US university professor forced to take early retirement over pro-Palestine views

A law professor at Columbia University in the USA claims to have been forced to take early retirement because of her pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Katherine Franke, who was serving as a tenured law professor at the Ivy League university, has said in a statement, “Effective today, I have reached an agreement with Columbia University that relieves me of my obligations to teach or participate in faculty governance after serving on the Columbia law faculty for 25 years.”

“While the university may call this change in my status “retirement,” it should be more accurately understood as a termination dressed up in more palatable terms. I have come to the view that the Columbia University administration has created such a toxic and hostile environment for legitimate debate around the war in Israel and Palestine that I can no longer teach or conduct research.”

This prompted academics, lawyers, and activists to raise their voices in support of Katherine Franke. 

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, commented that Franke has become “Another victim of the pro-Israelism that is turning universities, and other spaces of public life, into places of obscurantism, discrimination and oppression”.

Fellow professor at Rutgers University and human rights lawyer Noura Erakat, called the university’s mistreatment of Professor Franke “egregious”.

“She has resigned after 25 years of an illustrious academic career and commitment to her students because she decided there is nothing to return to – it is far too hostile,” Erakat posted on X (former Twitter).

However, a University spokesperson states that a complaint had been filed [against Franke] “alleging discriminatory harassment in violation of our policies. An investigation was conducted, and a finding was issued.”

The same allegations were cited in Franke’s resignation in which she observed that last February, two of her colleagues filed a complaint against her with the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, blaming her of harassing Israeli members of Columbia University in one of her comments to the news outlet Democracy Now! 

Notably, in the interview, Franke spoke about the safety of Palestinian students on campus. “It’s something that many of us were concerned about because so many of those Israeli students, who then come to the Columbia campus, are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus.”

The matter of her statement was also raised in a US congressional hearing back in April 2024 during students' university encampments asking for universities to divest from Israeli companies in the wake of the genocide in Gaza. Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked then-Columbia President Minouche Shafik what disciplinary actions had been taken against Professor Franke, who had commented on Israeli students on campus. The congresswoman also attributed the remark “all Israeli students who served in the [Israeli army] are dangerous and shouldn’t be on campus” to Franke, an exaggeration. 

In her resignation, the law professor quoted, “President Shafik responded, ‘I agree with you that those comments are completely unacceptable and discriminatory.’ President Shafik was aware at that time that Congresswoman Stefanik’s summary of my comments was grossly inaccurate and misleading, yet she made no effort to correct the Congresswoman’s deliberate mischaracterisation of my comments.” 

The Columbia University professor even recounted that she faced harassment, including death threats, after the hearing.

It merits a mention that Shafik stepped down as the university president in August due to his mishandling of students’ protests.

Meanwhile, an external law firm was hired to investigate Professor Franke’s comments, and the findings revealed that her remarks violated the university’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action policies. 

In a sweet display of optimism, Professor Franke had hoped in an interview, "Inshallah, I will be exonerated."

“Upon reflection, it became clear to me that Columbia had become such a hostile environment, that I could no longer serve as an active member of the faculty,” Franke said in her statement.

“Rather than defend the role of a university in a democracy, in fostering critical debate, research, and learning around matters of vital public concern … Columbia University’s leadership has demonstrated a willingness to collaborate with the very enemies of our academic mission.”

However, Professor Franke has filed an appeal.