Ezra Levant visits Columbia University on April 24th, where $70K USD ($100K CAD) tuition programs clash with anti-Semitic chants like "Long Lynch, the Intifada," and foreign-backed organizers. Protesters refuse dialogue despite his offer to air responses, while Jewish students face threats like "all Jews should do this." Liberal Jews, including celebrities, increasingly support Trump over perceived Democratic failures. Levant enters to confront protesters, including Miles McInnes, amid a locked campus and 20 NYPD officers—highlighting how progressive ideals now fuel hostility toward Jewish heritage at elite institutions. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, what the heck's going on at Columbia University?
It's April 24th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you sensorious bug.
Oh, hi everybody.
As you can tell, I am in New York City.
You can tell because it's a mix of good and bad, the extremes of the world, wealth and poverty, sickness and health.
It's also a Jewish city.
It has the largest Jewish population of any city in the world, with the exception of Tel Aviv and Israel itself.
And that's reflected in many of the institutions.
For example, here at Columbia University, you just happen upon a major building called Alfred Lerner Hall.
Who was Alfred Lerner?
I have no idea.
I googled him.
He was a Jewish businessman who became a philanthropist.
So many of the things in many of the universities in New York are sponsored by Jewish donors.
Recently, there have been other donors to American universities, including the dictatorship of Qatar, which has helped pave the way for some of the woke studies.
But the reason I mentioned Alfred Lerner Hall is because I wonder what Alfred Lerner would think if he were alive today to see the incredible anti-Semitic, well, I think pogrom is the closest word.
I mean, there haven't been mass beatings, but there have been some assaults.
You basically have, well, I would say brown shirt marches, but instead of brown shirts, they're wearing Hamas masks.
They're using some of the same chants.
They don't say death to the Jews.
They're slightly more sophisticated.
They talk about the Zionists.
Of course, Zionism is a central tenet of Judaism, that Mount Zion, that Israel is the Jewish Holy Land.
I just arrived here moments ago.
I haven't even gone in, but I wanted to stop and talk about the fact that we are going to what is perhaps the most anti-Semitic university in America that also happened to be built with Jewish donations.
I find that endlessly paradoxical.
I want to point out one last thing before we enter sort of the compound of Columbia, the Columbia Climate School.
I shouldn't laugh.
That's a real thing.
Millions of dollars.
And I remarked sardonically, but perhaps I mean it.
Maybe if the destruction of American universities is heralded by this open anti-Semitism and these near riots, maybe it's not quite the loss it would have been 30 years ago or 50 years ago.
Maybe the world can do without graduates of the Columbia Climate School.
I checked the tuition for this place on my way over.
It's about $70,000 or about $100,000 Canadian dollars per year to get a degree in climatology or sociology or really grievance studies.
These are my thoughts before I enter.
I just have to stop and give you my opening thoughts when I saw what I know is commonplace in this university.
Jewish donors.
Let's see what was done with the fruits of their donation.
We're going to go in and see what we see.
It's daytime.
New York is a lively place.
I don't expect there'll be any problems or any violence.
It'll be interesting to see if police allow us into the core.
Like I say, I'm learning along with you.
I literally just got here.
Let's go inside.
I'm standing at the gates of Columbia again.
I've just walked a block in from where I said hello to you.
There's a big lock on the gates.
Now, there appear to be students in there.
I spoke to a security guard who says, yeah, these are the students who are actually attending class.
It's not the entire university that's in a Marxist Islamist protest, but just to stop outside interlopers from coming, they locked it up.
Right across the street, if we turn the camera around, there's 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, almost 20 cops.
They don't seem to be particularly active.
I think they're just here as a deterrent effect.
I understand that the encampment, which is not in the heart of the university, I learned, has been given until Friday night to disperse.
We're going to keep wandering around.
That's all I'm doing here.
I've not actually gone any further than a block in from when I first said hello.
We're just trying to see what's going on on the ground.
I'm wandering around, learning as I go, telling you what I see.
