Since a video of Columbia Business School Assistant Professor Shai Davidai delivering a speech accusing Columbia students of being “pro-terror” went viral on October 18, 2023, he has been using his newfound social media platform to bully pro-Palestine students of color with complete impunity despite being untenured. Under the guise of fighting antisemitism, he uses his Twitter and Instagram accounts to incite harassment and violence against these students.
Shai’s usage of his social media platform to harass students is a clear violation of university policy and an abuse of power from a faculty member. Shai has claimed that any opposition towards him is “antisemitism”. The issue is not with Shai’s individual political beliefs, the issue is how he uses personal social media accounts to target, harass, and bully students, including Palestinian students who have lost family members in Gaza.
According to Columbia University’s EOAA office, “Treating members of a protected class less favorably because of their membership in that class or having a neutral policy or practice that adversely impacts the members of one protected class more than others constitutes discrimination. Subjecting an individual to unwelcome conduct, whether verbal or physical, that creates an intimidating, hostile, or abusive working, learning or campus living environment; that alters the conditions of employment or education; or unreasonably interferes with an individual’s work or academic performance on the basis of the individual’s membership in a protected class is harassment which is a form of discrimination. Harassment may include, but is not limited to: verbal abuse; epithets or slurs; negative stereotyping; threatening, intimidating or hostile acts; denigrating jokes; insulting or obscene comments or gestures; and the display or circulation of written or graphic material (including in hard copy, by email or text, or through social media) that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group members of a protected class. Calls, texts, emails, and social media usage by employees can contribute to a hostile work, learning, or living environment, even if they occur away from the workplace premises or not during work hours.”
Impacted students have spoken about how Shai’s conduct has affected their ability to work and learn. One student had to request remote accommodations for their required internship due to severe bullying and harassment from Shai Davidai.
Though the extent of his harassment is far too great to include a comprehensive account, here are a few highlights:
- On October 13, 2023, Shai Davidai doxxed a student at the University of Kansas for expressing pro-Palestinian sentiments with the explicit intention that “all [his] friends in hiring committees are aware of this.”
-The New York Executive Law, Article 15, Section 296(1), prohibits discrimination against any person in employment because of age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability, genetic predisposition or carrier status, marital status, or arrest record. Section 296(4) prohibits an educational institution from denying the use of its facilities to anyone otherwise qualified or permitting harassment of a student or applicant on the basis of color, race, religion, disability, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, age, and marital status.
- On January 26, 2024, Shai Davidai issued a “Call to Action” linking an email template to send to the Columbia University administration. This prewritten email provided the full name of a Palestinian student organizer, misattributing the words of another student to her. This not only provided the student’s full name to his followers under the defamatory claim that she was antisemitic, but did so via a racist conflation of her and another student of color with the same first name.
- The student to whom these remarks actually belonged was doxxed by @thestustustudio on December 7, 2023 for her participation in a Zoom call about campus organizing. Davidai follows this account and praised him for his “incredible investigative journalism” in doxxing Maryam.
- Shai Davidai follows many racist doxxing accounts, including Canary Mission (@canarymission), Documenting Jew Hatred (@CampusJewHate), and Shirion Collective (@ShirionOrg). Canary Mission notoriously doxes people of color who express pro-Palestinian sentiment. Documenting Jew Hatred retweeted the Canary Mission profiles of at least 4 different Columbia students. Shirion Collective placed a bounty on pro-Palestine student organizers.
On March 21, 2024, Shai Davidai accused a Palestinian student of being “a prominent organizer of the pro-Hamas protests” and “tr[ying] to silence one of the most prominent Jewish politicians in New York City.” The student about whom he spoke was merely questioning the politician’s decision “to shame a private citizen for free speech” on her government account. Only a few days after Davidai’s tweet blasting this student amassed thousands of views, a profile of her was uploaded to doxxing site Canary Mission.
- On April 4, 2024, Davidai showed up to a rally for Al-Shifa Hospital at Columbia University to disrupt protesters. While a student was speaking about her experience being sexually assaulted, he screamed into a megaphone, drowning her out. He also went up to multiple students to harass them.
- On April 7, 2024, in response to Columbia SJP posting about his despicable behavior at the rally, Davidai compared them to the Hitler Youth and accused them of lying despite the video evidence. He screenshotted a retweet of the Columbia SJP post from the same student who he had harassed on March 21 and called her a “prominent pro-Hamas organizer” once again. He then tweeted that “It’s time that these terror supporters face some consequences. I know many of you have been personally targeted by this instigator. Please share your stories. The world needs to know what kind of people they are,” referring to this student once again. This student has Shai Davidai and his wife blocked, meaning that he is using a burner account to engage with this student’s twitter feed. Per the EOAA office: “The University does not tolerate unlawful discrimination, harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, or sexual exploitation and all such conduct is forbidden by Columbia University Policy.”
The replies to Davidai’s tweets about students and student organizations are filled with calls for violence, and the accusations he tweets embolden doxxing organizations to target the students to which he refers. This treatment of students from a professor at a university is completely unacceptable. A man who feels empowered to bully students in this manner has no place in the classroom. It is inexcusable that he has been able to act with impunity thus far, and his behavior cannot continue for the safety and wellbeing of both the students he has already targeted and every other student on campus. Columbia must immediately fire Shai Davidai to protect its students.
