An NYU student who tore down posters of Israeli hostages says was suspended, lost her scholarship and was denied campus housing until fall 2024
- An NYU student was suspended after tearing down posters of Israeli hostages, per BreakThrough News.
- She said her scholarship was rescinded, and she was denied campus housing until fall 2024.
A New York University student who tore down posters of Israeli hostages abducted in the October 7 terrorist attacks says she was suspended, had her scholarship rescinded, and was denied campus housing until fall 2024, per BreakThrough News.
"Because I was suspended, I would have to move off campus after the semester, essentially kicking me out of the dorms, leaving me unhoused, and also denying me access to any higher education until fall 2024," Hafiza Khalique told the non-profit news outlet.
The freshman student was suspended on November 13 after a video of her tearing down the posters went viral on social media and "right-wing" news outlets in October, she told the outlet.
"I faced relentless backlash from right-wing media news outlets for weeks, most calling for me to be jailed, expelled, deported, assaulted, and to be sent to Gaza," she told the news outlet.
In a GoFundMe fundraiser on Thursday, Khalique said influencers, celebrities, and Zionist platforms also called for her "firing, expulsion, deportation, and death."
According to an email from the Office of Student Conduct obtained by Washington Square News, the university said she violated the Student Conduct Policy and its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment policies by harming "university property or the property of others."
"The posters related to the recent attacks by Hamas, which targeted Jewish and Israeli people, and the posters displayed victims of those attacks," said the email.
Khalique said she removed the posters because she believed they were "'propaganda' used by 'the mainstream media' to 'whitewash' the conflict," it continued, per Washington Square News.
On Thursday, Khalique launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to collect funds to continue higher education "due to financial barriers," she said.
In it, Khalique described her "entire" undergraduate experience at NYU as "any Muslim's student nightmare" because of the "hostile" climate it fostered, as well as the university's lack of safety and care for its Muslim, Palestinian, and Arab students, she said.
"As a result, I was forced to drop most of my classes for my physical and mental safety due to the fact that I received no accommodations or support," she wrote.
NYU has investigated 90 student behavior complaints in connection with "current concerns" since Hamas' terror attacks on Israel on October 7, according to an email from university president Linda Mills obtained by WSN.
Tensions around the conflict in the Middle East have also spread to other elite institutions like Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania, with donors pulling out funding over the schools' response or absence of it to Hamas' terror attacks and alleged antisemitism on campus.
The presidents of Harvard, MIT, and UPenn came under fire from the White House and CEOs over their response to whether calling for the "genocide of Jews" violates their institution's code of conduct, Business Insider reported.
In a post on X on Tuesday, billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman called for the college leaders to "resign in disgrace," saying their responses "reflect the profound educational, moral, and ethical failures that pervade certain of our elite educational institutions due in large part to their failed leadership."