Columbia University Protest Sparks Congressional Hearing

Demonstrators rally at Columbia University after officers cleared out a pro-Palestinian campus demonstration and arrested more than 100 students.

Leaders of Columbia University defended the prestigious New York school's efforts to combat anti-Semitism on campus at a fiery congressional hearing.

The Columbia administrators were the latest school leaders hauled before Congress for questioning about protests fueled by the Israel-Hamas conflict roiling US college campuses.

University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill resigned in December in the wake of her responses to a congressional committee and Harvard University's Claudine Gay stepped down in January.

Columbia president Nemat Shafik and board of trustees members were grilled by members of the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce about their response to anti-Semitism on campus.

Republican lawmaker Virginia Foxx, the committee chair, accused Columbia of being a "hotbed of anti-Semitism and hate" and said "anti-Semitism must have no safe harbor in American universities."

The Columbia president said the school has suspended 15 students and taken disciplinary action against several faculty members.

"We have 37,000 students and I think the numbers that we are talking about who are crossing these lines are, you know, a very, very small number," she said.

The hearing came after the University of Southern California canceled plans this week for a May 10 graduation speech by a Muslim student over what it said were safety concerns.

Pro-Israel groups had criticized the selection of Asna Tabassum as the class valedictorian, accusing her of using "anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric."

The fallout from the conflict has been felt around the world, and is particularly intense on US college campuses, where both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups say they are being victimized and silenced.