Officials at Columbia University, facing surging tensions on campus that raised safety concerns, have announced all classes will be virtual on Monday as Passover begins.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement the decision was made to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”
The move underscores how tense the situation has become at the Ivy League school and the enormous challenge facing Shafik to get the situation under control.
Wowza, they actually went through that whole article without mentioning that the university ordered an NYPD raid on student protesters last week and issued suspensions against a bunch of them.
But, no, that couldn’t have anything to do with these increased tensions, it’s definitely 100% because this is the first day of Passover /s
I noticed it’s being framed as an “enormous challenge for Shafik”. Bleh.
This is why you don’t commit war crimes: it puts your whole diaspora I’m danger.
While it shouldn’t be on them, the diaspora could shift its position and join the protests against the war crimes. Break the Israel-Jew connection semites and antisemites are drawing for their respective purposes. I bet this would decrease antisemitism and improve its safety dramatically.
While I don’t disagree with the concept at all here, I’m a little uneasy over the idea that anyone would have to do anything to go out of the way for their own safety, especially taking up a political cause. That should be the default
I’m a little uneasy over the idea that anyone would have to do anything to go out of the way for their own safety
What’s interesting, or awful, is that was exactly what was being asked of Palestinian and Middle Eastern diaspora members: that they hadn’t disavowed Hamas (or ISIS, or going back to 2001, Al Qaeda) enough and were suspect until they did.
It was so bad that we saw joke headlines like “Palestinian children killed in Israeli strike criticised for not condemning Hamas”.
No question. Unfortunately some folks would go out of their way to endanger the safety of others, whether they like it or not. If I’ve learned anything about democracy and society it’s that passive stability (in safety and other regards) seems impossible. Some people have to be actively working to maintain such stability. If you have a well funded government that represents your interests, then public servants will do most of this work, you just go and vote. If you don’t… more of that work gets outsourced to private individuals. And since there always are private individuals who are working towards replacing, underfunding, undermining governments, it follows that even if you have such a government that is favorable to protect you, you still have to work to counteract those other folks.
Jewish groups have been protesting the whole time. Fuck, before all this it was Jewish folks who introduced me to anti Zionism. In late October I had to hear a whole thing about the crackdown against Jewish pro Palestine protesters in New York and how the media keeps ignoring them or brushing aside the fact that some of these protests are Jewish led. (I was at a party hosted by a Jewish anti Zionist friend the day after a Jewish anti Zionist protest in central station was broken up) In fact Israel had to crack down against Israeli protestors arguing for peace and a measured response.
This is not Jews vs Palestinians or Jews vs Muslims. This is Israel (the government and a significant portion of their citizens) and their supporters against the people of Palestine.
Am aware. I’m imagining a much larger and more outspoken shift. If the status quo is 20/80 where 20 speak against Israel’s actions and 80 don’t, a flip to 80 speaking against.
Ok or, we could listen to the Arabic Americans about their experiences 20 years ago and learn not to demand ethnic groups constantly denounce foreign people just because they’re the same ethnicity because it turns out that really sucks.
Honestly, a lot of people are. But the big groups, like AIPAC and the ADL, are pretty heavily pro-Israel.
That’s such a great point. I never thought about that.
It’s all just a bunch of religious nonsense.
Nah, this is about the theft of land, destruction of property, and some super evil fucks trying to enrich themselves at the expense of an oppressed people.
Welcome to world politics
So nice for the school to make classes virtual so you can go out and protest while listening to lecture.
That’s weird, why is Passover relevant to this? I’ve been assured that these protests have nothing to do with antisemitism 🤔
Removed by mod
I’m sure it’s antisemitism, not the armed NYPD officers that have been on campus last week heating and arresting protestors.
What does that have to do with Passover?
Do you believe everything people in power say? Just because they say it’s die to passover doesn’t mean it actually is. It sounds like a excuse to make the protesters seem unhinged and unreasonable to me. I have no real details of what’s been going on, but I for sure don’t trust the school leadership just because they have authority.
The article mentions how Jewish students are afraid that something will happen, which seems pretty reasonable to me given how heated the rhetoric is on this subject. The last time there was a protest at Columbia, protestors’ signs included such gems as “Al-Qasam’s Next Targets”. That doesn’t strike me as a statement hoping for peace.
In one instance, video captured a person holding up a sign that said, “Al-Qasam’s Next Targets,” referring to Hamas’s armed faction, near several Jewish counterprotesters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/21/nyregion/columbia-protests-antisemitism.html
Edit: It’s very interesting to me that simply reporting on factual events gets brigaded with downvotes here. Touching a nerve, perhaps? I think Palestine should be a state, but I will not overlook the violent and antisemitic elements on the Palestinian side either.
