Press Release: NJAC Asks Justice Department to Enforce Columbia's $200M Antisemitism Agreement Over Campus Event with Mahmoud Khalil
Updated: 4 days ago
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2026
CONTACT:
National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC)
Phone: (332) 278-1100
Email: press@njaclaw.org
NJAC ASKS JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO ENFORCE COLUMBIA’S $200 MILLION ANTISEMITISM AGREEMENT OVER CAMPUS EVENT WITH MAHMOUD KHALIL
NJAC also writes Columbia’s leadership and files a formal noncompliance report with the Resolution Monitor on behalf of a Columbia faculty member
WASHINGTON — The National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) today asked the U.S. Department of Justice to invoke the notice provisions of the Resolution Agreement between the United States and Columbia University, after two University units scheduled an October 27, 2026 campus event featuring Mahmoud Khalil — the man Columbia barred from campus on public-safety grounds eleven months ago, and the former lead negotiator and spokesman of an organization Columbia has pledged in writing never to engage.
NJAC’s letter asks whether Columbia is applying its own policies as it promised, and whether the compliance certification Columbia delivered to its Resolution Monitor on October 1, 2026 is accurate.
To resolve the United States’ claims against it, Columbia agreed to pay $200 million and accepted a three-year monitorship, promising among other things to review the Center for Palestine Studies for balance and to apply University rules “without regard to identity or ideology.” On July 15, 2025, Columbia pledged that it had not and would not recognize or meet with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (“CUAD”), a pledge it reaffirmed on March 1, 2026 after conditioning every recognized student group’s existence on it.
The Center for Palestine Studies and the Simon and June Li Center for Global Journalism are presenting “No Land to Stand On,” an evening with Mr. Khalil in a University facility, limited to CUID holders, with University security at the door and bags checked. Columbia denied Mr. Khalil campus access in November 2025 following a public-safety review, and he sued the University in the Southern District of New York on September 14, 2026 seeking restoration of that access. Columbia certified that review as “In Progress” on October 1, 2026. Not even a full month has passed.
NJAC asks the Department to give Columbia notice under Paragraphs 12, 28, and 29 of the Agreement, to ask the Resolution Monitor to obtain the November 2025 public-safety review and the approval chain for the October 27 event, and to require Columbia to state whether its zero-tolerance pledge applies to University centers, institutes, and schools on the same terms as to recognized student groups.
In a parallel letter to Columbia President Jennifer Mnookin, Provost Angela Olinto, and the co-chairs of the Board of Trustees, NJAC asks Columbia to say on the record which of two incompatible positions it holds: either the public-safety determination behind its November 2025 denials of Mr. Khalil’s campus access was sound, in which case a University center has scheduled an unsafe event in a University building, or it was not, in which case Columbia owes its community the explanation it will soon owe a federal judge.
NJAC also filed a formal report of potential noncompliance under Paragraph 33 of the Agreement with Resolution Monitor Charles J. Cooper and Resolution Administrator Jim Glover on behalf of a Columbia faculty member. The report asks the Monitor to obtain the November 2025 public-safety review, any rescission of the resulting determination, and the approval chain for the October 27 event; to ask the Senior Vice Provost whether the Paragraph 12 review covers the programming of the Center for Palestine Studies, which Columbia’s October 1 report did not mention; and to recommend that Columbia apply its Affirmation of Zero Tolerance to University centers, institutes, and schools on the same terms as recognized student groups.
“Columbia agreed to pay $200 million and accept a federal monitor to resolve claims that it failed to protect its Jewish students and faculty, and an agreement like that is only as good as its enforcement,” said Mark Goldfeder, CEO of NJAC. “Columbia promised to apply its rules without regard to identity or ideology and pledged never to engage with CUAD. Giving CUAD’s former lead negotiator a University stage, weeks after certifying that his campus ban was still under review, raises questions that the Department and the Monitor should insist Columbia answer.”
“The Resolution Agreement gives the United States the tools to deal with exactly this situation, and it gives members of the Columbia community a way to be heard,” said David Benger, litigation counsel at NJAC. “We are asking the Department to put Columbia on notice, to have the Monitor examine the public-safety review and the approval chain for this event, and to make Columbia say plainly whether its commitments bind its centers and schools the same way they bind student groups.”
See below for the links to the relevant documents:
The National Jewish Advocacy Center is a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of the legal system to advocate for and protect Jewish civil rights using creative, innovative strategies.
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