Another gate locked down to stop the ingress and egress of protesters.
Those apparently are students there.
I see that the police are, they're not just standing there, they're getting ready.
Look at these NYPD.
You can see the markings there.
These are barriers.
I understand that the protesters came here yesterday and the police were not ready, so they're being ready this time.
But let me show you a juxtaposition of what I mentioned at the very beginning.
You see on the flagpole here it says, we find a way, Mount Sinai.
Now, Mount Sinai, of course, is a reference to the Jewish Bible.
That's, if my theology is right, where Moses got the Ten Commandments.
It's also been the name for various Jewish hospitals in North America.
I don't know if you know this, but almost 100 years ago in North America, there was a quota to keep Jews out of medical school and other professional schools.
Sort of like Asian kids now have to have a higher SAT score.
Back then they only had a limited number of Jews who were allowed into school and that was in Canada too.
McGill had what they called the numerous clauses.
They limited the number of Jews there.
So the Jews set up their own hospitals because they couldn't get into med school and then they couldn't get into the hospital.
So the Jews set up Mount Sinai and to this day, obviously Jews can go to med school anywhere now and you don't just have to be Jewish to go to Mount Sinai.
You never had to be.
But that Mount Sinai Hospital and the name Mount Sinai is a symbol of discrimination in the past that the Jews overcame in North America and give back to the community, Mount Sinai Hospital.
But look behind it.
There's a Palestinian flag flying from a standard.
I'm not sure what building that is.
Isn't that the transition here?
The Jews brought scholarship and philanthropy and a medical school and hospitals.
And so far, the contribution from the Palestinians on Columbia seems to be a lot of protest, a lot of violence, and a lot of anti-Semitism.
Rebel News and Pro-Terrorism00:13:26
I'm open to learning more, and we will as we continue our journey.
We still actually haven't been to the protest area.
We're just spelunking.
We're exploring.
But you can see that the police are setting up for what they anticipate will be a protest.
They had all these barriers and they're putting them up as we speak.
I'm not sure if that's just a precaution or if they have any particular intel, but there are a lot of police.
They're very looking alert and lively.
And we'll be here to cover it.
I'm from Canada.
How are you doing?
Who are you with?
Rebel News.
Oh, we're not interested.
What's that?
Just not interested chatting with some rebel news.
Okay.
Fight for Worldwide Indifada, CommunistUSA.org.
Only a revolution can end imperialism.
We are America's communist generation.
That's very capitalist of you.
Very capitalist.
Can I ask why you don't want to even engage with me even with your own point of view?
Why don't you want to tell me what you stand for?
You can ask.
I'm not going to tell you.
Okay, well, what do you stand for?
Can I ask why you're here?
The thing is with the media outlets like Rebel News is I'll say something.
If it doesn't make me look like an idiot, it won't be published.
You decide what goes onto that television.
I'll give you my promise.
I give you my promise as a man that I will air uncut what you tell me.
We're good. We're good.
Thank you.
I don't trust the promise of a journalist.
Or something from Rebel News.
You know what?
You're on to something there, lady.
Well, can I ask you one last question?
Are you guys students here?
No, we're not.
No way.
I appreciate the candor.
Listen, I'm not here to bug you.
I mean, you may think I am, but I'm actually just trying to learn what your point of view is and why you're here and what you're trying to do.
You guys do, man.
It's cool.
All right.
Well, you know what?
I think if you tune in, and I don't know if you will, you'll see that I air this unredacted.
Why would I cut any of this?
It's been actually interesting.
And even though you're a little prickly, you're actually sort of friendly underneath, I can tell.
Oh, I'm very friendly, but not to people like you.
So, yeah.
People like me, well, what does it people like me mean?
Hey, look at my way worked way better.
I'm not talking about this.
Yeah, that's not even talking.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I think you're the one who's being mean.
You're the one who said people like me.
And I don't want to.
You're being mean.
No, you're being mean.
Come on, you guys.
Get out.
We're going to do some work.
All right.
