#columbia university apartheid divest

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

Columbia University’s most strident pro-Hamas organization distributed literature calling on students to join the terror group’s movement to destroy Israel during this year’s convocation ceremony last week, according to various reports on social media.

“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” says a pamphlet distributed by Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) spinoff, to incoming freshmen. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”

Other sections of the pamphlet are explicitly Islamist, invoking the name of “Allah, the most gracious” and referring to Hamas as the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Proclaiming, “Glory to Gaza that gave hope to the oppressed, that humiliated the ‘invincible’ Zionist arm,” it says its purpose is to build an army of Muslims worldwide.

“We call upon the masses of our Arab and Islamic nations, its scholars, men, institutions, and active forces to come out in roaring crowds tomorrow,” it adds, referring to an event which took place in December. “We also renew our invitation to the free people and those with living consciences around the world to continue and escalate their global public movement, rejecting the occupation’s crimes, in solidarity with our people and their just cause and legitimate struggle.”

This latest exaltation of violence was followed by a disturbing act of vandalism on Columbia’s New York City campus. On Tuesday, a masked man poured red paint on the Alma Mater sculpture located in front of the Low Memorial Library, symbolizing the spilling of blood. A protest broke out elsewhere on campus, with a young woman, whose face was concealed with a keffiyeh, waving a sign cut into the shape of an inverted red triangle. It said, “Long live the intifada.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Christopher Mathias and Matt Shuham at HuffPost:

Real estate developer Reuven Kahane, whose cousin founded a notorious group deemed a “violent extremist” organization by the FBI, was arrested in New York City on Tuesday after he allegedly drove his car into a group of pro-Palestinian protesters, injuring a 55-year-old woman. Kahane, 57, was charged with second-degree assault, a New York City Police Department spokesperson confirmed to HuffPost. Police said the Upper East Side real estate developer was driving his car near the corner of Park Avenue and 72nd Street on Tuesday morning when he got into a dispute with a group of about 25 pro-Palestinian protesters who were marching nearby. As the protesters began to disperse, Kahane allegedly drove his car into the crowd, striking Maryellen Novak, who was taken to a hospital to be treated for minor injuries. The incident was first reported on X (formerly Twitter) by Talia Jane, an independent journalist in New York City. Reached by phone Wednesday, Kahane told HuffPost, in reference to the protest, “I was driving home from dropping off my daughter at school, and live within seven blocks of the location.” He declined to comment further on the incident.

Referring to his relative Meir Kahane, a rabbi who founded the extremist Jewish Defense League, he said, “My cousin passed away more than three decades ago and should have no influence in this story.” Novak and another protester, 63-year-old John Rozendaal, were arrested on charges of criminal mischief. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Wednesday that it would decline to prosecute Novak and Rozendaal. Reuven Kahane’s attorneys, Sara Shulevitz and Mindy Meyer, told HuffPost that their client pleaded not guilty to the charge of second-degree assault during an arraignment Wednesday morning. His next court appearance is set for June 25.

[...] The pro-Palestinian protesters had been picketing outside the residence of a Columbia University trustee. This came during weekslong demonstrations from students, faculty and alumni demanding that the Ivy League school divest its endowment funds from companies and weapons manufacturers that have business with Israel’s government amid that country’s ongoing siege of Gaza, which has killed around 35,000 Palestinians, 24,000 of whom were women and children. According to a statement from Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD — the group that organized Tuesday’s demonstration — Kahane initially drove up to the protesters in his car and asked for a flyer. When one of the protesters handed him a flyer, Kahane grabbed the protester’s arm, the statement said. Kahane then “parked in front of the picketers until we started leaving, then circled the block to drive into our peaceful demonstration,” the statement continued. “One member of CUAD’s de-escalation team was struck and has since been hospitalized.”

[...] Kahane is the cousin once removed of Meir Kahane, whose Jewish Defense League was designated a “right-wing terror group” and a “violent extremist” organization by the FBI. Meir Kahane was killed in New York City by an Egyptian American man in 1990; the killer was acquitted of murder but would go on to participate in the 1993 World Trade Center attack. He was later convicted on federal charges related to the rabbi’s death.

