‘Doxxing trucks’ expand to Columbia, UPenn to expose campuses’ ‘leading antisemites’
‘Doxxing trucks’ expand to Columbia, UPenn to expose campuses’ ‘leading antisemites’
One truck hired by Accuracy in Media — featuring giant video screens on all sides, displaying the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites”
Shannon Thaler - OCT 26, 2023
The nonprofit news watchdog behind the “doxxing truck” that exposed Harvard students who allegedly blamed Israel for Hamas’ violent attacks has expanded its fleet to Ivy League campuses at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.
One truck hired by Accuracy in Media — featuring giant video screens on all sides, displaying the words “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites” in gothic script over a slideshow of Ivy Leaguers’ headshots and names in red block letters — was seen near the school’s Manhattan campus Wednesday, according to photos shared with The Post.
The display identified students allegedly involved in “a horribly hateful, antisemitic proclamation similar to the one signed at Harvard that blamed victims for their own death, rape and torture,” Accuracy in Media president Adam Guillette said in an interview with The Post on Thursday.
A group of pro-Palestinian bystanders surrounded the parked truck in an effort to block students’ names, one photo shows.
Other images featured the crowd holding balloons, sheets, a Palestinian flag and open umbrellas to shield the truck’s display.
“We very much appreciate the effort those people made to draw attention to our truck,” said Guillette, whose truck returned to the Columbia campus Thursday.
Another Accuracy in Media “doxxing truck” appeared in Philadelphia this week at the UPenn campus — another Ivy League school that’s faced fierce blowback over its lack of support for Israel after playing host to a pro-Palestinian literary conference.
The truck, which was again spotted Thursday, circled UPenn’s campus and blasted school president Elizabeth Magill, picturing her on a red screen that read: “Condemn antisemitism on your campus or RESIGN.”
“Magill is creating an environment where hatred, racism and antisemitism can flourish,” Guillette said.
Since the literature fest ended on Sept. 24, Magill issued a statement making clear that she and UPenn “stand, emphatically against the terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel,” and admitted that “we should have communicated faster and more broadly about where we stand.”
The message has since been bashed by several deep-pocketed UPenn benefactors — including Clifford Asness, Ronald Lauder and Marc Rowan — who have vowed to stop donating money to the school.
Columbia president Minouche Shafik has also tried to quell the controversy, though she didn’t condemn Hamas in a statement issued last week.
A university spokesperson declined to comment on the doxing truck when reached by The Post.
The rep pointed to Shafik’s comment last week saying, “Some students, including at Columbia, have been victims of doxing. This form of online harassment, involving the public posting of names and personal information, has been used by extremists to target communities and individuals.”
“This kind of behavior also will not be tolerated and should be reported through appropriate school channels. When applicable, we will refer these cases to external authorities,” Shafik added.
The controversial letter signed by 20 Columbia student groups that prompted the truck’s visit to campus referred to Israelis as “extremist Israeli colonial-settlers [who] have also ramped up their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank,” and condemned “the Israeli extremist government and other Western governments, including the US government.”
The letter went on to demand that Columbia discontinue its global center in Tel Aviv, and its Dual Degree Program with Tel Aviv University, yet failed to mention Hamas or outwardly decry the violence displayed by the Palestinian terrorist organization.
The divisive statement — which was included in a Google Form that encourages people to add their name to a list of signatories — said 20 students organizations had already signed off on the message.
However, Accuracy in Media has only identified six groups that co-signed the letter, which the watchdog said it “independently confirmed,” though it’s unclear how.
Similar to the vehicle that paraded at Harvard, the truck at Columbia also displayed the website ColumbiaHatesJews.com, which leads to a forum that encourages users to send an email to the Ivy League school’s board of trustees.
“Islamic terrorists just killed hundreds of men, women and children in Israel. …Shockingly, radical ‘scholars’ at Columbia responded by issuing a statement blaming Israel and the United States rather than the terrorists” the website says.
It also offers a pre-written message to send to the school’s board, which reads: “As a trustee at Columbia, you have a moral obligation to take a stand against the antisemites on campus who issued a statement blaming Israel for the actions of terrorists. If no action is taken against these hateful individuals, we will assume that you support them.”
The six student groups Accuracy in Media identifies on its ColumbiaHatesJews.com website includes: Columbia University Muslim Students Association, Conflict Resolution Collective, SIPA Human Rights Working Group, SIPA’s Palestine Working Group, Turath: the Arab Students Association at Columbia University, and Society for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.
Two Columbia Law School students who reportedly held leadership roles in one of these groups had their job offers revoked at prestigious Big Apple law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell.
“These statements are simply contrary to our firm’s values and we thus concluded that rescinding these offers was appropriate in upholding our responsibility to provide a safe and inclusive work environment for all Davis Polk employees,” Davis Polk managing partner Neil Barr said in an email to staffers last week.
The firm also annulled a third offer to a student who belonged to the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups, which released a letter holding Israel “entirely responsible” for Hamas’ mass slaughter in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack.
Davis Polk, which reps financial institutions and corporations, said it was still “in dialogue” with two of the students as of last Tuesday after they had argued they didn’t authorize or individually sign the letters.