“Just got back from the Columbia encampment. Students feeding one another, sitting in tents, chanting about divestment. If I didn’t know better than to form my impression from what I saw on the news/twitter or what I heard from the White House (?!) I might never have come!”
~ Arielle Angel, Writer, editor-in-chief at Jewish Currents
Accounts from those inside the Columbia Gaza Solidarity Encampment are consistent–it’s peaceful, it’s driven, it’s anti-genocidal. It’s also filled with Jews who are aghast that Zionists (anyone at all) could possibly be okay with committing genocide.
Yes, contrary to “the news,” the protest is filled with Jews who are being actively suspended, punished, doxxed, and more by figures of authority who refuse to hear them and see them and who call them antisemitic terrorists.
85 Columbia students have been suspended for peacefully protesting and 15 of them are Jewish.
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Again, peacefully protesting. The NYPD, which the president of Columbia sent in to arrest protesters last week, seemed to not really think there was a reason they’d been called in after all. Because the protesters were…peaceful.
Chief John Chell said the “clear and present danger” was identified by Columbia, not by the NYPD. The NYPD reported no violence or injuries associated with the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
“To put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” Chell said.
Imagine it. The NYPD THINKS THEY WERE BEING PEACEFUL. And those guys love any excuse. The NYPD arrested the protesters anyway, but it really makes you think.
What’s happening is not okay.
Jews and others are in danger at Columbia, but it’s not at the hands of anti-genocide protesters.
They are in danger because of Zionism and purposeful misinformation, which our very own White House and “liberal” media are complicit in.
Columbia professor Shai Davidai, an absolutely despicable Zionist who has reportedly long stopped teaching his business students anything at all and has made himself the Number One Victim in The World and who is apparently actually scary enough that the administration deactivated his access to portions of campus today considers many of his own students to be terrorists.
Israel–yes, literally Israel–has agreed.
Literally Israel has now called anti-genocide Columbia students TERRORISTS
Terrorists.
For peacefully protesting.
And I do mean peacefully.
You wouldn’t know it from how mainstream news outlets are behaving and “reporting.”
There are many reputable journalists coming forward to say that reports like Tapper’s are wrong.
Here’s one by Antonia Hylton, correspondent at NBC and Emmy, Peabody, & Pulitzer finalist:
This was confirmed by Keith Gessen, Delacorte Review magazine professor at Columbia journalism school. Similar thoughts and/or confirmations by former senior Rolling Stone editor Marlow Stern, who teaches at Columbia journalism school as well as Washington Post columnist and Columbia adjunct lecturer Karen Attiah. Here’s another from Today Show contributor Alejandra Ramos who is also a student at the school:
It’s actually a wonder we have any confirmation that protests on campus (note, we are talking on campus here, not agitators outside the gates) at all. Not because journalists aren’t itching to get in there and report (independent journalist Talia Jane has been doing a fantastic job and you should all follow her immediately). The fact is journalists are largely not allowed in.
Columbia journalism school was trying to facilitate the entry of credentialed media but ~surprise~ that’s no longer allowed. There are small windows of time during which public safety may or may not allow press inside to report.
I don’t mean to be a cOnSpiraCy TheOrISt, but perhaps there is an essential press blackout so the White House can issue statements like this:
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Of this, The Intercept’s Prem Thakker makes a damn good point.
“On the same day Israeli forces airstrike a husband, his pregnant wife, and their 3-year-old child — and another 17 kids and two women — the White House releases a statement condemning hundreds of interfaith American students protesting the airstrikes in question.”
More Solidarity on Campuses!
Columbia students remain firm and strong in solidarity with Gaza against genocide and other universities and colleges across the country are joining in (yes!!! more!!!!). There are reportedly encampments and/or protests at Yale, MIT, UMD, UMichigan, UNC, NYU, and others. (students, I love you!)
Columbia Student Responses
Columbia students have put out a response to the forces smearing them, lying about them, and calling them terrorists:
Their demands are clear. Columbia must divest all finances from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine, there must be complete financial transparency, and there must be amnesty for all students and faculty who have been impacted in the movement for Palestinian liberation.
Columbia Faculty Solidarity
Speaking of Columbia faculty, many are standing in solidarity. Again - yes!!! more of this!!!
And check out Talia Jane’s videos featuring the massive faculty walkout today!
There are a lot of lies out there. Some are lying on purpose and others are being misled.
Let’s look to the ones doing the work - the students and the faculty that support them. Those who are beyond the gates supporting.
And, what the Gaza solidarity movement and these protesters are always always always reminding us -
This is about the genocide that’s happening RIGHT NOW in Palestine
#FreePalestine. This is movement is raising awareness and we can all do our part.
#GazaSolidarity
~
Jenn
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P.S. I appreciate you all. We must all stand together.