A part of the Sequence
Wrestle and Solidarity: Writing Towards Palestinian Liberation
On Thursday, April 18, a swarm of NYPD officers in riot gear arrested 108 college students at Columbia College in an try to dismantle an encampment of pupil protesters demanding Columbia’s full monetary and tutorial divestment from Israel.
The transfer evoked the historic arrest and beating of a whole lot of Columbia demonstrators in 1968 after they occupied Hamilton Corridor, in protest of the Vietnam Struggle.
The Gaza solidarity encampment has now been reconstituted on the college’s East Garden, the place protesters are decided to not depart till their calls for are met. They chant, “Disclose, Divest! We won’t cease, we won’t relaxation!”
The protest encampment sprang up early within the morning on April 17, when some two dozen Columbia College college students flooded the campus’s Butler Garden beneath cowl of darkness, stealthily erecting 60 tents in lower than half an hour.
The primary Gaza Solidarity Encampment held sturdy for nearly 36 hours regardless of an enormous police presence on the scene, together with two NYPD Division of Corrections buses ready exterior campus and a number of threats of arrests.
The encampment, organized by Columbia College Apartheid Divest (CUAD), was deliberate to coincide with Columbia President Nemat (Minouche) Shafik’s testimony earlier than Congress on combating antisemitism on the college. Professional-Palestine activists have alleged that somewhat than specializing in any precise cases of antisemitism, these so-called antisemitism hearings are literally being utilized by Zionists and right-wing lawmakers as a bludgeon to stress college leaders into silencing pupil teams’ reliable critiques of the Israeli authorities and navy — together with critiques coming from Jewish-led teams.
Universities throughout the nation, together with Columbia, have been a staging floor for pro-Palestine organizing, with many college students going through arrests, suspensions and expulsions, in addition to what they describe as focused violence and harassment by pro-Israel college students and college.
As April 17 — additionally noticed as Palestinian Prisoners Day — drew on, college students flocked to the lawns in help of the camped college students. Some crossed the general public security barricades to affix them. A shifting picket line chanted, “Minouche Shafik, you possibly can’t disguise, you’re supporting genocide!”
Columbia chapters of College students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) had been suspended by the college in November; at the moment, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Authorized are suing the college for these teams to be reinstated. On January 22, at a pro-Palestine rally in entrance of Columbia’s Low Memorial Library, two pro-Israel college students attacked protesters with a putrid chemical spray, leading to eight hospitalizations. Social media customers recognized the scholars as former members of the Israeli navy and alleged that the chemical agent was “skunk” spray, an Israeli crowd-control weapon. On February 4, in response to this assault, the Palestinian solidarity group Inside Our Lifetime held a protest exterior Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus, the place the New York Metropolis Police Division (NYPD) made a number of arrests.
The Gaza solidarity encampment has now been reconstituted on the college’s East Garden, the place protesters are decided to not depart till their calls for are met.
Maryam Iqbal, a first-year pupil at Barnard School, a girls’s faculty affiliated with Columbia College, is a pupil in Center East and South Asian research and an organizer with SJP. She was one of many college students hospitalized and identified with chemical inhalation from the January skunk assault. She stated that there was no response from the college administration after the dean was emailed concerning the incident. “There was solely a response three days after I posted an image from the hospital,” she informed Truthout. The alleged perpetrators had been suspended and are reportedly suing the college to reverse the suspension.
Iqbal, who’s Muslim, described being adopted by NYPD’s counterterrorism unit from a rally at Columbia’s campus to Washington Sq. Park in February. “The official state account of Israel has tweeted at [Columbia SJP],” she reported. (On January 24, the account cited an SJP protest as proof that Columbia “has develop into a protected and open area for college students who help terrorism and violence,” tagging the college.) She additionally described being doxxed on Canary Mission, a pro-Israel web site that lists figuring out info and footage of pro-Palestine activists. Iqbal additionally claims she was personally singled out on social media by Columbia assistant professor Shai Davidai, who has gained notoriety for his in depth pro-Israel social media posts, notably concentrating on Columbia pro-Palestinian organizations like SJP. “I’m 18 years previous and I’m on his Twitter each week.” The Intercept and Columbia Day by day Spectator each reported that Davidai has confronted complaints of concentrating on particular person college students on his social media accounts, which Davidai denies.
Iqbal says that, whereas Columbia launched the Process Pressure on Antisemitism on November 1 — which doesn’t disclose its definition of “antisemitism,” a time period that has typically been disingenuously expanded and weaponized to silence reliable critiques of the Israeli authorities and navy — no equal safety has been provided to Muslim, Palestinian or Arab college students. “It’s very uneven to say the least,” she added.
