31 Comments
So many statements
In response to Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s embracing of the Barnard Columbia Socialists’ treatment of the early 1990’s and 2000-2005 intifadas as actions of “civil disobedience,” over 600 students, alumni, and faculty have come together to condemn the characterization. The group is not representative of Aryeh, J Street Initiative, or any pro-Israel group on campus, but includes both Jews and non-Jews from different places on the political spectrum.
The text of the statement reads as follows: “We the undersigned students, alumni and faculty write today to condemn Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s dismissal of terrorism as ‘civil disobedience.’ The first and second intifadas mark tragic low points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Thousands of innocent civilians on both sides were murdered during these violent periods. The mischaracterization of suicide bombings, stabbings, and shootings as ‘civil disobedience’ is an egregious ethical breach. We proudly uphold the value of free speech, but malicious incitement and fictitious characterizations do not lie within that value and should find no welcome within our campus discourse.”
Update (9:16PM): The post has been revised to include information regarding Barnard Columbia Socialists’ stance on the intifadas.
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31 Comments
@Ted One more note. Check anywhere, on any social media site or anywhere else. You will not see an instance where anyone Pro-Israel (REALLY Pro-Israel) say something and not stand behind it. They do not delete posts, shuffle facebook pages or try to get around their previous comments. the only shifty tactics are used by the PP side.
Enough said.
And by the way, the BDS movement will fail. Because Israel is the only democracy in the blood soaked middle east. The only place LBGT can be openly LBGT, the only place where women have equal rights, the only place where every single public sign is in English, Hebrew AND ARABIC, the only place where everyone is treated equally. Oh, and they don’t intimidate journalists into portraying their side when reporting. One Jewish state and how many Mulsim ones? but they need the Jewish state to disappear….BECAUSE THEY HATE JEWS.
@Ted There is nothing wrong with free speech. However, when you refuse to allow anyone to express their opposing view then you are violating their civil rights. Forget about the argument of who is right and who is wrong. If you do not allow an opposing view and are not willing to debate the issue in order to find a solution then your view has no merit. I find all too often that while Pro-Israel people are more than willing to debate their positions, Pro-Palestinian people do not, they more often than not choose to suppress the opposing argument, resorting to violence and or intimidation.
In my eyes the view that supports violence and suppression of opposing views is usually the one that is absolutely full of lies or bias.
Why doesn’t any Pro-Palestinian Organization ever take these things to court? Because they cannot win their case. not even to the Hague. Only to the UN because all the UN can see is oil money. Never to a legally binding authority. There is a reason for that……figure it out.
@Charlie Don’t attack the solution. Your instincts are correct on misogyny , your instincts are correct on equality and tolerance. But you’re geography is appalling. The Middle East is riddled with hate, misogyny and violence. The state of Israel is the contrast and the solution.
@Anonymous 1st law of Columbia scandals — everything is ultimately about Israel/Palestine (see No Red Tape)
@Jana What is difficult to see here are the unbelievable lies, violence, slander, inciting, ignorant, evil words of these organizations, SJP & BDS. IT IS SO CLEAR THAT NONE OF YOU HAVE EVER STEPPED FOOT IN ISRAEL. How can it be an apartheid state when both Arabs and Israelis serve in the IDF and The Knesset, have socialized medicine, and education.? You just love to hate Jews, do you not see how sick, mentally sick your hatred is? How toxic this is for the world? You are fighting what you think of as racism, with racism, it’s ugly and evil. Have you even looked at what is going on in the countries surrounding Israel? It’s the only country in the region where the Arabs are safe! God, please wake these people up.
@Julia Wexler Why is no mention ever made of the knife intifada currently and factually going on right now to Israeli citizens? A mother of six, stabbed and killed in her home in front of her children? Palestinians are not a pacifist state as stated above. Each time we ask for banning violent extremism for ANY cause, the response is the same: WE don’t do that! WHO DOES? Israelis do not strap bombs to their own children in order to blow up as many innocent civilians as possible. ISRAEL RESPONDS aggressively and too harshly (sorry!) to middle age violence. Palestinians were offered their own state. They want ONE state – river to the sea is your chant. They do not want peace. They want only genocide of all Israeli’s and all Jews of course. I would love to be proved wrong if anyone can watch what occurs when the violence stops. Israel’s first day of existence was met with war being declared ON HER by 7 Arab nations. We have responded ever since. Too aggressive? We aren’t walking into your gas chambers with smiles again. Sincerest apologies. What have the Palestinian people done for the planet other than export violence. Stop blaming the Jews. Look in the mirror. Every single German Jew had their land, their children, their lives stolen from them.
@Stephanie Pastor We see you- anti- Semites!!!