Reuven Kahane, the cousin of far-right extremist rabbi Meir Kahane, was charged with second-degree assault as a result of driving his car into pro-Palestine protestors in NYC.

[questioningespecialy]

video, short article, and transcript in link

The university responded to the attack by first scolding the organizers for holding an “unsanctioned” rally, then later said it had banned the suspects from campus while police investigate. This comes after Columbia administrators banned the local chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace in November, with students describing a climate of censorship and retaliation for pro-Palestinian activism on campus. “Overall, it’s been a very clumsy handling,” Columbia professor Mahmood Mamdani says of the school’s response to student protests and campus safety. We also speak with Columbia Law School professor Katherine Franke, who says concerned faculty “have been spending an enormous amount of time protecting our students from the university itself.” —January 25, 2024

[jadeseadragon]

#Repost @jewishvoiceforpeace

UPDATE: Last night, NYPD brutally arrested at least 282 students.

History has shown that the Columbia University was wrong in its oppression of the student anti-war movement of 1968, and wrong again in its oppression of the student movement against South African apartheid in 1985.

History will show that University of Columbia, and all university administrations refusing to divest from Israeli apartheid, are yet again wrong in oppressing students demonstrating for Palestinian freedom and an end to the Israeli genocide of Palestinian families.

We call on Columbia University and CCNY to accede to the students’ demands for disclosure of and divestment from all investments supporting Israeli apartheid, and demand that they reverse all punitive measures against these brave student protesters. As the students remind us: All eyes on Gaza.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

"Seeing a lot about the police response to the protests at Columbia, but not seeing anyone really talk about what the Columbia students are protesting FOR. They have published their list of demands. I'm gonna read them to you now."

[archivistsunbird]

[news4dzhozhar]

[immaculatasknight]

The view on the ground

[sscarletvenus]

the university which administers the Pulitzer prizes is not allowing press on campus, to make sure nobody on-site can document what is happening.

the nypd threatened student journalists qnd their dean with arrest if they leave a building named after Joseph Pulitzer.

at this point it isn't even worth remarking on the sheer horror, the baffling irony of it all.

entire new york roads have been closed to traffic so that nobody can prevent the world's largest police force's brutalization of students protesting THEIR tution fres and tax dollars contributing to killing kids.

all of this to... keep investing in an apartheid regime.

Columbia University would rather risk their students getting murdered than divest from genocide...

[archivistsunbird]

[ALT] Instagram stories from wizard_bisan1:

Refocus. The goal of the campuses demonstrations is to stop the genocide in Palestine. The Israeli army threatens to invade Rafah, which contains 1.4 million displaced people, within a week! The target of the campus demonstrations is to withdraw millions of investments from Israel. Which they use to commit massacres and famine in Gaza. Do not allow universities to normalize your demonstrations and claim to support them, because this seeks to buy time, mitigate the severity of the revolution you started, and circumvent your goals. Remember that houses are being bombed over our heads and that there are 100 martyrs today! A short while ago the Israeli army bombed a residential house in Rafah and killed 10 members of its family! Thank you, you are amazing, but more is needed to be done! To be heard more!!!

Don't lose focus! Yes, the university campus protests are excellent, but remember WHY and WHAT they are protesting.

from Bisan, 27/Apr/2024:

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ellen Ioanes at Vox:

Protests over the war in Gaza erupted on Columbia University’s campus last week and have sparked demonstrations at other universities across the country. The demonstrations have resulted in some intense crackdowns and political scrutiny, all coming in the wake of recent congressional hearings on antisemitism on campus and amid an uptick in both antisemitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in the US. Protests have emerged across the country, including at Yale University, New York University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Miami University in Ohio, and Temple University in Philadelphia, among other campuses. Once again, top universities have become the locus around which America litigates questions about the US’s support of Israel amid its deadly war in Gaza, free speech, antisemitism, and anti-Muslim discrimination — and a convenient target for political elites looking to make a point. For example: Lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson today, are visiting Columbia’s campus.

