Columbia Leaders Grilled at Antisemitism Hearing

[Dill]

(04-25-2024, 04:29 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: There is so much more nuance to this than most people are really grasping. What is frustrating to me is that these university administrators are being called to Washington and not in good faith. The Columbia president quite literally did what the GOP wanted her to be doing and they are still calling for her resignation. I have heard so many conflicting stories when the student journalists on these campuses are telling what they have seen, which is more in depth and layered than what we see in the national media.

It's complicated. There seem to be "outside agitators" involved, and in some cases right-wing accelerationists may get into the mix.
That's a danger, because then whatever one or "some" protestors do then becomes an opportunity to label all.

And yes, just a week ago Shafik was praised for managing her session in Congress better than the presidents of Harvard and Penn.
Lots of thought policing in both sessions.

Here is one of those "conflicting stories."  (I'm looking for reports that students have actually changed "Death to the Jews" anywhere.)

Jewish student protesters say Columbia’s pro-Palestine demonstrations aren’t antisemitic
“There has been this discourse that Columbia is this hotbed of antisemitism, but it’s just a bunch of nerds sitting on the ground praying, chanting and doing homework,” said one student who has been at the college protest camp.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/columbia-protests-jewish-students-antisemitism-b2534817.html

In the week since a protest camp exploded across the grounds of Columbia University in solidarity with Gaza, PhD student Jonathan Ben-Menachem has been fielding worried calls from his family. They had been watching the news and were concerned for his safety.

"I’ve had to reassure them that I am not about to get mobbed by antisemites anytime I go to campus,” he told The Independent. “It’s just people trying to take a stand for what they think is right, very peacefully.”

He said he has watched with amazement as the media and political figures have attempted to characterise the protests as antisemitic and dangerous, despite Jewish student organisations playing a central role in them.

Mr Ben-Menachem is one of many Jewish students who joined the protests at Columbia and other universities across the US calling for their institutions to cut ties with companies linked to Israel over the war in Gaza.