Iqbal feels that there’s “apparent stress from donors and the board of trustees” to crack down on pro-Palestine campus organizing. “We’ve been planning to escalate,” Iqbal stated concerning the timing of the encampment to coincide with Shafik’s testimony earlier than the congressional listening to. “It was the proper alternative to point out that there’s no quantity of congressional hearings that may deter us.” Iqbal was one of many Barnard college students arrested and suspended, together with Rep. Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Irsa Hirsi.
Soph Askanese is a third-year pupil in faith and radical social justice actions in addition to a member of JVP and SJP. They’re Jewish and described being raised in a fervently Zionist Jewish family. Askanese stated they recognized as a Zionist till they started to query the indoctrination they grew up with.
“I’m known as a self-hating Jew on a regular basis,” they stated. “They are saying I’m not an actual Jew. I get individuals approaching me on campus to critique me. I’m sick of antisemitism being weaponized by the ADL [Anti-Defamation League], being weaponized by AIPAC [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee], being weaponized by the Zionist foyer to assault majority individuals of colour. All solidarity is intertwined. This discourse distracts from very actual cases of antisemitism that we see … just like the Tree of Life taking pictures. I frankly discover conflating antisemitism and anti-Zionism to be antisemitic. It’s primarily only a instrument of the Israel foyer.”
Askanese says of campus insurance policies just like the antisemitism activity pressure, “They’re prioritizing discomfort over truly feeling unsafe.”
Askanese added:
When anti-Zionist Jewish college students had been focused by harmful chemical substances, they didn’t name that antisemitic. I’ve been at a number of of those open hearings that the antisemitism activity pressure has achieved, they usually solely take notes when Zionist college students are talking. I requested what they had been going to do concerning the chemical assault, what their definition of antisemitism is … there was no reply.
Iqbal agreed that the cost that Palestine solidarity on campus makes Jewish college students really feel unsafe is disingenuous. “Are you being made to really feel unsafe? Or are you simply uncomfortable?” she requested.
“What is occurring in Congress is a method by way of which lobbies can impose their requirements onto us, inviting far proper Jewish teams to talk somewhat than interviewing anti-Zionist college students,” Askanese continued. “For me, it’s extraordinarily vital as a result of I see this listening to as a solution to additional repress, additional silence college students. And we’re out right here to point out we will’t be silenced.”
An announcement by Nationwide SJP on April 4 reported that 5 Columbia college students concerned with pro-Palestine organizing had been suspended and given 24 hours to vacate their dorms with none due course of, which reportedly violates not solely Columbia’s personal insurance policies, but in addition New York state regulation.
Based on the assertion, “These suspensions got here two nights after a Palestinian pupil was visited at their dwelling by a personal investigator employed by Columbia College. After being denied entry to the coed’s home, the PI rattled the doorknob a number of occasions as if attempting to interrupt in.… Investigators demanded to see personal textual content messages of the scholars for them to ‘comply’ with the investigation, and denied them entry to authorized counsel.” The assertion alleges that this maneuver was a part of an effort to “enhance Columbia’s public picture” forward of the congressional listening to.
On the encampment, Columbia College Apartheid Divest circulated flyers mapping the relationships between Columbia’s board of administrators and firms like Lockheed Martin, HEICO, BlackRock, Google and Microsoft, which materially help the Israeli occupation of Palestine by way of arms and surveillance know-how resembling Venture Nimbus. Board member Victor H. Mendelson is president of HEICO; Trustee Jeh Johnson is on the board of administrators of Lockheed Martin; Vice Chair Abigail Black Elbaum is on the board of the NYC Police Basis and likewise has ties to BlackRock and Google by way of Columbia College’s funding firm.
The CUAD web site lists in depth monetary ties between the college and different corporations which have been scrutinized for his or her help of Israel’s occupation, like Caterpillar, Raytheon and Boeing. The Columbia College administration was contacted for remark for this text however didn’t reply by press time.
As of this writing, Columbia has agreed to one of many protesters’ calls for: full monetary transparency about Columbia’s operations.
Catherine Elias, a first-year grasp’s pupil in worldwide affairs and an organizer with CUAD, attracts a direct line from the anti-Vietnam Struggle pupil occupation of Hamilton Corridor in 1968 to the present encampment. After the scholars shut down campus operations for seven days in 1968, the NYPD stormed the campus and brutally arrested a whole lot of scholars.
“And in the event that they need to arrest me this time, I’ll be proper again out right here tomorrow,” Elias promised. “They will attempt to repress us, however we’re not going to cease preventing for Palestinian liberation.”
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