The protests are calling on universities to divest from firms that they contend profit from Israel’s war and occupation in Palestine, more than six months after the start of the war and as the death toll in Gaza has exceeded 34,000. Some groups at universities that conduct military research, like New York University, are also requesting their schools end work contributing to weapons development as well. At Columbia, Yale, and New York University, students have faced mass arrests as administrators seek to quell the unrest. Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel protests have become a prominent feature on college campuses since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel. They reached a fever pitch in December when the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania gave controversial testimony before Congress about campus antisemitism, both real and hypothetical.

Tensions reignited last week after Columbia president Nemat Shafik gave congressional testimony that, per the Associated Press, focused on “fighting antisemitism rather than protecting free speech.” Students erected tents on Columbia’s main lawn to show solidarity with Gaza. Then Shafik took the controversial step of calling in the police to arrest those involved. That contentious decision wasn’t just jarring to Columbia students particularly because of the university’s history, but also sparked outrage among onlookers both at the site and on social media. The controversy at Columbia and other campuses has illustrated how universities have struggled to uphold their dual commitments to free speech and protecting their students during a fraught political moment when more young people sympathize with the Palestinian cause than with the Israeli government. Concerns about antisemitism at the protests (often attributed to students, but largely perpetrated by outsiders according to anecdotal reporting) also piqued national attention; amid this all, Columbia University switched to remote learning on Monday, April 22 — which also happened to be the first day of the Jewish holiday of Passover. [...]

There are antisemitic incidents in the United States, which represent real danger to Jewish communities and individuals — and they have increased since the Hamas attacks on October 7.

In December, the Anti-Defamation League reported that antisemitic incidents had increased by nearly 340 percent since then. Complicating its data, however, is the fact that the ADL does not always differentiate between violent antisemitic incidents like assault and anti-Zionist protests and calls in support of BDS. Removing all Israel-related incidents from their count, America has a smaller but still big problem: Non-Israel-related antisemitic incidents still rose by 65 percent compared to 2022, per their data. Columbia students aren’t alone in facing broad accusations of antisemitism. Students at Yale, the Ohio State University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and others have all been called out by the ADL for engaging in Palestine solidarity protests as well as for specific incidents of antisemitism. Nor are they alone in facing arrest; NYU students and faculty and students at Yale have also been arrested. Police involvement in the protests — particularly on New York City campuses — has been met with backlash, particularly from university faculty and activists. [...]

What’s behind the protests?

In many ways, the demands of the protesters have been overshadowed by the controversy.

At Columbia, the protesters belong to a coalition, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), which formed in 2016 to demand Columbia and Barnard College disclose investments in and divest — or remove from its investment portfolio — from Israeli and American companies and institutions that support Israel, citing its wars in Gaza and oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and its illegal occupation of Palestinian territory. The coalition’s demands are of a piece with the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) movement started by Palestinian civil society groups in 2005. BDS cites as its inspiration the anti-apartheid activists of the 1980s who targeted South Africa’s apartheid government with boycotts. While that movement wasn’t decisive in bringing down that government, it was successful in alienating the apartheid government from major global players like Barclays bank, the Olympics, and the International Cricket Conference, forcing countries and international institutions to confront their complicity in South Africa’s racist policies.

In addition to divestment from “companies profiting from Israeli apartheid,” CUAD has a list of five other demands, including a call for an immediate ceasefire from government officials including President Joe Biden, and, importantly, an end to the dual degree program that Columbia has with Tel Aviv University. These demands echo those of student groups at other colleges and universities. NYU student activists are also demanding the university shut down its Tel Aviv campus and “divest from all corporations aiding in the genocide,” including weapons companies, and ban weapons tech research that benefits Israel. Critics allege that BDS and anti-Zionism are at their core antisemitic, arguing that BDS delegitimizes Israel and “effectively reject[s] or ignore[s] the Jewish people’s right of self-determination, or that, if implemented, would result in the eradication of the world’s only Jewish state, are antisemitic,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Vox explains very well the nationwide college student protests against the Gaza Genocide and Israel Apartheid that tie in to the broader debate on antisemitism and free speech on college campsuses.

