Columbia University President Minouche Shafik has resigned months after protests about Israel’s war on Gaza gripped the New York institution. For many, regardless of where they stood on the conflict or how they viewed the campus demonstrations, her resignation came far too late.
In an announcement on Wednesday night, Ms Shafik claimed progress had been made in “a number of important areas” on campus, but also acknowledged a “period of turmoil”. I was a master’s student at the Columbia Journalism School during the time she describes and witnessed mounting calls for her resignation that started almost immediately after October 7.
An Egyptian-British economist, Ms Shafik joined Columbia in July last year as the Ivy League school’s first Arab, Muslim and female president. It was a proud moment for the community, for representation and diversity, and was a turning point in Columbia’s history of white, male presidents. The inauguration festivities were lavish and our Upper West Side campus was lit up by a dance party and laser light show.
Ms Shafik’s inaugural address contained many references to the importance of dialogue and discourse in a diverse community. In it, she included this quote from the 1967 Kalven Report – a University of Chicago investigation into how colleges should approach “political and social action” on campus.
“A good university, like Socrates, will be upsetting…” it read. “The university is the home and sponsor of critics; it is not itself the critic…a university must sustain an extraordinary environment of freedom of inquiry and maintain an independence from political fashions, passions and pressures.”
In her own words, Ms Shafik added that the purpose of the university is, in part, to “encourage vigorous debate” among eager students who come “from different backgrounds and have different ways of looking at the world”.
“At a time of great divisions, the experience of reading and debating texts together creates the foundation for informed and enlightened citizens and leaders,” she added.
Reading that address now, it’s difficult not to compare it with her administration’s response to student protests at Columbia that peaked with the forcible removal of the Gaza solidarity encampment that sprang up on campus.
It’s known that Ms Shafik faced mounting pressure from donors and some student groups as anti-war protests broke out on campus shortly after the start of Israel’s military operation in Gaza. Israeli students and their allies claimed there was a rise in campus antisemitism, while Palestinian students and those involved in solidarity protests faced doxxing threats and career blacklisting.
Reports of the administration quelling student speech emerged almost as soon as the war began, though, and like many of my graduate colleagues at the journalism school and undergraduate peers on campus papers and radio, I had covered the protests throughout the school year.
In November, just over a week after the announcement of a new task force to combat antisemitism on campus, the university suspended the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace following a walkout that attracted hundreds of students. The administration said it was an “unauthorised event”.
In December, Ms Shafik attended the Cop28 conference in Dubai, dodging a Congressional hearing on campus antisemitism that ended with the eventual resignations of her MIT and Harvard counterparts.
In January, there were allegations that protesting Columbia students had been sprayed with a hazardous chemical called “skunk”, a weapon that the Columbia Daily Spectator – a student newspaper – said had been developed in Israel and used for crowd control in the West Bank. Administrators’ initial response included a criticism of student organisers for holding an unauthorised rally.
Ms Shafik appeared in front of members of the US Congress for her own hearing in April, leading to her being accused by campaigners for academic freedom of throwing professors and students “under the bus”. Columbia’s Gaza solidarity encampment at Columbia sprang up soon after this.
In the early hours of April 18, a small group of students erected tents on one of the campus’s main lawns. By evening, Ms Shafik had called New York police officers to the campus for the first time in more than 50 years, a move that resulted in the arrests of more than 100 students. Officers later said the protesters had been peaceful and did not resist arrest.
The encampment then moved to the adjacent lawn — and garnered a much larger crowd of supporters — where it stayed for about two weeks. Students slept through cold, rainy nights, receiving donations of hot meals, blankets and sanitary products. Figures including Palestinian photojournalist Motaz Azaiza, US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, independent presidential candidate Cornel West, and activist Mohammed El-Kurd, made appearances and guest speeches throughout the encampment’s lifespan.
But after a series of failed negotiations between demonstrators and the administration, Columbia’s students embarked on a university protest tradition. Just after midnight on April 30, the anniversary of one of the most famed anti-Vietnam war student protests in the US, pro-Palestinian protesters occupied Hamilton Hall. From a balcony, students displayed a hand-painted banner reading “Hind’s Hall”, an effective renaming of the building in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli fire in Gaza.
After a first round of arrests, the administration sent the student community an email saying that “to bring back the NYPD at this time would be counterproductive”. The Hamilton Hall action lasted about 24 hours before Ms Shafik authorised another raid.
That night, heavily militarised units of the NYPD – frequently deployed to protests – entered our campus. They had only just arrived at Hamilton when they began moving the media away; I was one of a small group of student journalists ushered backwards into a dormitory and barricaded inside while the police arrested our peers.
We were kept away from any line of sight to Hamilton Hall while officers reportedly brutalised students during arrests. One fired a gun inside Hamilton Hall. By then, seemingly fruitless calls for Ms Shafik’s resignation had become all too familiar.
For many students on campus, it seems Ms Shafik’s legacy is not the one of diversity, respect, education and dialogue that she promised in autumn last year. She will be replaced, but the shadow of her handling of this historic protest movement will remain.
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Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