It could be that. But it could also be slant from both the administration and the media, who have been downplaying Israel’s actions since the genocide in Gaza started and have painted Iran as an aggressive war-mongering nation when Israel attacked the Iranian consulate first, and then continued to attack Iran while they tried to deescalate. The Passover justification could simply be a convenient excuse, and there’s no way to know for sure that any antisemitism isn’t from bad faith actors rather than the original protestors. It happened with the BLM movement, and there were even reports of undercover cops trying to incite violence amongst the protestors then, like the FBI did when they radicalized the man who would later go on to bomb the Boston Marathon. The NYPD does not have a good reputation, and the administration and the cops have been acting aggressively against the protestors. It could have something to do with:
While that sign is fucked up they were pro-Israeli counter protesters that happened to be Jewish.
If your position begins with “Death threats made to someone’s face are bad, but…” you may want to reconsider your stance. Hate and dehumanization is the source of this whole clusterfuck.
The war is a great cover for antisemitic assholes to spread their hate. The antisemitic assholes spreading their hate is a great excuse to squash legitimate criticism of Israel.
Yeah, that sign is pretty fucked up. Not a good look. However, that’s one sign. Any sufficiently large protest is going to have something that can make it look bad. It sounds like they didn’t actually do anything harmful though, so that’s good. It sounds like just some edgy humor in very bad taste (assuming it’s legit and not a plant). Is that a good enough reason to stop the protests? Do we think the same would be done if things were in the opposite direction?
Edit: Just FYI, I upvoyed you. I hold nothing against posting actual information.
Is that a good enough reason to stop the protests? Do we think the same would be done if things were in the opposite direction?
I think threats of violence are a good enough reason to stop protests, but I don’t think it would be treated the same way if it came from the pro-Israel side, unfortunately. The Israeli government in particular have been getting away with far too much and I’d like to see them all at the Hague.
they happened to occupy the same time slot. that’s what it has to do with passover.
it’s kind of like when the trans day of rememberence was on Easter. Easter is a holiday that moves. it happened to move to the same day that the trans day of rememberence was always on. people got all mad that Biden put that on Easter, even though he didn’t.
this is a protest in response to police violence. that violence happened Friday. today is the first day that the people they are protesting are back at work and can be affected by the protest.
there you go, that’s everything this has to do with passover. now you know and can stop asking.
Removed by mod
It’s not at all, Columbia is trying to cover their ass because they raided and then suspended the protestors Friday, and could have seen some backlash to that today with more protests. Saying it’s because of Passover is the lie they’re selling to justify their actions.
Could it be that some of the protesters are antisemitic and they are using the protest as cover? I don’t know that this is the right step to take, but this is really the perfect time for actual bigots to make attacks. It’s Israel’s fault since they associate themselves with Judaism and they’re the ones perpetrating the genocide, but that doesn’t change anything.
Yeah it looks like there’s some peaceful protesting going on, that’s also attracting more extremist elements. At least that’s what I got from reading the article.
It’s always a risk when ethnic groups are involved in conflicts of any sort and there are protests elsewhere in the world. It gives bigots cover.
It’s Israel’s fault since they associate themselves with Judaism
I was with you until this. Criticizing Israel’s government is absolutely legit (and IMO justified at the moment) but criticizing Jews for being Jewish is… weird.
I’m not criticizing Jews for being Jewish. I’m Jewish. What I am not is Israeli, despite them trying to associate me with them.
Gotcha, agreed. To be fair, there is a LOT of antisemitism on the Palestinian/Arab side, so the Israeli govt is not the only one causing this conflation of Israeli policy and Judaism at large.
To be fair, why do you think they’re antisemitic? Could it be the years and years of oppression under Israel, who have conflated themselves with Judaism the entire time?
This isn’t me saying that antisemitism is good, but the same reason you were confused about the ties between Judaism and Israel (and lack thereof) is probably the same thing going through their heads.
I’m going to assume you mean well, but this is bordering on “She was asking for it, did you see what she was wearing?”
They don’t. It’s called fear mongering.
Columbia made a Pantheon building?
I had to stay home today so the AC company could rewire the unit. We are getting a new roof put on the building and removing all the AC units from each rack to put new racks in is a big job. It was really hot for most of the day and they were able to finish the job. It was more rewarding to not be involved in the news or flow of information concerning tensions. There is no value in US media output. Now I will read some technical stuff and keep away from the news. It’s unfortunate our world is in such bad condition, but that is not my fault nor is it my problem. I’m gonna stay in my lane and mind my business.
i didn’t need to read this
i didn’t need to read this
