, 04.27.2024 01:37 PM

My latest: Masters in Hate

What is Columbia University?

It’s a university in New York City, of course. It’s also a place that we’ve been hearing a lot about in recent days. It’s symbol of sorts, now.

It’s also 36 square acres of hate.

Listen to Khymani James, one of the leaders of the group that has effectively seized control of Columbia University’s campus, in a video he filmed and promoted: “Zionists don’t deserve to live comfortably, let alone Zionists don’t deserve to live. The same way we are very comfortable accepting Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live, racists don’t deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn’t live in this world.”

He went on: “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”

Over at New York University, a short taxi ride away, some students were interviewed saying they “really don’t know” why they are protesting. (Give NYU students points for honesty, if not actual education.)

Since April 17, Khymani James and hundreds of others – some students, some not – occupied the lawn in front of Butler Library, in the middle of Columbia U. They’ve set up identical tents tents – same size, shape, color, and who bought them for a bunch of typically-penniless undergrads, no one knows – and they are living there. They’ve got up Palestinian flags and banners saying COLUMBIA FUNDS GENOCIDE.

What Columbia’s Israel-haters are doing has spread to other universities in the U.S.: Emerson College, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas at Austin, New York University, Ohio State, Yale, Princeton, Emory, and many more. Similar things have happened at Canadian universities, like McGill, York, McMaster, Western, Concordia, U of T and more.

The occupation at Columbia has attracted the most attention, however, because it’s spurred arrests and violence and confrontations – one Jewish professor, Shai David, has actually been denied access to campus because he’s a Jew – and, probably, because it’s close to many major American news organizations. It’s been ugly.

That ugliness has been made worse by outsiders. The New York Post reported Friday that hard-Left interests – such as the George Soros-funded Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Campaign for Palestinian Rights – have funded student “protestors” with significant amounts, much of it run through non-profits.

The Post reported that a campus-based “fellow” can receive up to $5,000 (Cdn.) a week for devoting eight hours to “organizing campaigns led by Palestinian organizations.” (The funding is not just happening in the U.S., either: as this reporter revealed in January, a B.C. organization called the Plenty Collective disbursed as much as $20,000 a month to those who came to anti-Israel protests in the Victoria area.)

So, that’s what the students are doing at places like Columbia, and how many of them are getting paid to protest. But what is the objective? What do they want?

A document provided to this writer provides some answers. Previously unseen in Canada, the document has been published by a shadowy group that refers to itself as “Ill Will.” The manual, written by “Anonymous,” is titled “First We Take Columbia.” (Which they have.)

Key excerpts from the manual, which they have also made available in French, Spanish, Turkish, Japanese and Chinese:

• “Occupations are effective because they are disruptive.”
• “An occupation needs to spread in order to survive. New buildings need to be taken on campus, throughout the city, and across the country. Take the enemy by surprise.”
• “Every occupation is a commune. By shutting down the normal flows of capitalist society, they open up space for something new to emerge.”
• “Occupations draw strength from the spectre of a riot.”
• “Students from other campuses, residents of the surrounding neighborhood, and outside agitators need to be welcomed in…The NYPD stood down [in the past] out of fear that violence might otherwise erupt. Similar tactics might be necessary today.”
• “This is only the beginning. A number of revolutionary organizations emerged from the 1968 occupations movement. Pushing the university struggle to its limit might contribute in a similar way to producing a constellation of revolutionary forces in the city today.”

“All power to the communes,” the manual concludes, which seemingly takes inspiration from the April 1968 occupations at Columbia, when students and others seized five campus buildings and took the dean hostage, resulting in 700 arrests.

Hopefully the current anti-Israel occupations won’t go that far. But one thing is clear about the Columbia students and others, and their opposition to the “illegal occupation” of Gaza.

Their occupations? They’re illegal, too.

7 Comments

  1. Warren,

    The inevitable dénouement will be one of ever-increasing escalation, violence and ultimately deaths. And who will be held responsible? Agitators and violence-prone students AND the police. When you don’t do your job properly, people die, and they will.

  2. From The Independent:

    The apology, but is it sincere? I hope it is.

    ”US campus protest leader apologises for ‘kill Zionists’ comments”

    In his apology [James] posted on X on Friday, the 20-year-old said: “I am frustrated that words I said in an Instagram Live video have become a distraction from the movement for Palestinian liberation. I misspoke in the head of the moment, for which I apologise.”

    He added: “My focus remains on drawing attention to the plight of the Palestinian people, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza. I remain committed to learning and building a better, more just world for all of us.”

    Mr James went on: “What I said was wrong. Every member of our community deserves to feel safe without qualification. I also want people to have more context for my words, which I regret.”

  3. Doug says:

    Can’t school’s expelled students participating in highly disruptive occupations? I’m unsure what the threshold would be for a code of conduct violation.

