Columbia University’s president strongly denounced antisemitism during a congressional hearing Wednesday, saying that after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, “the world changed, and so did my focus.”

Earlier, Shafik – trying to straddle between condemning antisemitism and permitting statements that some defined as free speech – struggled when confronted by Lisa McClain, the Republican representative from Michigan over the slogan “from the river to the sea” and support for a Palestinian intifada (uprising).

“Are mobs shouting from the River to the Sea Palestine will be free or long live the infitada [sic] …antisemitic comments?” McClain asked.

“When I hear those terms, I find them very upsetting,” Shafik responded.

“That’s a great answer to a question I didn’t ask, so let me repeat the question,” McClain persisted. Shafik answered: “I hear them as such. Some people don’t.”

“Why is it so tough?” McClain pressed. In answer, Shafik said: “Because it’s a difficult issue because some hear it as antisemitic others do not.”

She eventually appeared to fold under pressure, answering “yes” and laughing nervously after McClain posed the same question to the president’s fellow Columbia staff, all of whom agreed that it was antisemitic.

“Antisemitism has no place on our campus, and I am personally committed to doing everything I can to confront it directly,” President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik told the Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce. “Israel was brutally attacked by Hamas terrorists and very soon it became clear that these horrific events would ignite fear and anguish across our campus.”

Shafik faced questions about her handling of antisemitism on campus after the Oct. 7 attack alongside two members of Columbia’s Board of Trustees and the head of the university’s antisemitism task force. She faced particular scrutiny for how the university handled faculty members who made comments about Hamas that were perceived as antisemitic.

Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., grilled Shafik about Joseph Massad, a tenured professor in Columbia’s Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies department who published comments in October calling Hamas’ attack a “stunning victory.”

“I do condemn his statement. I am appalled by what he said,” Shafik responded. “He has been spoken to.”

The hearing became particularly heated when Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., pressed Shafik about why Massad is still listed on Columbia’s website as the chair of the academic review committee.

Stefanik asked Shafik for her commitment that Massad would be removed as chair, and Shafik said she would get back to her.

Stefanik also questioned Shafik about Mohamed Abdou, a visiting professor at the Middle East Institute at Columbia. She referred to an Oct. 11 post on Facebook in which Abdou wrote, “Yes, I’m with the muqawamah (the resistance) be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad but up to a point.”

When asked about consequences, Shafik said Abdou “will never work at Columbia again.”