Columbia faculty members walk out after pro-Palestinian protesters arrested - Page 102 - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15326789
And now there is this troubling upping of the ante . It would seem that events are escalating to the point in which the war in Gaza and elsewhere could be brought back to the United States . The chicken hawks are coming home to roost , and I expect that the fallout may be fierce . The United States of America and Israel have a dialectical relationship , and what affects the one also impacts the other , even in terms of armed resistance , in an international revolution / jihad . The journey to Armageddon has begun .

The most prominent pro-Palestinian student group at Columbia University walked back an apology it had issued for a student who said “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

The statement on Tuesday from Columbia University Apartheid Divest also included an explicit call for violence. It comes as pro-Palestinian groups at Columbia and other universities have made clear that they intend to continue and in many cases escalate their activism in the current school year.

“We support liberation by any means necessary, including armed resistance,” the CUAD statement said. “In the face of violence from the oppressor equipped with the most lethal military force on the planet, where you’ve exhausted all peaceful means of resolution, violence is the only path forward.”

The student, Khymani James, had made the remark about Zionists in a video he posted in January, in which he also said, “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” Columbia barred James from campus in April, after the video resurfaced and garnered widespread attention and criticism. At the time, James was a prominent activist in Columbia’s pro-Palestinian encampment movement. Days later, CUAD issued an apology in James’ name. “When I recorded it, I had been feeling unusually upset after an online mob targeted me because I am visibly queer and Black,” it said.

“CUAD and the Gaza Solidarity Encampment have made clear that my words in January, prior to my involvement in CUAD, are not in line with the CUAD community guidelines. I agree with their assessment,” the statement said, according to the Columbia Spectator. “Those words do not represent CUAD. They also do not represent me.”

The statement was posted to CUAD’s Instagram but has since been removed. An apology James posted on Twitter was also taken down.

Late last month, James filed a lawsuit against Columbia in a New York State court, saying the university had violated his rights by misusing the student conduct system to discriminate against and harass him. Less than two weeks later, CUAD released its statement retracting the apology.

The retraction was published a day after the first anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, and said CUAD’s original statement in April had been written by the group’s organizers, not James himself. It cast the statement as a betrayal of the group’s principles, and offered an apology to James, saying he had been subjected to discrimination.

The apology “does not represent Khymani or CUAD’s values or political lines,” the statement said. “CUAD organizers were complicit in not maintaining our political line.”

James thanked the group for the statement, writing on Twitter, “I never wrote the neo-liberal apology posted in late April, and I’m glad we’ve set the record straight.”

CUAD is an alliance of student organizations led by Columbia’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and the anti-Zionist Jewish Voice for Peace. Both groups were suspended from campus last year for violating Columbia’s protest policies, but have continued to operate via CUAD. Columbia JVP also posted the Tuesday statement on its Instagram page. CUAD is now one of multiple student groups in the city that have used violent language in their protest of the Israel-Hamas war. In August, weeks ahead of the beginning of the school year, CUAD hailed the Oct. 7 attack and posted, “We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.”

Columbia disavowed the Tuesday post in a statement to the New York Jewish Week.

“Statements advocating for violence or harm are antithetical to the core principles upon which this institution was founded. Calls for violence have no place at Columbia or any university,” Columbia said.

The university’s community standards state that “threats of violence, or the inducement of others to engage in violence” are not covered by free speech protections. James had made the comments in a meeting with university staffers about a previous post in which he had said, “I fight to kill.”

The statement was posted one day after pro-Palestinian students led by CUAD staged a protest walkout on the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 that included at least one sign with red triangles, a symbol Hamas used in videos of the Oct. 7 attack to identify Israeli targets. Columbia’s SJP, meanwhile, hailed the Hamas attack, according to the Columbia Spectator.

Jewish students staged a commemoration event Monday on campus, setting up giant milk cartons with the names and faces of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Outside the campus gates, the pro-Israel group End Jew Hatred staged a protest attended mostly by non-students who feel Columbia has not done enough to combat campus antisemitism. One day earlier, the former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg hosted an on-campus screening of “Screams Before Silence,” her documentary on sexual violence against Israelis during the Hamas attack.

Columbia was rocked by anti-Israel protests last year, peaking with a student encampment at the end of the spring semester that launched a movement of similar encampments at schools across the United States. The university called police onto campus after the protesters forcibly took over an administrative building, resulting in dozens of arrests, most of which were dismissed, and causing widespread controversy.

The turmoil has continued since then. Columbia’s president resigned in August, after three deans resigned under criticism for sending antisemitic text messages during a panel on antisemitism. Pro-Palestinian vandals also defaced the apartment building of a university administrator, and the university restricted access to campus due to “potential disruptions.”

The university’s antisemitism task force reported in August that Jewish students faced “crushing” discrimination that “affected the entire university community.” A House congressional committee is investigating antisemitism at the university. Jewish Telegraphic Agency



#15327589
If we wish to discuss laws that have already passed, then the anti-divestment laws can be discussed.

Please specify how it is immoral to choose not to invest in Israel. The question as to how this is antisemitic has already been asked many times without any reply, so it is safe to assume that antisemitism is not the issue.

Tearing down a sukkah seems more antisemitic.
#15327656
Subsidies that require complying with all sorts of laws.

For example, when universities allow harassment based on antisemitism or country of origin of the victim they're not complying with some of those laws. When they treat harassment allegations differently based on the religion or country of origin of the victim they are also not complying with those laws.
#15327811
Two pro-Israel activists have been arrested in the latest fallout from a violent clash at UCLA’s pro-Palestinian encampment last spring.

