Columbia University has expelled, suspended and revoked academic degrees, of students under the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) who participated in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

About 80 student activists urged the university to cut all financial ties with Israel for continuously attacking Gaza.

The Judicial Board at the University confirmed the issued punishments citing that the group disrupted the university’s reading period.

According to a statement dated July 22,2025, Columbia University said that the punishment of students relates to “disruption of Butler Library in May 2025 and the encampment during Alumni Weekend in spring 2024.”

“Disruptions to academic activities are in violation of University policies and rules, and such violations will necessarily generate consequences,” the university said.

The activists however said the university’s punishments will not scare them off and they will keep fighting for the people of Palestine.

“We will not be deterred. We are committed to the struggle for Palestinian liberation,” the group mentioned

At the beginning of 2024, a pro-Palestinian student camp at Columbia University ignited a movement against Israel’s unrelenting war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The protest sites were eventually stopped when Columbia University called New York City police officers to intervene.

However in May 2025, student protesters stormed the Butler Library during final exams, demanding divestment from companies linked to the Israeli military and expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, the death toll has passed 55,000 as of July 2025.