{"id":98440,"date":"2026-05-05T08:37:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98440\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:37:03","slug":"cornells-jewish-president-clashes-with-students-following-debate-about-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/98440\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornell\u2019s Jewish president clashes with students following debate about Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cornell University<\/a> President Michael Kotlikoff and student protesters are trading accusations after an incident in which protesters surrounded the president\u2019s car following an on-campus debate about Israel.<\/p>\n

The protesters, from a group called Students for a Democratic Cornell<\/a>, released a video appearing to show that President Michael Kotlikoff<\/a> had backed up into one of them while a protester shouted that the car ran over his foot.<\/p>\n

In response, Cornell released its own video depicting what it said was a \u201charassment and intimidation incident,\u201d its enhanced version of which it said offered \u201ccomplete footage of the parking lot interactions, instead of clips to support a narrative.\u201d That video shows students surrounding the president\u2019s car as he tries to exit his parking space. After he eventually departs, the students continue to mill around with no obvious indication of injury to any of them.<\/p>\n

In a statement of his own, Kotlikoff said that despite being surrounded by protesters who banged on his car windows, he waited until his backup camera showed a clear path before maneuvering out of the spot.<\/p>\n

\"AA video released by Cornell University shows one angle on an interaction between President Michael Kotlikoff and student protesters on April 30, 2026. (credit: screenshot)Pro-Palestinian protesters harass Cornell’s Jewish president<\/p>\n

\u201cThe behavior I experienced last night is not protest,\u201d Kotlikoff said in his statement, released Friday night. \u201cIt is harassment and intimidation, with the direct motive of silencing speech. It has no place in an academic community, no place in a democracy, and can have no place at Cornell.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an Instagram post, the protesters rejected Kotlikoff\u2019s claims that they banged on his car and that they had previous records of misconduct on campus. They also reiterated their allegation that he had struck them.<\/p>\n

The incident marks a relatively rare example of a clash between a university and pro-Palestinian student protesters<\/a> two years after the student encampment movement roiled campuses across the United States, including at Cornell. The Ivy League university, like many others, enacted new rules designed to constrain protests that have kept demonstrations at bay amid pressure from the Trump administration to curb what it said was antisemitism among protesters. In November, Cornell agreed to pay $60 million to resolve federal antisemitism allegations.<\/p>\n

Kotlikoff became Cornell\u2019s president in early 2025, saying at the time that he was \u201cvery comfortable with where Cornell is currently,\u201d following \u201ctwo relatively peaceful semesters\u201d in which there were only isolated incidents that violated university rules around protest. He soon rejected pro-Palestinian students\u2019 demands to cut ties with the Technion University in Israel. But he also urged the campus to foster academic debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n

The event that preceded his clash with students on Thursday represented a striking example of such debate. Sponsored by an ideologically diverse array of groups, including the pro-Israel advocacy groups StandWithUs and the Zionist Organization of America, as well as the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, which has previously been suspended for violating university rules, the event was the second in a two-part \u201cIsrael-Palestine Debate Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series was organized by the Cornell Political Union according to a format its website says it has long maintained. The format features a lecture by a speaker followed by formal responses from students and an audience debate.<\/p>\n

In the first event, held earlier in April, the Israeli historian Benny Morris lectured on the topic \u201cThe American-Israeli Alliance Serves America\u2019s Interests.\u201d Morris is a liberal Zionist critic of the Israeli government whose work has included foundational research on the founding of the state, arguing that many Arabs were expelled, rather than fled, during the 1948 war.<\/p>\n

The second, on Thursday, featured the pro-Palestinian Holocaust historian Norman Finkelstein, who lectured on the topic \u201cIsrael Was Not Justified in Its Response to October 7th.\u201d Finkelstein, who has criticized Morris for showing a pro-Israel bias, has compared the plight of the Palestinians to that of Jews during the Holocaust, and Students for Justice in Palestine posted a picture of its members posing with him on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kotlikoff offered introductory remarks at the event, which promoted a no-technology policy designed \u201cout of respect to students who will be given the opportunity to speak openly on a divisive topic.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cornell University President Michael Kotlikoff and student protesters are trading accusations after an incident in which protesters surrounded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2492,34467,37,33588,27885,9733],"class_list":{"0":"post-98440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-israel","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-cornell-tech","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-pro-palestinian-groups","12":"tag-pro-palestinian-protests","13":"tag-university"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116521064496672999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}