JTA — Barnard College in New York City has expelled two seniors who disrupted an Israeli history course last month by banging on drums, shouting “Free Palestine,” and distributing fliers showing a boot stomping on a Star of David.

The incident drew widespread attention when it took place on the first day of classes for the semester. Four people wearing keffiyehs as masks entered a Columbia University course titled “History of Modern Israel,” interrupting instruction, as captured on videos that circulated on social media in the aftermath.

Columbia — whose president condemned the protest and said in a statement that “any act of antisemitism” was “unacceptable” — suspended one protester who was enrolled there and referred another two for discipline at an “affiliated institution.”

Part of Columbia University, Barnard College is adjacent to Columbia College in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Students at the two schools may share classes.

Now, two protesters who were Barnard students have been expelled, according to reports in Jewish Insider and the Columbia Spectator student newspaper.

Columbia University Apartheid Divest said in a statement that the punishment “marks a serious escalation in the crackdown against students advocating for divestment against the Israeli war machine.”

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