Officials at Columbia University, facing surging tensions on campus that raised safety concerns, have announced all classes will be virtual on Monday as Passover begins.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement the decision was made to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”
The move underscores how tense the situation has become at the Ivy League school and the enormous challenge facing Shafik to get the situation under control.
Jewish groups have been protesting the whole time. Fuck, before all this it was Jewish folks who introduced me to anti Zionism. In late October I had to hear a whole thing about the crackdown against Jewish pro Palestine protesters in New York and how the media keeps ignoring them or brushing aside the fact that some of these protests are Jewish led. (I was at a party hosted by a Jewish anti Zionist friend the day after a Jewish anti Zionist protest in central station was broken up) In fact Israel had to crack down against Israeli protestors arguing for peace and a measured response.
This is not Jews vs Palestinians or Jews vs Muslims. This is Israel (the government and a significant portion of their citizens) and their supporters against the people of Palestine.
Am aware. I’m imagining a much larger and more outspoken shift. If the status quo is 20/80 where 20 speak against Israel’s actions and 80 don’t, a flip to 80 speaking against.
Ok or, we could listen to the Arabic Americans about their experiences 20 years ago and learn not to demand ethnic groups constantly denounce foreign people just because they’re the same ethnicity because it turns out that really sucks.
Percentage-wise Jews are actually overrepresented in pro Palestine rallies and protests.
There aren’t actually that many Jews in the world. Continuing the hypothetical 20%, if 20% of Americans would go protesting the numbers would be insane.