Student editors at the Columbia Law Review say they were pressured by the journal’s board of directors to halt publication of an academic article written by a Palestinian human rights lawyer that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and upholding an apartheid regime.

When the editors refused the request and published the piece on Monday morning, the board – composed of faculty and alumni from Columbia University’s law school – shut down the law review’s website entirely. It remained offline on Tuesday evening, a static homepage informing visitors the domain “is under maintenance”.