On Friday, Adam Tfayli, student body president of the University of California, Los Angeles, announced on Instagram that two people were arrested on felony charges first made in early August, and have preliminary hearings scheduled. The statement also said an additional two people have active warrants for arrest — one on a felony warrant and one that was initially charged as a felony but has since been reclassified as a misdemeanor. There is a fifth case currently being reviewed.

The statement did not include names, but the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s student newspaper, identified the arrested suspects as Eyal Shalom ( What an ironic surname ) and Malachi Joshua Marlan-Librett. UCLA and campus police did not return requests for comment.

The arrests came nearly six months after a group of pro-Israel activists — including Shalom and Marlan-Librett — attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment at the school on April 30. The fracas led to numerous physical altercations as demonstrators threw objects and fireworks at the pro-Palestinian activists. :knife: Security guards were present at the scene but police did not clear the area until hours after the clashes began. :mrt: The violence from pro-Israel activists drew national attention, particularly in a climate where Jewish students at campuses across the country said that pro-Palestinian encampments created a hostile and anti-Semitic atmosphere. :muha2: Classes were canceled at UCLA following the incident, and condemnations poured in, including from local Jewish leaders and Jewish UCLA students and faculty. :angel: L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called the violence “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable.” ( You think ?)

“We remain dedicated to advocating for student safety on campus and ensuring that our community is informed as we move forward,” Friday’s statement read. “We will continue to push for measures that protect all Bruins and hold those responsible accountable.” :hippy:

According to the local news site Westside Today, Shalom was charged for illegal use of tear gas. Footage of the April 30 incident shows a man wearing a maroon hoodie, carrying a metal pipe, spraying tear gas and shouting profanity. A reporter on the scene, Dolores Quintana, identified the man as Shalom. His connection to UCLA is unclear.

Marlan-Librett, who graduated from UC Santa Cruz in 2020 and is not a UCLA student, was charged with four total counts, including assault with a deadly weapon, as well as a special circumstances allegation of committing a hate crime while committing a felony. The two other charges are felony battery counts from a separate incident on April 28, the day of a large and mostly peaceful pro-Israel rally at UCLA. Marlan-Librett, who had first been identified by CNN, has a preliminary hearing set for Nov. 22.

Days after the clashes, on May 2, more than 200 people were arrested as police swept and cleared out the encampment, part of a wave of police actions nationwide to end the student encampment movement. :borg:

According to the Los Angeles Times, many of them were booked on suspicion of failing to disperse, which is a misdemeanor. Hours later, they left a downtown jail with their belongings, greeted by cheers of “Free Palestine.” :cheers:

The first arrest of a pro-Israel activist involved in the clashes occurred weeks later, when police arrested 18-year-old Edan On in Beverly Hills on May 23. But the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to charge On and instead referred the case to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office for misdemeanor filing consideration.

The UCLA encampment has also sparked other legal action. In August, U.S. District Judge Mark Scarsi issued a temporary injunction ruling that UCLA must do more to protect Jewish students. A handful of Jewish UCLA students had sued the university, alleging that they were barred from entering certain areas of campus by pro-Palestinian protesters. :violin:

“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” Scarsi wrote. :violin:

A spokesperson for UCLA criticized the ruling to the Los Angeles Times, saying it would “improperly hamstring our ability to respond to events on the ground.” Jewish Telegraphic Agency
#15327960
wat0n wrote:Simple, taxpayers do not want to bankroll people who boycott Israel.

...Public universities who decide to institutionally support divestment are undoubtedly dependent on subsidies.


You are correct, in your own mind. But it is also true that Public Universities who support genocidal causes or institutions... are also doing this partially on taxpayer money. Likewise, giving Israel billions in arms to commit genocide with.

In your mind, taxpayers prefer giving billions to Israel to mass-murder Arabs, then to give pennies to people who want to boycott or divest from this genocidal, racist entity that was created by Banksters and their terror gangs.

What is money for if not to commit genocide with it?, you always posit.

► Show Spoiler
#15327963
QatzelOk wrote:You are correct, in your own mind. But it is also true that Public Universities who support genocidal causes or institutions... are also doing this partially on taxpayer money. Likewise, giving Israel billions in arms to commit genocide with.

In your mind, taxpayers prefer giving billions to Israel to mass-murder Arabs, then to give pennies to people who want to boycott or divest from this genocidal, racist entity that was created by Banksters and their terror gangs.

What is money for if not to commit genocide with it?, you always posit.

► Show Spoiler


Or maybe most taxpayers don't believe Israel is committing genocide, and correctly regard the accusers as simply projecting what they'd like to do to Israelis on Israel.
#15328055
wat0n wrote:Or maybe most taxpayers don't believe Israel is committing genocide, and correctly regard the accusers as simply projecting what they'd like to do to Israelis on Israel.

This is not credible.

Most Americans "know" Israel is committing genocide, but they don't want to say or do anything about it because it might hurt their careers.

This is what happens when organized crime takes over your nation state through usury and extortion.
#15328060
QatzelOk wrote:This is not credible.

Most Americans "know" Israel is committing genocide, but they don't want to say or do anything about it because it might hurt their careers.

This is what happens when organized crime takes over your nation state through usury and extortion.


Have you taken your meds yet?

Conspiracy theories won't help you here.
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