Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib criticize ‘terrible’ suspension of Omar’s daughter from Columbia

Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) criticized the suspension of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-Minn.) daughter from college after she participated in a pro-Palestine protest on campus.

“From UM to Vanderbilt, from USC to Columbia, students across our country are being retaliated against for using their constitutional rights to protest genocide. It’s terrible,” Tlaib he said in a retweet by Isra Hirsi publish for social platform X.

Hirsi, Omar’s daughter, announced earlier that day at her post that she had been suspended from the university for “sympathizing with Palestinians facing genocide.”

“How is it that a student with no disciplinary record is suddenly suspended less than 24 hours after a non-violent protest? What deserves asymmetrical repression of Palestinian human rights protests”, Ocasio-Cortez he saidalso retweeting Hirsi’s post.

“I am an organizer for CU Apartheid Divest @ColumbiaSJP, in my 3 years at @BarnardCollege I have never been reprimanded or received any disciplinary warnings,” Hirsi’s post read.

“I just received notification that I am one of three students suspended for showing solidarity with Palestinians facing genocide,” Hirsi added.

Columbia University noted that Hirsi is a student at Barnard College, which is connected to Columbia but has some independence.

Barnard did not comment on specifics Thursday, but pointed to a announcement from his senior staff saying that Columbia and Barnard students “set up an unauthorized camp” on Columbia’s South Lawn.

Columbia made several requests for students participating in the protest to leave the lawn before “several senior Barnard employees also came to the lawn to ask students participating in the camp to leave,” according to the statement.

Senior staff also warned students that they would face sanctions if they did not leave, as well as written warnings that they would receive provisional suspension if they did not leave by Wednesday night, according to the school.

The sanctions against students who participated in the protest came two days after the University of Southern California revoked its valedictorian’s ability to give a commencement speech due to “substantial” security risks, after discovering she had links to pro-Palestine sites on their social networks.

The suspensions also come amid a wave of demonstrations and protests on U.S. college campuses following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

Hirsi’s suspension comes a month after civil rights groups filed a lawsuit against Columbia University for suspending pro-Palestinian student groups during the previous semester.

The Hill has reached out to Omar’s office for comment.