wednesday, November 15, 2023.

Dean Lester and Law School leadership must:

1. Call on President Biden, Senators Gillibrand and Schumer, Congressional Representative Espaillat, Governor Hochul, and Mayor Adams to demand an immediate ceasefire.
   
2. Condemn Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians, its apartheid regime, and its illegal occupation of Palestine as recognized by international law.
   
3. Vigorously protect the academic freedom and political speech of students, staff, and faculty against McCarthyite smear campaigns. Recommit to freedom of speech, affirm that anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, and protect Jewish, Palestinian, and other students from censorship and defamation. 
   
   1. Provide notice and the opportunity to be heard before enforcing any new policies impacting student organizations and their events. Recognize that these policies and their arbitrary enforcement can chill student speech. 
      
4. Hire Palestinian professors and establish a Center for Palestinian Legal Studies, including a study partnership with students at Al-Quds University or Birzeit University. 
5. Address incidents of racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism on campus.
   1. Acknowledge the failure of Columbia University to create a task-force to protect students from Islamophobia and anti-Arab discrimination. Appreciate that this neglect exacerbates existing Islamophobia and racism on campus and beyond.
      
   2. Acknowledge that students of color are disproportionately targeted for hate speech, harassment, and doxxing. Provide free mental health counseling and legal support to impacted students. 
      
   3. Approve academic accommodations for all students affected by the ongoing genocide and allow professors and students to create alternative plans to complete work.
      
   4. Acknowledge that students of color are endangered by Public Safety and law enforcement presence and that they are disproportionately subjected to disciplinary and legal proceedings. Take concrete steps to prevent this by: giving at least 48 hours notice of security procedures for student events, ensuring that Columbia Public Safety acts as a deescalation body, and preventing Public Safety from collaborating with ICE, the IDF-trained NYPD, and other law enforcement entities. 
      
6. Call on Columbia as a whole to meet Students for Justice in Palestine's university-wide demands:
   1. Divest from companies profiting from Israeli apartheid, noting that both former Columbia and Barnard presidents unilaterally & anti-democratically ignored the student body referendums to divest in 2020 and in 2018.
   2. Cancel the opening of the Tel Aviv Global Center, noting that Palestinian affiliates of Columbia would be restricted from access to this program given Israel’s apartheid policies, and further noting that this therefore violates Columbia’s very own non-discrimination policy.
   3. Cease the dual-degree partnership with Tel Aviv University, for the same reason.