Radical students hold Cornell president hostage in car after Israel debate clash
Cornell University’s president has blasted a group of radical students for hurling abuse and holding him hostage in his own car following an Israel-Palestine debate series at the Ivy League school.
The group of rabble-rousers filmed themselves swarming Michael Kotlikoff and trailing him to his vehicle as he was trying to leave the event at the Ithaca, New York, campus last Thursday.
Kotlikoff accused the group — who he said have become notorious for spewing verbal and online abuse toward Cornell staffers in the past – of surrounding his car, banging on the windows and blocking him from leaving.
The school prez spoke out after the students posted footage on social media of Kotlikoff apparently backing into the group amid the parking lot chaos.
At least one brazen student who stood defiantly behind Kotlikoff’s car accused him of running over his foot.
Kotlikoff, however, insisted the group was hell-bent on “harassment and intimidation.”
“These individuals followed me from the event space and across campus, while loudly shouting questions and recording on their phones. After answering a few questions, I let them know that I was not planning to engage further, and asked them to stop recording,” he said in a statement.
“They continued to follow me to my car and then surrounded the car, banging on the windows, blocking the car, and shouting.
“I waited until I saw space behind the car and then, using my car’s rear pedestrian alert and automatic braking system, was able to slowly maneuver my car from the parking space and exit the parking lot,” Kotlikoff added.
Kotlikoff, who has been president of Cornell since March 2025, insisted that the earlier debate series event was “vigorous and civil.”
The series — hosted by the Cornell Political Union and co-sponsored by Cornell Progressives, Cornellians for Israel, as well as Students for Justice in Palestine – had otherwise been a prime example of the “open discourse that we prize in our academic community,” he said.
He went on to say, “The behavior I experienced last night is not a protest. It is harassment and intimidation, with the direct motive of silencing speech. It has no place in an academic community, no place in a democracy, and can have no place at Cornell.”
But several lefty students have defiantly disputed Kotlikoff’s version of events, arguing he injured at least two students in the parking lot.
“When we tried to discuss campus speech policies, he hit us with his car,” the Students for a Democratic Cornell wrote on Instagram alongside footage of the incident.
“Kotlikoff’s violent response to student inquiry is just another example of his administration’s repressive crackdown on student speech.”
The saga unfolded after the Trump administration suspended more than $1 billion in funding for Cornell University last April as the government investigated alleged civil rights violations.
The federal government warned university bosses it could bring law enforcement actions if a review determined it had failed to stop antisemitism.
In November, Cornell struck an agreement with the government that would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
The institution agreed to pay more than $30 million to the government, and invest an additional $30 million into its agriculture and farming efficiency programs, for which it’s known.
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