{"id":443842,"date":"2026-05-15T23:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/443842\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T23:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T23:21:09","slug":"cornell-backs-jewish-president-after-altercation-with-pro-palestinian-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/443842\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornell backs Jewish president after altercation with pro-Palestinian protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cornell University\u2019s Jewish president will not be penalized for a recent campus altercation with pro-Palestinian protesters<\/a> who had surrounded his car following a campus debate on Israel, an investigation by the university concluded Friday.<\/p>\n

The Ivy League<\/a> school\u2019s Board of Trustees issued a statement of support for Michael Kotlikoff following an investigation into the April 30 incident. Kotlikoff had recused himself from the investigation, which wrapped after eight days.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Kotlikoff has shown a steadfast commitment to Cornell\u2019s values and principles, and we are confident he will continue to lead with integrity,\u201d a Friday statement from the board\u2019s ad-hoc investigation committee concludes.<\/p>\n

The investigation also cleared the protesters<\/a>, a mix of students and non-students, of any wrongdoing, even as it found that their actions \u201care inconsistent with university policies governing expressive activity and our standards for respectful conduct, safety, and the prohibition of intimidation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kotlikoff will not be pursuing any complaints against the students involved, Cornell\u2019s board said. The president himself did not immediately release a statement on the investigation\u2019s results, and a spokesperson for the university<\/a> declined to comment further.<\/p>\n

\"AA video released by Cornell University shows one angle on an interaction between President Michael Kotlikoff and student protesters on April 30, 2026. (credit: screenshot)Physical altercation\u00a0<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s release sought to quickly close the book on a whirlwind controversy at the Ithaca, New York, university, as long-simmering tensions between Kotlikoff and the campus\u2019s pro-Palestinian contingent boiled over into a rare physical altercation between students and a college president.<\/p>\n

The incident that prompted the investigation was the second part of a two-session debate on Israel, sponsored by the non-partisan Cornell Political Union. Kotlikoff was present to introduce the guest speaker, Jewish pro-Palestinian academic and activist Norman Finkelstein.<\/p>\n

Multiple video sources from the Finkelstein event showed that, following the talk, members of the protest group Students for a Democratic Cornell followed the president to his car and appeared to try to block its path. When he did edge his way out of his parking spot, they said he bumped some of the protesters with his vehicle, releasing video to the student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun to back up the allegation.<\/p>\n

Kotlikoff issued a statement the next day calling the incident one of \u201charassment and intimidation,\u201d while some of the protesters accused him of injuring them and running over one person\u2019s foot. The university released its own footage from a security camera in a scene that presented a different view than that of the students, though the exact nature of the confrontation remains murky.<\/p>\n

The Cornell trustees who conducted the investigation said the protesters\u2019 initial claims of wrongdoing on Kotlikoff\u2019s part could not be verified by campus police, in part because the affected individuals \u201crefused medical treatment from the EMS team and refused to provide sworn statements as to their account of the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board added, \u201cNone of the individuals at the scene have provided sworn statements to CUPD [campus police], despite CUPD\u2019s repeated attempts to collect sworn statements in the days following the incident.\u201d The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has reached out to Students for a Democratic Cornell for comment.<\/p>\n

Some campus groups, including the graduate student union and its affiliated labor union, had called on Kotlikoff to resign. Some campus graduate student associations cited what they called an \u201cexplicit act of violence against these students\u201d and what they felt was the \u201cmisleading nature\u201d of Kotlikoff\u2019s own statement. Cornell\u2019s chapter of the American Association of University Professors also criticized the president\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n

But Kotlikoff had his supporters, too. National outlets, including The Washington Post\u2019s editorial board, celebrated him for having \u201cstood up to campus bullies.\u201d A faculty and student petition supporting him also circulated this week. The petition, which was shared with JTA, says Kotlikoff acted appropriately in the face of \u201cphysical intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we characterize the obstruction of a vehicle and the pursuit of an individual as \u2018peaceful protest,\u2019 we erode the safety of our entire campus,\u201d reads the petition, whose signatories, including the number, have not yet been made public. \u201cThis is not a matter of siding with a specific policy or a specific person. It is about whether Cornell remains a place where any member of our community (student, faculty or staff) can move freely without fear of being surrounded or harassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his appointment as Cornell\u2019s president in 2024, initially on an interim basis, Kotlikoff has weathered a series of Israel-related controversies. He drew blowback from academic freedom advocates for criticizing a planned class to be taught on Gaza by a Jewish pro-Palestinian professor, and in March vetoed two anti-Israel student government resolutions. Under his watch, the university also struck a controversial deal to pay $60 million to the Trump administration to resolve antisemitism investigations.<\/p>\n

Menachem Rosensaft, an adjunct professor at Cornell\u2019s law school and former general counsel of the World Jewish Congress, is one of Kotlikoff\u2019s backers on campus. Rosensaft told JTA that, though Kotlikoff has made clear his own pro-Israel views, he remains committed to free expression on campus, which he argued the protesters were trying to silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who have an agenda don\u2019t like those who don\u2019t have an agenda, and who just want to play it straight down the middle,\u201d Rosensaft said. \u201cMike has played it straight down the middle, and he is doing it appropriately. The university is lucky to have him, and I\u2019m pleased to say that the board agrees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kotlikoff\u2019s commitment to the debate series on Israel, despite his personal disagreements with Finkelstein, was proof of this, Rosensaft suggested. The first part of the series had featured Israeli historian Benny Morris, and the debate series boasted an unusually diverse list of ideological partners, ranging from Students for Justice in Palestine to the Zionist Organization of America, pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, and Cornell\u2019s Jewish Studies program.<\/p>\n

Cornell\u2019s commencement is set for May 23. Kotlikoff is scheduled to deliver an address.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cornell University\u2019s Jewish president will not be penalized for a recent campus altercation with pro-Palestinian protesters who had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[16868,42,29536,43,2466,19053,40,38,41,39,7022],"class_list":["post-443842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-campus-antisemitism","tag-headlines","tag-ivy-league","tag-news","tag-pro-palestinian-groups","tag-pro-palestinian-protests","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-university"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}