  4. John Martin says:

    It’s only going to get worse. We have a complete absence of leadership in western countries. They are abdicating authority to the anti Semitic mobs. These anti Semites are being emboldened by the lack of pushback from authorities and because of that we are going to see Jews die. There will be lynchings. Will the authorities grow a spine and act then? I’m not so sure and even if they finally do it won’t bring the murdered Jews back. Western govts will be accessories to these murders. This needs to end now and if it takes the police, National Guards or army to do it then do it. These anti Semites are making choices and they need to feel the full weight of consequences for those choices. Arrests, expulsions for students, firings for faculty. Show them how truly powerless and insignificant they are. Fight this fire with a nuclear bomb.

    • Jason says:

      There have been loads of charges for hate crimes nationwide in recent months. I’m sure more are forthcoming, and well-deserved. Private citizens should never be harassed at home or places of worship, nor anyone assaulted.

      I’m equally sure that it is disingenuous, counterproductive, and downright moronic to insist that every student (including the large swaths of Jewish ones!) at these protests have but a primary goal of exterminating Israel, and that every humanitarian request is inherently antisemitic. This hand has been overplayed to the point where it’s actively turning people off supporting Israel, because the message is “do as we command, or be labelled a bigot.” Let me tell you, that brand of messaging has been working just peachy for America these past 8 years.

      We’re sick of hearing it. Tell the truth. The WHOLE truth. Quit with the damn propaganda. It’s not hateful to Palestinians to say that Hamas/Hezbollah terrorist tactics are abhorrent, nor is it hateful to Jews to talk about how Palestinian people have not received any measure of justice for their treatment in the past century.

      The worst part of this conflict is the rise of the masses seeing mass death in any capacity on any side and saying “they deserved it.”

      • Robynne says:

        The statement that Palestinians “have not had any measure of justice for their treatment in the past century” is false. Palestinians did not exist a Century ago. The land of Israel was an Ottoman province until the 20th Century. It was during WWI that the Sinai and Palestine campaign of the allies led to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. Britain was granted control of the region by the League of Nations. They committed to the creation of a Jewish homeland in 1917, in the Balfour Declaration. The inhabitants of the territory were Arabs from multiple countries living along side Jews on land that was not a sovereign country but is now the sovereign nation of Israel. However, the Arabs opposed this plan claiming full rights to the entire region, even though Jews in Israel are mentioned in the Bible, long before Islam was an established faith. The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were established in the Iron Age. Jews were indigenous to the land.

        The Arab flight to Gaza in 1948 after the Israeli Declaration of Independence, was approximately 700,000 people. That population grew to 2.5 million from 1948 to 2024. The number of Arabs who elected to stay in Israel and become full citizens, has grown to approximately 2 million, or 20% of the population and they serve in the military, on the judiciary, in the Knesset (Parliament), they are teachers, doctors, entrepreneurs, labourers….with all the same rights as Jewish Israelis. This does not in any way indicate an apartheid state nor a genocide.

        The fact that Palestinians in Gaza have been living in squalor for decades, rests squarely at the feet of Hamas and Iran. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 to let Hamas govern. It could have been a gem of a country and lived in peace with its neighbour. However, the plight of the Palestinians, which is awful, is a direct result of Hamas, a jihadi terrorist organization, ruling by intimidation and terror and absconding with billions of dollars in aid to build tunnels and buy weapons, launching rockets into Israel DAILY. What other country would tolerate that and not obliterate the offenders? And yet, though Israel could have wiped out Gaza 10 times over, it has not. If it were a genocide, every Palestinian would have been dead by October 10th.

        When Bill Clinton was in office, Israel agreed to a two state plan that would have relinquished 96% of the West Bank to the Palestinians. The PLO and Hamas rejected the deal. They wanted the entire land of Israel. When the Oct 7th massacre happened, there had been a ceasefire in effect that Hamas violated. Israel has agreed to several ceasefires since, yet beyond the first, short-lived pause, Hamas would not agree. Now, if Hamas would lay down its weapons and release the hostages (who are probably mostly murdered or mutilated), there would be a ceasefire. But if Israel lays down its weapons, more Jews would be massacred. No ceasefire. Ever. Until Hamas surrenders.

        As to the number of Palestinians dead in this war, if you look at history and any other war, by any measure in 6 months of war, 33,000 Palestinians dead is tragic (if indeed that is the number), however, of which at least 11,000 are Hamas terrorists (by Hamas’ own estimate), that is an extremely low number, proving that Israel actually does try to avoid hitting civilians. And if Hamas cared about Palestinians, why would they not let thousands of them shelter in the tunnels? Because they are useful pawns and more useful PR tools if they are dead. If more Palestinians die, it rests at the feet of Hamas and their puppet master Iran, who could not care less about Palestinians. They are useful martyrs to their murderous cause. And guess what? Jews are the canary in the coal mine. Smug, western dupes, including all those idiot students are in the cross-hairs of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Buckle up, kids. You’re in for a very rude wakeup call.

        • Robynne,

          Why even bring up a Hamas surrender when it will never happen? As for hostages, to Hamas they are nothing more than leverage and leverage is rarely if ever given up. Most if not all will die in terrorist captivity. That’s just the way it is. The IDF hasn’t found them and likely never will.

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