An Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia University’s main library this week – amid heightened tensions on the Ivy League campus over the Israel-Hamas war.
Cops responded to a report of a 24-year-old man assaulted at 535 West 114th Street – right outside Butler Library – around 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, the NYPD said.
The victim and a 19-year-old woman were having an argument, which turned physical when she allegedly beat him with a wooden stick, according to police.
The suspect, Maxwell Friedman, of Brooklyn, was arrested and charged with an assault, cops said.
The victim – an Israeli student at Columbia’s School of General Studies – said he confronted the woman after seeing her ripping down flyers with names and pictures of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas this week, according to the university’s student newspaper, the Columbia Daily Spectator, which first reported the attack.
“This is because me being an Israeli these days. Not me because being myself,” said the man – who asked to be identified by his initials “I.A.” due to concerns for his safety.
“It is because me being an Israeli who is under a certain kind of threat.”
I.A. and a group of other students encountered the woman earlier on Wednesday when they were putting up signs in Uris Hall with the Hamas kidnapping victims, a friend of the victim told the newspaper.
She asked to help the group, telling them she was Jewish, and eventually stayed with them throughout the morning, the friend said.
Then, around 5:30 p.m., I.A. and four friends were outside Butler Library when they saw the suspect ripping the posters down, he told the Spectator.
When the group approached the teen – who now had a bandana obscuring her face – she allegedly hurled obscenities at them and rushed at I.A. with a stick, he told the paper.
She tried to punch I.A. in the face, but he defended himself, he said.
By the time the scuffle was broken up, I.A. had bruised one hand and broken the ring finger on the other, he told the Spectator.
The student said he will not be returning to campus in the near future due to concerns for his safety.
I.A. has also told other Jewish and Israeli classmates that he does not feel safe, and warned them about hostilities on campus in the light of protests over the conflict scheduled for Thursday, he added.
“We were all kind of shocked that this stuff can happen on our own campus, which should be a safe haven,” he said.
Follow along with The Post’s live blog for the latest on Hamas’ attack on Israel
“We don’t know how to handle the situation, let alone that our families and friends are going through the worst nightmare, and we are mentally in the same ship with them,” he continued. “And, now, we have to handle the situation that campus is not a safe place for us anymore.”
The incident has raised questions about anti-Semitism and political divides on the Morningside Heights campus.
“What has for years been the intimidation of Jewish students has become physical,” Jewish Insider executive editor and New York native Melissa Weiss wrote about the attack in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Worst attack on Israel in 50 years: How we got here
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip over three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.
Over 1,300 Israelis are dead, more than 3,000 are wounded and at least 100 were taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Hamas terrorists were seen taking female hostages and parading them down the street in horrifying videos.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials report at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed more than 6,000 injured.
Columbia University did not immediately reply to The Post’s request for a comment on the attack.
The school’s Students for Justice in Palestine group is holding a “Call to Action for Palestine” protest at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Columbia is not the only university facing tensions over the Israel-Hamas conflict, which began on Saturday when scores of Hamas terrorists stormed the Gaza border fence and attacked Israel by land, air, and water.
Harvard University came under fire earlier this week when over 30 student organizations signed a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ actions.
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At least a dozen business leaders subsequently heeded billionaire Bill Ackman’s call to bar members of the student groups from careers on Wall Street.
Seventeen other organizations and around 500 faculty and 3,000 others also signed a counter-statement blasting the initial release as “deeply offensive.”