I'll let you continue to sell your newspaper.
Bye, guys.
Cheers.
Thanks.
Intifada until victory, socialist revolution.
I think, you know, I'm flattered that the name Rebel News precedes me.
I think one of the fellows actually recognized me.
I would be interested to understand the intersection between Marxism and Intifada.
I don't quite understand it.
I guess both are revolutionary movements designed to upend the United States and Western hegemony.
That would be my guess.
But I'll just have to leave it at a guess.
There's a sign here, Columbia University ID required for entry.
And of course, you can see the gate is locked.
Obviously, when we're in, quote, peacetime, all the gates are open to students and, frankly, visitors.
But it looks like they're trying to keep out the outside activists and troublemakers.
You saw that I spoke briefly with those communists there.
That's what they call themselves.
I think they recognized me because they impressed me on who I was, and I was honest with them.
I think it's an interesting mix.
Some of the people who are in these sort of antifadas, in the intifadas inside, some of them are students.
There's no denying it.
But it's clear that these protests at NYU, at Columbia, at Yale, and other universities, MIT, are being aggravated and agitated by outside organizers.
In that case, by communists, by their own self-description.
And in other cases, I would put it to you by even foreign interests.
We know in Canada that the Islamic Republic of Iran has 700 agents in our small country.
It wouldn't surprise me if there were 10 times that many in the United States.
And of course, when they would see these conflagrations, they would dive in and spread kerosene all over them.
That's why they're keeping out the non-students.
Just before I go any further, you can see enter campus on 117th Street Gate.
So normally you could enter on any of these gates, but they're all locked.
Looks like they're just having one high-security entry point.
We're just making our way.
Let's keep going.
These are the first other sort of serious journalists I've seen.
By serious, I mean they have some expensive equipment and some gear with them.
And I said, who are you with?
And they said, TRT World.
Now, that's a fairly obscure channel, but I know who they are.
In fact, I've actually been on their show once or twice.
TRT World is the state broadcaster for the Turkish authoritarian ruler, Recep Erdogan.
So isn't that interesting?
Who is interested in New York City college politics?
Well, Turkey is, because they love the Islamist upheaval, TRT, on the scene.
Very interesting.
We've parked a few more feet and we've discovered the first protests.
They're not actually on the campus.
As we showed you before, the gates are locked.
You need ID.
These folks presumably don't have it.
I was walking by the Miller Theater and I thought Miller could be a Gentile name, could be a Jewish name.
I googled it and it was founded by a Jewish philanthropist about 100 years ago.
And I only mention that to show that things change.
Just because New York City has for a century been a city of Jewish life and culture and philanthropy doesn't mean that its next century will be that way.
100 years ago, Detroit, Michigan was the leading industrial city in America with the highest average wage.
It was the richest city in terms of industrial wage was Michigan.
Now it's a terrible, run-down, broken city.
Politics is the reason.
New York City for a century has been a pearl of culture and learning and philanthropy and Jews.
I don't know if it'll be true 100 years from now.
I wonder what the donors behind the Miller Theater would say.
I've been standing here on the side of Broadway, and that's Columbia University over there.
We're on the street outside because we're not students, so we don't have student ID.
And apparently neither do these protesters.
We've been listening to them chant for about 10 minutes straight.
I get the feeling they've been here for hours just chanting the mantra, free, free Palestine.
Now they're on Long Lynch, the Intifada.
They have about three or four of these mantras.
It's mesmerizing, it's hypnotizing, which is sort of a trait of many cults.
And I don't think they would talk to me.
I might try, but I don't think their knowledge is deep.
I don't think any of them are actually Palestinian.
I think they are omnibus radicals who are attracted to any uprising like the communists we met earlier.
I think these folks know that to be anti-Israel and anti-American is part of this same ideological battle.
And that's why they're here.
They would be here for a climate rally.
They would be here for an anti-Trump rally.
They would be basically the foot soldiers and the gang members of the left.
Wouldn't surprise me if some of them are antifa.