[beemovieerotica]

so columbia university successfully divested from companies operating in apartheid south africa

they divested from 18 firms operating in sudan during the genocide

they divested from companies linked to tobacco, for the sake of public health

they divested from for-profit prisons

they divested from fossil fuels

but they somehow can't divest from a country carrying out a genocide in 2024? [x]

[a-very-tired-jew]

Columbia University's Joint Anti-Israel Groups Go Mask Off

Hey, remember how Columbia University had students in encampments protesting for months? Remember how their SJP, BDS movement, and associated groups endorsed terrorism, violence, and "resistance by any means"?

I remember. Well their joint SJP and BDS group called CU Apartheid Divest just posted something to their Instagram that shows it has never been about Palestine or Palestinians.

Fig. 1. CU Apartheid Divest group, made of SJP, BDS, and other groups openly admits that they are anti-Western Civilization

Read that again.

"We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization."

That's a wild statement to make.

So what are they posting about suddenly that has them revealing their intent for their actions since October?

Bangladesh.

The CU Activists are attempting to liken October 7th attack by Hamas with the Bangladesh student protests. Bangladesh had a quota based employment system that students were protesting, the government responded violently, and everything escalated from there due to years of government corruption, violence, and economic turmoil. This was a protest turned revolution within a country by its own people. This was not a government run by a recognized terrorist group attacking another country, killing civilians, and taking them hostage.

However, the differences and reasons between Hamas's actions and the actions of the students in Bangladesh do not matter to the anti-Zionist Activist.

We've seen this repeatedly from these activists that they will try to liken their movement and/or attach it to other conflicts around the world. Many of these conflicts differ greatly from the Israel/Hamas war as they are internal issues with internal actors being involved.

Bangladesh is students protesting against their government.

Sudan is going through a civil war between various factions.

The Congo has been experiencing decades long violence as various militias fight each other for control.

Yet I've see anti-Israel protestors tag their posts with Free Bangladesh, Free Congo, Free Sudan even though these conflicts differ in origin and parties involved.

If you continue through the IG post you'll see very little information as to the cause of the protest/revolution in Bangladesh and continued attempts to coopt the actions for their movement.

Fig. 2. CU Apartheid Divest group tries to liken its student movements to the student protests in Bangladesh and calls to escalate.

I can't help but think that the CU student activists yearn to be oppressed in a way that would allow them to respond like revolutions and protests around the world. The way they speak and write exudes a yearning for violence. In Fig. 2. they detail the actions taken by students against an authoritarian government that has actively shot and killed protestors. Whereas here in the USA the students were forcibly removed from campuses, experienced some police violence, were arrested, and then released. No curfews with a shoot on sight policy were imposed here in the USA in response to college campus protests.

Fig. 3. CU Apartheid Divest classifies this as an Intifada and likens it to Hamas's attack.

Notice in Fig. 3. that they're trying to call the actions in Bangladesh an Intifada. Not an intifada, but an Intifada which is a proper noun with its own connotation. I know I may be a stickler here, but if I see that word capitalized then I know it's referencing the First and Second Intifadas, and I know that these student groups have been calling for a Third one under the guise of "Global Intifada". They also say that Westerners need to escalate and are "obligated" to do so.

Fig. 4. CU Apartheid Divest uses tankie terminology, refers to Bangladeshis as martyrs, and calls this part of the Global Intifada.

The terminology in Fig. 4. also shows how much the Free Palestine student movement in the USA is not actually about Palestine, Palestinians, or any other movement it tries to attach itself to. These are tankies as indicated by the use of "comrades" and they are wholly opposed to Western Civilization. They genuinely state that their movement should violently escalate here in the USA and that they should be prepared for "sacrifices". This language when coupled with the use of Intifada is alarming as it appears that these student activists are preparing to follow in the footsteps of the Second Intifada, or at the very least calling for others to do so.

