Palestinian Professor Rashid Khalidi Cancels Course at Columbia After Trump Administration Reforms
A prominent Columbia University professor has decided to cancel his upcoming course, citing the school's capitulation to pressure from the Trump administration, its adoption of restrictive speech codes and what he calls a "contempt" for both faculty and students.
Historian Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies, announced the cancellation in an open letter to acting university president Katrina Armstrong Shipman, published in The Guardian on Friday. "I am writing you an open letter since you have seen fit to communicate the recent decisions of the board of trustees and the administration in a similar fashion," Khalidi wrote.
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The retired professor, slated to teach a class in modern Middle East history this fall as a "special lecturer," said it would be "impossible" to teach the course honestly, in large part because of Columbia's decision to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
Drafted in 2016, the IHRA definition describes antisemitism as "a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews" and includes "applying double standards to Israel" among its examples – a provision critics, Khalidi among them, say conflates criticism of Israeli policy or Zionism with antisemitism.
"It is absurd," he wrote, "to equate criticism of a nation‑state, Israel, or a political ideology, Zionism, with the ancient evil of Jew‑hatred." According to Khalidi, even Kenneth Stern, one of the definition's original authors, has warned against its misuse in policing campus speech.
Under Columbia's plan to apply the IHRA definition in disciplinary proceedings, Khalidi said, discussing core topics such as the Nakba, Israel's 2018 Nation‑State Law, or its decades‑long military occupation of Palestinians could trigger sanctions, even though his course regularly examines other politically sensitive subjects, from the Armenian genocide to authoritarianism in the Arab world.
Rashid KhalidiCredit: Alex Levac
Khalidi's letter went on to lay out a detailed indictment of Columbia's leadership and direction. He accused the university's trustees and senior administrators of bending to political pressure, curtailing free _expression_ and reshaping governance in ways that prohibited faculty from meaningful decision‑making.
Among the reforms, he wrote, is a plan, agreed to as part of negotiations with the Trump administration, to strip the University Senate of a role in governance and keep faculty out of the disciplinary process entirely. Cases are now handled by "kangaroo courts," he said, run by anonymous bureaucrats who have punished students and faculty on "ridiculous, spurious grounds."
The historian also drew parallels to other elite universities, accusing institutions like Harvard of engaging in "anticipatory obedience" by preemptively shuttering programs and removing faculty linked to Palestinian scholarship or activism. Such measures, he argued, are less about protecting students from discrimination than about shielding Israel from criticism "at all costs."
Khalidi's scathing critique of Columbia's leadership and U.S. policy toward Israel reflects the 76‑year‑old Palestinian‑American's career‑long engagement with his personal history and identity. Born in New York City, he is a scion of one of the oldest and most respected Palestinian families in Jerusalem, with a lineage of politicians, judges and scholars that traces its roots to the 14th century.
After studying at Yale and Oxford, he joined Columbia's faculty in 2003, quickly becoming one of the campus's most outspoken voices on Middle East politics and an active supporter of last year's pro‑Palestinian protests, often criticizing the university's response to student activism.
Often described as the most significant Palestinian intellectual of his generation, Khalidi is widely seen as the successor to Edward Said, the late literary scholar whose legacy is honored in the Columbia professorship he has held since 2003.
Khalidi's 2020 book, "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine," offers a narrative of the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict rooted in Palestinian dispossession. His framing of the conflict as a century-long Palestinian struggle against the powerful, internationally backed forces of Zionism has made it controversial among pro‑Israel commentators. The book drew renewed attention in 2024 when then‑President Joe Biden was photographed leaving a bookstore carrying a copy, sparking political commentary and sharp criticism.
Former U.S. President Joe Biden holds the book 'The Hundred Years' War on Palestine' by Rashid Khalidi as he walks out of a bookstore in Nantucket, last year.Credit: AFP/Mandel Ngan
On Monday, Khalidi appeared on the progressive news program "Democracy Now" to further explain his decision, where he struck a noticeably sharper tone. He described Columbia's trustees as "hedge fund managers, government bureaucrats and lawyers… none of whom know squat about education," accusing them of showing "contempt" for students, faculty and the university's mission.
He linked the administration's stance to the suppression of protest against "Israel's genocide" in Gaza, citing expulsions, suspensions, loss of funding and faculty departures, while praising student activists as "enormously heroic."
Khalidi also faulted mainstream media for being "complicit in genocide" by amplifying Israeli government claims without challenge. "You would not have reverence for the government of Myanmar or for the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan as they slaughter people," he said. "Why are we reverently repeating the lying statements of Israeli officials?"
The interview closed with a call to action aimed at his fellow academics: "I don't see how people can, in good conscience, continue as before inside these universities… People really have to do something."