NFL Patriots Owner Yanks Money From Columbia

(ConservativeSense.com) – New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft has said he will no longer donate to New York’s Columbia University due to anti-Israel protests on college grounds. He said he will not resume donations until the school protects its students and confronts “extreme antisemitism” on campus.

Mr. Kraft is the founder of the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism and recently took to Twitter to express his disgust at the “virulent hate that continues to grow” on Columbia’s campus. He added that he no longer recognizes the college that once welcomed him and provided him with “so much opportunity.”

The comments come as anti-Israel demonstrations on the New York campus threaten the future of its President Minouche Shafik, who testified to Congress that she would do all she could to end antisemitism and had already expelled 15 students. Her promises were not enough, however, to stem calls for her resignation from Republican lawmakers.

GOP New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who also advocated the departure of former Harvard President Claudine Gay, wrote to Shafik telling her that Education Committee Republicans had no faith in her ability to tackle anti-Jewish sentiment and urging her to stand down.

Stefanik accused Shafik of providing inconsistent answers during the hearing. For example, in response to a question from Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar as to whether the protests were anti-Jewish or merely an objection to the Gaza war, Shafik testified that they were not anti-Jewish. However, when Stefanik pointed out that the demonstrations included chants of “f**k the Jews” and “death to the Jews,” Shafik conceded that these were, indeed, anti-Jewish.

During her grilling, Rep. Omar asked Ms. Shafik if she had heard similar chants aimed at Arabs or Muslims, and Shafik replied that she had not. Omar subsequently claimed that there is a rise in “targeting and harassment” of anti-war protestors in US universities and insisted that the issue affects all groups, “including Jewish students, black and brown, Arab and Muslim students.”