Israeli student who used fart spray on Columbia University protesters paid ₹3.3 crore | Trending

A student who was suspended after he sprayed a foul-smelling substance during a campus demonstration in Columbia University has been awarded nearly $400,000 ( ₹3.3 crore) as settlement from the Ivy league college. The Israeli student who carried out the attack during a protest in support of Palestine this year was suspended from January to May. (Representational) The Israeli student who carried out the attack during a protest in support of Palestine was suspended from January to May. The student had filed a lawsuit against Columbia University claiming that he deployed the “fart spray” on the demonstrators as a “harmless expression of his speech”. After his attack, many student protesters had to be hospitalised with complains of nausea, abdominal pain, headaches and irritated eyes. Students hospitalised after attackA Jewish undergraduate student told the Guardian that they had to go to the emergency room for “severe nausea and a headache” and was diagnosed with “chemical exposure”. The university and New York police had labelled the attack as a “possible hate crime” and began an investigation into the episode. “A deeply troubling incident occurred on the steps of Low Library on Friday. Numerous Columbia and Barnard students who attended a protest later reported being sprayed with a foul-smelling substance that required students to seek medical treatment,” Columbia’s interim provost, Dennis Mitchell, wrote in an internal letter to students and teachers. (Also read: Microsoft fires employees who organized vigil for Palestinians killed in Gaza) After the student was suspended, a report authored Republican staff on a US House committee, said that the punishment for “disproportionate discipline”. The same committee’s members had previously asked for resignations of Ivy League presidents after pro-Palestine demonstrations took over several campuses. “For over a year, the American people have watched antisemitic mobs rule over so-called elite universities, but what was happening behind the scenes is arguably worse,” the committee said. ‘Assault is assault’The Jewish student who was attacked the chemical spray said the settlement was like a “slap in the face”. “Assault is assault. If multiple people have to go to the hospital and get diagnosed with chemical exposure, then, ‘Oh, it was just fart spray’ is not really a defense to me,” she told the Guardian. The student also called out the committee’s characterisation of campus protests for Palestinians as antisemitic. “I think it’s disgusting to try to weaponize something with a very real hory. My family has been very deeply impacted antisemitism in this country and beyond, and it is just deeply offensive to reduce it to a political ploy to silence activism against the genocide, which is what this is,” she said. (Also read: Kamala Harris rips protestors for burning US flag to condemn Netanyahu’s visit)