The Trump administration should be applauded for canceling $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia University in the wake of antisemitic protests and the harassment of Jewish students, Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz told Newsmax on Friday.
"I want to congratulate the Trump administration for a very, very good and important beginning, and I will help them continue to do this in whatever way they want me," Dershowitz told "American Agenda." "But this is just the beginning. It has to apply to all these fake departments, whether they be racially or gender-oriented departments.
"They do not teach academics. What they do is they are advocacy, radical, anti-American, antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Israel, anti-Western democracy. So thank you, President [Donald] Trump, for doing the right thing."
Columbia's Manhattan campus has been the site of numerous pro-Palestinian protests since Iran-backed Hamas' terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the Israel military's response in the Gaza Strip. The most recent was a demonstration at Barnard College, an all-women's institution affiliated with Columbia.
Columbia, a private Ivy League university, holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments, according to the Department of Education. More funding cancellations are expected to follow.
"This is just the beginning because these students are our future leaders," Dershowitz said. "Unless something is done about their virulent antisemitism — and it's not just antisemitism, it's anti-Americanism.
"These folks in their banners, they're calling for war not only against Israel, but against the United States. Barnard is not a real school. It's a collection of programs that are radical."
Dershowitz held up a screenshot from the website of Barnard's Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department that showed a tank top with "SMASH the WHITE SUPREMA-CIS(T) HETERO-PATRIARCHY" written on it.
"And that's what they're teaching these students," he said. "They're not teaching these students how to think critically. They're teaching them what to think automatically.
"And so this is the beginning. But until all funding is cut off for all of these fake university programs, we're going to see a continuation of this anti-Americanism."
Dershowitz played a key role in Trump's first administration in helping to draft a 2019 executive order that declared discrimination against Jews could give rise to a violation of Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.
"I'm very proud of the role that I've played — along, of course, with the Zionist organizations and other groups," he said.
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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