Columbia University on edge after ‘doxxing truck’ targeting students, antisemitic incidents

Columbia University is launching a “Doxxing Resource Group” for students whose names and photographs are being displayed on the side of a truck driven near campus with a message describing them as the school's "leading antisemites."

It’s the latest headache for the elite university, which, like many others, has struggled to respond to tensions between Jewish and pro-Palestinian students over the Israel-Hamas war.

“The deliberate harassment and targeting of members of our community by doxxing, a dangerous form of intimidation, is unacceptable,” Columbia President Minouche Shafik wrote, detailing resources available to students. She also announced the formation of a task force to respond to “a series of antisemitic incidents on campus.”

Students shared videos of the truck with Gothamist. The footage showed the box truck is equipped with large video screens displaying the students' names and photos alongside the message “Columbia’s Leading Antisemites.” The images also feature a separate URL of each student’s name, forever linking them on the internet to accusations of antisemitism. Doxxing is a form of harassment involving the intentional online publication of someone’s personal information.

The websites state more than 20 students are being targeted for signing a letter that said “there can be no future of safety and freedom for all Israelis and Palestinians without holding the Israeli occupation accountable for its actions.”

The sites state that Columbia has not disciplined students who signed the letter and urged people to “take action against antisemitism” at the university.

The trucks bear the name Accuracy In Media, which was founded in 1969 to combat perceived liberal bias in the press, particularly in coverage of the Vietnam War. The trucks have also appeared on the campuses of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. Accuracy In Media’s President Adam Guillette previously served as vice president of the far right group Project Veritas, which is known for undercover investigations targeting progressives and mainstream media.

One Columbia student – who did not wish to be named because she did not want to receive similar treatment, provided a photo of Guillette standing outside a gate to campus with a microphone. She said Guillette was trying to interview students about Israel’s right to defend itself against future Hamas attacks. Columbia’s press office said Guillette did not step foot on campus.

In a separate email to students on Wednesday, Shafik announced the university was also launching a task force to address antisemitism in response to incidents since the Oct. 7 attack.

“One would hope that by the 21st century, antisemitism would have been relegated to the dustbin of history. But it has been rising here in New York City, across the country and around the world in recent years. We also know that antisemitism can escalate during conflicts far from our campuses, translating into hateful speech and acts directed at Jewish people here,” Shafik wrote.

One of those incidents, according to an email sent by the School of International and Public Affairs student association, was a swastika found scrawled on the wall of a fourth-floor bathroom in the international affairs building last week.

A 19-year-old student was also charged last month with assault and harassment as a hate crime after tearing down posters of Israeli hostages. Authorities say that sparked a fight and the student hit another student with a stick.

On Monday, Jewish students said at a press conference they’d received death threats and antisemitic insults, according to New York Jewish Week.

The incidents are an example of how Hamas' attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza have roiled elite campuses around the United States. At Cornell University, a 21-year-old student was charged this week with allegedly threatening to go on a violent rampage targeting Jewish students.

Hamas militants killed 1,400 people in the attack and took more than 200 people hostage. More than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza.

Eitan Feifel, a junior and member of the Jewish student group Chabad at Columbia, described a “somber atmosphere” on campus.

“Jewish students feel up in the air a little bit. We don't know who on campus, who near us, or who around is out to get us,” said Feifel, 24.

Feifel also said he disagreed with Accuracy In Media’s methods, adding that Jewish students become wrongly associated with the tactics.

Another junior, Lourdes Russell, wished the school had responded more quickly to the doxing truck, which she said had been trolling students for at least a week.

“A lot of students have felt uncomfortable with the fact that the university took a long time to comment and that the commentary was still quite empty,” said Russell, 20, who carried a bag with a keffiyeh scarf wrapped around it as a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

“[There’s] fear on both sides. A lot of Jewish students feel really uncomfortable being on campus for fear of antisemitic actions that have happened, and on the other side, students feel this same fear because of the doxing,” she said.

After deadline, Accuracy in Media forwarded a statement attributed to Guillette, which among other things called the doxxed students “vile” and said the group was conducting an “accountability campaign” to show “communities at Columbia, Harvard, CUNY and other schools who their fellow students really are.”