NEW YORK — More than 100 pro-Palestinian students Wednesday occupied the main lawn of Columbia University as college President Minouche Shafik defended before Congress her handling of the school’s response to campus antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Members of the House Committee on Education & The Workforce grilled Shafik on the administration’s response to campus protests and controversial rhetoric shouted during them, accusing them of a lack of discipline when students and faculty defend Hamas or reject the state of Israel.

In a widely anticipated question, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, asked if calling for the genocide of Jews would violate Columbia’s code of conduct.

Shafik and other university officials answered resoundingly: “Yes, it does.”

Two out of three college presidents who testified during the congressional hearing in December, from Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, later resigned. Both faced backlash over their tepid responses to Rep. Elise Stefanik’s, R-New York, question of whether students who call for the genocide of Jewish people should face discipline.

“Trying to reconcile the free speech rights of those who wanted to protest and the rights of Jewish students to be in an environment free of discrimination and harassment has been the central challenge on our campus,” Shafik said in her testimony, “and numerous others across the country.”

Shafik testified before the Republican-led committee alongside board of trustees co-chairs Claire Shipman and David Greenwald, and antisemitism taskforce co-chair David Schizer.

Stefanik on Wednesday pushed Columbia administrators to take stronger action against faculty who have come under fire for rhetoric against Israel.

“With the lack of enforcement, you see the concern that speaking to these professors is not enough,” she said, “and it’s sending a message across the university that this is tolerated, these antisemitic statements from a position of authority by professors in the classroom.”

Shafik testified to five cases of faculty taken out of classrooms or dismissed by the university.

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