At a rally on Jan. 19, protesters affiliated with Columbia University’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) said they were attacked with a chemical substance known as “skunk,” leaving numerous participants seeking hospital treatment.
According to attendees, two individuals dispersed a foul-smelling spray on participants who were rallying for Columbia’s divestment from companies involved in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. After being sprayed, students reported symptoms of nausea, fatigue, burning eyes, and numerous other symptoms. The spray, which SJP identified as skunk, is a chemical weapon regularly used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Palestinians.
“My baba, he’s Palestinian, and he always said it was the worst thing you will ever smell in your life,” said Layla, a student protester who is being referred to only by her first name due to safety concerns. “When I was there, when I smelled it, it smelled like somebody just died.”
After the IDF came under scrutiny for shooting an Israeli demonstrator at a protest against the West Bank separation barrier in 2004, Israeli researchers invented skunk as a tool for clamping down on Palestinian demonstrators without using open fire. The IDF first used skunk in 2008 against protesters in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli military regularly uses skunk trucks to suppress demonstrations and punish Palestinians for protesting the occupation. Police have frequently used them to spray buildings in Palestinian neighborhoods, causing schools and businesses to shut down. The IDF has rarely used the weapon against Jewish Israelis, with the exception of ultra-Orthodox Israelis protesting compulsory military service. The IDF has also used skunk to target Ethiopian-Israelis protesting racially motivated police violence.
Columbia University administrators did not immediately respond to the incident, with a spokesperson telling The Intercept that “Friday’s event was unsanctioned and violated university policies.” After the story was published, Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell said in a Jan. 22 statement that the Department of Public Safety and the New York Police Department are investigating the incident.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms any threats or acts of violence directed toward anyone in our community,” Mitchell said. “The University is committed to taking urgent action with the appropriate authorities in any such cases.”
Mitchell said the alleged perpetrators of the chemical attack have been barred from campus while the investigation is ongoing. But on Jan. 24, SJP stated that students had seen one of the men who allegedly committed the attack on campus. The alleged perpetrators have not been arrested.
“As someone who is Palestinian, it makes me feel like I am not safe anywhere,” Layla said. “I’m not safe in my home country; I’m not safe in the U.S. Where can I be that my existence as a Palestinian will be respected and where I will be safe?”
Pro-Palestine activists at Columbia are calling on the administration to support students in a number of ways since the Jan. 19 attack, including financial compensation for the medical costs, loss of property, and psychological care for those affected by the skunk spray. They are also continuing to demand that Columbia divest from its relationship with Israel, specifically seeking to end an IDF veteran mentoring program within the School of General Studies and a dual-degree program between Columbia and Tel Aviv University. In addition, students want Columbia to acknowledge the ongoing genocide in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
“At the bare minimum, those students need to be expelled,” Layla said. “No matter what type of views you have, using chemical weapons on students is unacceptable, period. The university’s lack of response is enabling their behavior and saying this is basically acceptable.”
The chemical attack took place two months after Columbia University suspended SJP and JVP, restricting their ability to receive funding or host student events. The suspension came after considerable pressure from pro-Israel donors and alumni to crack down on students voicing criticism of Israel’s military genocide in Gaza. The university said that the organizations failed to abide by school policies regarding the time, place, and manner of protests.
However, as noted by the Columbia Spectator, Columbia University instituted new changes to the university’s event policies only after SJP/JVP protests took place and drew counterprotesters. On Oct. 24, Columbia updated its Student Group Event Policy and Procedure webpage to expand its definition of a “special event” (an event requiring 10-day notice) to those taking place “in outdoor university space” that have “generally more than 25 attendees.” Columbia specifically targeted protests by imposing significant bureaucratic hurdles, giving the university the power to preemptively stop demonstrations from happening and take action against SJP and JVP when they scheduled an unauthorized walkout on Nov. 9.
“We recognize Columbia’s intimidation tactics for what they are: our suspension is the latest instance of a pattern of censorship,” SJP and JVP said in a Nov. 13 Instagram statement after their suspension. “Columbia’s repression of our free speech reinforces a racist narrative that devalues Palestinian life and erases anti-Zionist Jews who condemn the conflation of a violent apartheid state with the Jewish people.”
The decision to suspend SJP and JVP was met with widespread criticism and student and faculty protests calling for freedom of expression. Despite the university’s stated commitment to freedom of expression and the Office of the President’s Global Freedom of Expression initiative, Columbia has actively prevented student events on Palestine from happening on campus, citing security concerns. The canceled events included a talk by Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, and a panel on the legacies of scholar Edward Said.
The chemical attack has not deterred student activists from continuing to protest in support of Palestinian human rights. After SJP and JVP were suspended, more than 40 student organizations at Columbia formed the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition to advocate for Columbia to divest from Israel. On Jan. 24, led by CUAD, more than 100 Columbia students walked out of classes to demand Columbia take accountability for the Friday attack.
“They say that they value diversity and they value inclusion,” Layla said. “But when it comes to actually protecting us and caring about our safety, our safety is an afterthought for Columbia University.”