There's just a hypnotic nature to it.
And I think that's to replace some of the depth that you see at other protests.
For example, I covered and Rebel News covered some of the trucker protests.
If you would go up to a trucker protester and say, why are you here?
They'd talk your ear off for an hour.
And they would have great detail.
They wouldn't do what those communists say and say, I'm not talking to you.
And they wouldn't do what these folks are saying, which is just a mindless chant.
But still, the effect is the same.
They're paralyzing the place.
They're making Jews uncomfortable.
They're creating a spectacle and chaos.
So whether they know what they're doing or they're part of a cult, I suppose in some ways, it doesn't matter.
Let's keep looking.
Hillary, I just saw you a moment ago with that Israeli flag in your bag there.
Can I ask who you are and why you're wearing that?
What motivated you to bring an Israeli flag down to Columbia today?
I just felt like the kids and not just the Jewish students, but kids who actually support America needed somebody to support them.
I usually have an American flag, but I think I lost it along the way walking up here.
You're wearing a NASCAR jacket.
That's pretty American.
How would you describe yourself politically?
Are you a Democrat?
Are you a Republican?
Are you freedom-oriented?
Or are you sort of apolitical?
I've become more political now, but really what I am for right now, I'm supporting all the American kids, students, who want freedom and not hate.
I believe that people should protest, but not when they're calling for death of other people.
And wearing that flag, it's not very large, but it's still identifiable from 30 feet.
Have you received any reactions to it, or did you just arrive?
Well, I've been coming up here every day just to support students, whether it's here or NYU or Michigan, wherever I could be helpful, because I feel like a lot of people are a big talker, Betty Crockers, and aren't really not going out and supporting people.
They're shying away from actually going out and supporting people because they're really intimidated by this very negative, hateful energy, and I think it's very dangerous.
It is somewhat intimidating.
And I'm, you know, a regular size, I'm a plus-sized guy.
You're more diminutive.
So have you felt physically threatened or have you been verbally threatened in any way over the weeks you've been coming to these things?
I just wonder what it's like for you to walk through this gauntlet.
I 100% have been physically like, not attacked, but physically like, yeah, and people have walked after me.
But I'm not going to stop.
Have you said anything?
Oh, yeah.
Like what?
All Jews should do this, down with America.
Are you a Jew?
Am I a Jew?
Yes.
And you're very American.
You're Jewish.
I would call myself an American first, because that's what I am.
And that's what I identify as an American.
But am I Jewish?
Yes.
Are there other people who are non-Jewish Americans who are coming out to stand with you against these Hamas types?
I have a lot more friends now starting to come up because they're realizing that it's an American problem, not just a Jewish problem.
And at the end of the day, if people don't start paying attention to that, that's going to be a problem.
Now, how would you describe the police reaction to some astonishing things the whole world has seen?
I mean, the NYPD is pretty good.
They're, I think, one of the world's leading counter-terrorism police forces.
I'm not sure if I would quite describe what was going on inside there's terrorism, but it's certainly pro-terrorism.
How have the cops been, and how has the city been?
I think the city is, I think they're approaching it how they're being directed to approach it.
By whom?
Directed by whom?
Well, you know, the president is very contradictive here.
You know, it's private property, so they can do what they want in their police.
You mean the university president?
But in terms of what's happening here, it's really not a problem through the city.
It's really just at the university.
Got it.
So when you said the president, I thought you meant Joe Biden for a second.
You mean the university president, and what has she done or what should she do?
Because they're still in there.
Protesters, right?
I understand.
And, you know, we've been following Shai.
I don't know if you know who his name is.
He's the professor, the Jewish professor who... ...denied access, whereas Joseph Mossad is still in there spewing hatred and hatred and hatred, whereas the other professor has had his car taken away.
You know, I just wish as smart as, I don't even think these are students out here.
If they were, they would be inside because they would have ID.
But the problem is, I'm all up for protesting.
You know, I went to Berkeley.
I'm all into it.
