At a congressional hearing, Columbia University’s president has condemned antisemitism, while defending her handling of Gaza war protests.

Asked if calls for genocide of Jews were against college policy, Dr Nemat Shafik unequivocally said they were.

But she hedged when asked about another slogan widely seen as antisemitic.

A similar hearing last year saw two other Ivy League university heads slammed for their responses on campus antisemitism. Both later resigned.

“Columbia strives to be a community free of discrimination and hate in all its forms, and we condemn the antisemitism that is so pervasive today,” Dr Shafik told the Republican-led House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce on Wednesday.

But when asked by Michigan Republican Lisa McClain whether phrases used by some pro-Palestinian activists, such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, were antisemitic, Dr Shafik was less clear.

“I hear them as such, some people don’t… it’s a difficult issue because some people hear it as antisemitic other people do not,” she said.

Jewish groups say the slogan – which refers to the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea – is a call for the destruction of the state of Israel. Those who use the phrase say it is a pro-Palestinian independence rallying cry.

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