These students, whom call themselves the Militants of Hind's Hall (seen in the IG post, but not pictured here), are coopting, or attempting to coopt, movements and conflicts from around the world for their own ideals. As these are students in the USA who are arguably experiencing the least amount of oppression when compared to these other conflicts, and are actively attending Ivy League or R1 universities, it can only be assumed that they're yearning to live out their Glorious Revolution fantasy.

I am under no illusion that I understand their reasoning. Are things perfect here in the USA? Of course not, but when compared to the countries that these student protestors are attaching themselves to, we are leaps and bounds better. And if you disagree, then I have to ask, when was the last time we had a curfew with a shoot on sight policy?

Anyone attempting to call this movement and group "peaceful" is naive. They've been telling you for months that they're not peaceful, that their goals are not peaceful, and that the only peace they want is after they commit violence.

The IG link for reference

[palestinegenocide]

Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition statement on chemical skunk attack

On January 19, a protest against the Israeli genocide in Gaza was attacked by counter-protesters using the chemical agent, known as "Skunk." The university bears full responsibility for all violence against the pro-Palestine movement on campus. 

[mypatchworkreflection]

"CUAD (Columbia University Apartheid Divest) noted that the alleged attack took place as U.S. politicians including President Joe Biden have condemned the campus protest movement, with at least one lawmaker applauding abusive behavior by anti-Palestinian counter-protesters and New York City Council member Vickie Paladino (R-19) saying last week that the student movement is being led by "monsters, and it's now our job to slay them."

Paladino's "call for vigilante justice was almost fulfilled today," said CUAD.

USA Today also reported that at a separate protest on the Upper West Side near the apartment building of the co-chair of Columbia's board of trustees, "a woman punched a demonstrator in the face, seemingly at random."

In Los Angeles last week, city police stood by while a mob of pro-Israel counter-protesters attacked nonviolent students who had set up an encampment in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel has killed at least 34,789 and on Monday invaded Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians have been forcibly displaced.

On Tuesday, in honor of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Annual Days of Remembrance, Biden gave a speech on antisemitism, conflating protests in support of Palestinian rights with the hatred of Jewish people."

""Just as white supremacists ran over a protester in Charlottesville, Zionists on the streets and in police precincts have declared open season on young people fighting for Palestinian liberation.""

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Dion J. Pierre

Columbia University locked down its campus on Thursday, following an anti-Hillel protest staged by a front group for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) outside the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life.

“SIPA, SIPA, you can’t hide, you invest in genocide!” the mob chanted, according to The Columbia Daily Spectator, as they held signs calling for the university to “abolish” the Birthright Israel program, which grants Jewish students a free trip to their ancient homeland.

As The Algemeiner previously reported, this assault on Columbia’s Jewish life, perpetrated by a group which calls itself the Palestine Working Group (PWG), appears to have been prompted by an event held by the university on Thursday, in which Israeli journalist Barak Ravid spoke as a guest of the Kraft Center — where the Hillel chapter serving both Columbia and Barnard College students is located — and the School of International and Public Affairs’ (SIPA) Institute of Global Politics (IGP).

Reputed to be the largest Jewish collegiate organization in the world, Hillel International is a “home away from home” for the 180,000 students at over 850 colleges who avail themselves of its religious services, relationship building opportunities, and recreational activities. PWG, along with another group called Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), insists, however, that “Hillel is complicit in manufacturing propaganda and consent for the Zionist entity’s imperialist and colonial projects.”

On Friday, Columbia University — which has come under fire for its alleged failure to combat the incubation of antisemitism and jihadist extremism on its campus — denounced the attacks on Hillel.

“The Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, the home of Columbia and Barnard’s vibrant Hillel, is a vital part of our campus, providing a welcoming space for our students to explore and celebrate Jewish culture and identity,” Columbia University said in a statement that was not attributed to any one official. “We appreciate the many contributions the Kraft Center and Hillel and make to supporting our Jewish community and building our university community. Any efforts to intimidate the Kraft Center, Hillel, and our Jewish community and all forms of antisemitism are unacceptable and inimical to what we stand for as a university.”