The problem is there's a difference between saying, let's have peace in Gaza.
Let's help our people.
But they're saying hate.
Let's destroy.
And that's the problem with this conversation here because it's not a conversation.
Manhattan Line Issue00:05:21
Last question, and thanks, by the way, for talking with me.
I've seen a number of liberal Jews, including liberal Jewish rabbis, say the Democrats have taken us for granted.
This is insane.
I'm voting for Trump.
In fact, there have been some sort of liberal celebrities who have had a total 180-degree conversion.
Even though they may have some personal problems with Trump or this issue or that issue, they feel like this is a moral disaster and there's no one with a backbone.
How are you going to vote in November on the presidential ballot?
And is it motivated by what you see here?
That's a really tough question.
I mean, I think there's a lot more between, I think there's a lot more to say in between this.
I think a lot, it depends what's going to happen over the next couple months.
You know what?
I mean, I'm not an American.
I'm a Canadian.
We came down here.
It's been tough in Canada.
Well, we live in a hotspot of Toronto.
I know you do.
I've been watching.
It seems to me that if you are who you say you are, and if you care about the things you say you do, and I believe you do, that that's got to be your number one issue in November, and whether you have a different opinion on gun control or abortion or his Twitter tweets, it would seem that this is sort of a single issue.
No?
You know, I have a lot of issues, but I'm going to see what happens.
All right, great to talk with you.
Thanks for your time.
I just want to thank you for coming to me.
You know what?
Do you see this line?
It's a very long line, and it goes that way, too.
I'd say there's maybe 200 people in this line.
And as you can see by their gear, they're reporters.
Apparently, in five minutes, the gates are going to be opened to the press for two hours from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
And journalists will be able to go inside and hobnob with the who's who of the Gaza protests.
I think it's very interesting, and that's how it is in a First Amendment jurisdiction, isn't it?
So I didn't realize what the line was.
These people are patiently waiting for it.
I guess they don't find the cult-like strumming and drumming to be newsworthy.
I guess they're probably right on that.
I might get in line because I don't want to miss out, but I get the feeling the line will clear pretty quick.
So there's an enormous number of reporters here.
In fact, I don't know how many protesters are inside.
I'd say we're almost at a one-to-one ratio.
This is a beautiful garden.
I mean, like, seriously, it's a garden, this manicured, pedicured place, gorgeous.
You wouldn't even know you're in downtown Manhattan.
A moment ago, we were on busy, litter-strewn streets.
Now we're in an oasis.
It's grand architecture.
This is an Ivy League experience in the heart of Manhattan.
Could you imagine coming here, your parents marshaling almost $100,000 Canadian a year, and writing, who's this character I'm standing next to?
You might recognize him.
He's the alter ego of our old friend Gavin McInnes.
It's Gavin's brother Miles McInnes and we might do a little social experiment or two today.
Miles, how you doing?
I'm good.
I'm not comfortable in the epitome of fascism.
Colombia has endorsed the Israeli state.
They endorsed apartheid, and these students are being abused.
My friend Gavin McInnes in his alter ego, Miles McInnes, has wandered off into some argument with some folks that I like him.
We have an idea of bringing him here in character, and we'll talk more about that later, but I do want to have a very serious broadcast because it is very serious.
And it's interesting to be here in the heart of the university.
And, you know, I'm nostalgic for a post-secondary educational opportunity that I never had.
Imagine going to this amazing pearl in the middle of Manhattan.
Who wouldn't want to come here?
And their parents mustered almost $100,000 a year Canadian to get them here.
And then for those people to turn it into an anti-Semitic protest in a shanty town is stunning to me.
And I think the fact that literally hundreds of reporters waited in line to get in here suggests that it's of great public interest.
Universities have always been places of protest and upheaval, of rebellion and challenge.
But I fear that what we've encountered here may be more like the cult-like chance outside rather than a deep philosophical opposition.
I am going to go in and talk to some folks here, and we are going to see if we can find a way to operate with our friend Miles.