We see you hiding under human rights banners– the ugly truth is that you hate JEws. We see you.
I am a Barnard alumnae and never thought I would see this day
We see you now
@Jafar Not only is this hateful, eliminationist statement racist, it is also a perfect embodiment of the rape culture rampant on Columbia’s campus. The petition signers are students, faculty, and alumni okay with raping the feelings of brave students who stand against Israel’s horrid, institutionalized, nonconsensual exploitation of the Palestinian state.
It’s a wonder the Justice Department hasn’t punished Columbia for it’s rape-friendly environment. Or not. After all, the Justice Department is a branch of our lawless government that supports Israel’s violations of Palestinian safe spaces.
Israel is the devil, and supporting its actions is tantamount to endorsing rape.
@Come on As an Israeli who has been raped by an American boy, this is the most disrespectful comment I’ve ever seen on Bwog.
@Jafar You sound upset. I understand it’s difficult to read it put in that way given your experiences. Nevertheless, it is your experiences that should convince you to stand against Israel’s oppression of a weaker, defenseless, and pacifist Palestinian state. Israel is a bully who allows Palestine no agency. Palestine feels helpless and abused much the same way a victim of assault feels.
@staff Palestinians are pacifists? You must be too young to remember that Arafat/ PLO’s official goal is to drive all the Jews into the sea. I’m no fan of Netanyahu, but we don’t condemn other races/religions for their country’s leaders/politics. This is called “anti-semitism” and it is just as wrong as any other bias. What about Mugabe? Do we hate all Zimbabweans?
@Daniel Cheren; CU SIA '86 Jafar the complaints of Palestinians are nothing short of absurd. They have had countless opportunities to have an independent State, an end to “occupation”, peace and prosperity. But, each time they have rejected them — for the simple reason that it would require their coexisting with Israel. It is this unrepentant aggression, hatred and intolerance that fuels the terrorism and violence that prevents any progress in the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as the larger Mid East conflicts that are tearing the region apart. I know it is easier to blame the Jews. But if you ever want to figure out why the ME is such a mess, buy a mirror.
@Burner I’m pro Israel but this is A+ trolling. Amazing.
@Skeptical Guys chill out, it’s not like it matters who said what. CUAD, SJP and Aryeh are just undergrad organizations on campus. It’s not like they actually have an impact on the situation in the Middle East.
When you think about it, SJP has been around for over 20 years. Have you seen any improvement for Palestinians in the Middle East? Nope. If anything, things have gotten worse.
So again, take a deep breath and relax. Let Israeli Apartheid Week happen, if it can help feed the ego of Ivy League undergrads.
@Fact Check Can either Bwog or the petitioners direct me to a statement from __CUAD__ that is as described in this article?
@Anonymous https://www.facebook.com/CUapartheiddivest/posts/1576553049297499
@Fact Check So CUAD never used the term ‘civil disobedience’, as asserted? BC Socialists did?
@Jafar When SJP gets the lamp, there’ll be no stopping us.
@Gidi Sign the statement here: http://goo.gl/forms/vD8iwl9KE7
@CC 2014 Why didn’t anybody tell me about this? Can I still sign?
@wheresthediversity can this list get more white and/or Jewish?
@Diversity?!? I know right?! Because we all know if there’s no diversity then this is obviously a sham!! Because whites and Jews couldn’t possibly have a voice in the matter!!
@Wow You’re an asshole and its people like you who are the reason that so much stupid shit gets said on campus.
@At least At least You put and/or. Sick of this racist all jews are white shit.
@Ted And this, people, is what the Pro-Palestinian factions can all agree on.
This is their true colors. They are racists that want all Jews dead. Don’t ever think it’s because of the land, it’s because Israel is a place for Jews and they can’t deal with that.
If the Palestinians refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist, doesn’t that in itself show everyone what they are all about?
check your facts people.
@FINALLY Students call for violence and then… nothing? Was waiting for something like this.
@Re: the faculty Good to see all these business, engineering, medical and science faculty putting their extensive training in history, politics and philosophy to work in telling everyone what we’re allowed to say! At least the arts and humanities faculty seem to know it’s not in their interests, or the students’, to start deciding what ‘is welcome within our campus discourse’ and what isn’t – once you do that, the university as a place for ideas dies.
@Anon1 1. There are history professors on there
2. While you might think that scientists aren’t equipped to understand world events, the MESAAS and cultural anthropology professors that signed the Apartheid Divest statement were fucking jokes, as are those two fields of study. I would trust a hard scientist’s assessment over a cultural anthropology professor’s assessment on most days.
@chill with the tags, bwog How is this even tagged breaking?
@Anonymous tit for tat?