Yet another Monday. Fall Break is behind us, and Thanksgiving is still a while away. Seems like a fairly innocuous week, doesn’t it? Little do you know your every minute is latent with meaning. This relatively arbitrary sequence of November days is playing host to not one, but at least five separate “Week of…” events. We have dubbed it the “Week of Weeks,” and we urge you to read on to discover all that you have to see and do during these coming days.

This is probably what your iCal looks like

1. Occupy Columbia’s Week of Action. Get your fill of peaceful dissent as you join OccupyCU in protesting the Sotheby’s lockout, discussing education and the economy, and marching downtown to support OWS. Bwog will be checking in with the student activists throughout the week.
2. Yale may have banned their Sex Week, but that spirit is alive and well at Columbia, with the annual Sexhibition Health Fair (featuring penis cookies galore) taking place this Thursday afternoon and a rather sexy workshop scheduled for that evening. Both events are sponsored by Take Back the Night.
3. On a more serious note, it is also Depression Awareness Week at Barnard. The Furman Counseling Center will be hosting a series of events focused on raising awareness about mood concerns, removing the stigma associated with depression, starting positive conversations about mental health, and boosting wellness.
4. Students for Education Reform is hosting Education Week, with a slew of talks on the current “education crisis” ranging from whether or not teaching is a legitimate profession to the issues with access to college education. There will also be visits to local schools where you can go tell kids about how much not fun college is.
5. Last but not least, this week is also Israel Week, presented by Kol Israel at Columbia and Barnard Hillel. Events include an Israeli goods fair, talks on Zionism and the history of Israel, and a colorful party.

Calendaric catastrophe via Wikimedia

He's less iconic in person.

Last night, famous linguist and leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky spoke on “America and Israel-Palestine: Peace and War” at Barnard’s LeFrak Gymnasium. The line to get in was long, but Bwog’s radical correspondent Peter Sterne made it inside.

A full hour before Noam Chomsky was scheduled to begin speaking, the auditorium was already beginning to fill up, and by 5:40 pm, virtually every seat was taken. Attendees continued to stream in, but they were forced to stand on the sides or sit on the floor.

Professor Chomsky began by noting the distinction between “people” and “unpeople.” People, he said, were entitled to human dignity and human rights, while unpeople “look human but are considered unworthy of human rights.” Historically, unpeople have included indigenous peoples and “those the Constitution considered only 3/5ths of a person.” In the War on Terror, he proposes, “unpeople” now include non-Americans. He noted that even though many were critical of Obama’s decision to assassinate Anwar al-Awalki, an American citizen and alleged terrorist in Yemen, they didn’t mind when the United States killed non-Americans. Chomsky used this example to illustrate how Americans are considered people with certain rights that should be respected, while non-Americans are not.

The same, he argued, is true of Israelis (people) and Palestinians (unpeople) in both the U.S. and Israel. He pointed to an October 12th front-page New York Times article, “Deal With Hamas Will Free Israeli Held Since 2006” (the online version’s title is different), that was illustrated with a picture of Israeli women celebrating Gilad Shalit‘s release. In Chomsky’s view, the article focused on the impact of Shalit’s release on Israelis, while largely ignoring the individual Palestinian prisoners involved in the prisoner swap, because the Palestinians are considered “unpeople.”
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In case you were wondering why a large tent and tv screens have been set up on Hamilton Lawn, it’s for the Talk Israel initiative, “a program that fosters dialogue about the changing landscape of the Middle East by setting up tents in central areas on North American campuses.” They have lots of pizza and, last time Bwog walked by, were playing Balkan Beat Box.

Tensions in New York and on campus are high, as in addition to Ahmadinejad’s visit to the city, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas seeks official recognition of statehood at the UN Assembly this week. Seven people were arrested yesterday for blocking 1st Ave in protest. A few pro-Palestinian students have been gathered on a bench across from the tent since this morning.

The Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine (CSJP) have set up a theatrical mock Israeli checkpoint on Low steps. The demonstration is part of Right to Education Week and is designed to raise awareness of the hardships faced by Palestinian students on their journeys to and from school.

“Israeli guards” are walking around with cardboard guns, interrogating and terrifying passersby, while blindfolded “Palestinians” crouch on the floor.

In response, Hillel groups Lionpac, Just Peace, Garin Lavi, and Tarbootnikim have set up camp at the Sundial, claiming that the CSJP refuses to enter into any sort of dialogue with them.

Hillel’s “It’s Complicated, Let’s Talk” flyer after the jump.”>

"Checkpoints aren't ideal, but for now they're necessary"

Hillel’s “It’s Complicated, Let’s Talk” flyer after the jump.

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Photo: http://www.ishmaelkhaldi.com/

Power-walking to catch the final hour of Ishmael Khaldi’s lecture on a “Bedouin’s Perspective,” Bwog MEALACtivism Correspondent Sarah Camiscoli had to check the Bwog Bucket List several times to confirm that the location was in fact just a classroom on the third floor of Milbank. In a small room and in front of a small crowd, the first Bedouin Israeli diplomat shared his provocative thoughts on Israeli Apartheid/Israel Peace Week.

Ishmael Khaldi, a Bedouin Muslim Israeli activist invited to speak by LionPAC, relayed his story of being born and raised in the village of Khawalid in the Western Galilee of Israel; receiving a Masters Degree in Political Science from Tel Aviv University; serving in the Israeli Defense Ministry; becoming the first Bedouin deputy consul of the State of Israel; working with the American Embassy; and advocating for Israel in San Francisco. While his accomplishments from “growing up as a shepherd [to] becoming an educated world traveler” are famously depicted on his website and other media sources, Khaldi spent most of his time and energy focusing on his close relationship with the Jewish community in Israel, his disgust with the lack of support for Israel in this “western nation,” and his desire to see more advocacy from those who support the existence and the political agenda of Israel.

Some of Khaldi’s most poignant moments came as he spoke about the expectation for “Western countries to sympathize with [Israel’s] right to exist” and the fact that there “is something rotten here, and it is very bothering.” Khaldi, who worked with students in San Francisco to show them “who Israel is” by setting them up with internships in Silicon Valley and sending them on trips to to the country, expressed his discontent at seeing “only 20% of Jewish students who are active and against [anti-Israel activism]” like this week’s Apartheid Wall. Referring to those students who took the initiative to build the wall, Khaldi said, “If they have responsibility, tell them to go to Harlem. What is the difference? Go to Riverdale. Can we have Riverdale Apartheid Week?” Read more…

Little darling, the snow is melting, lalala, dododo. February is over, the sun is shining, and it’s March 1: Day 1 of Israeli Apartheid Week 2010! Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine have constructed an Israeli Apartheid Wall on Low Plaza. SJP members are assembled around the wall handing out literature and answering questions. The Wall on Low is intended as a mini version of the Wall surrouding the West Bank. One member of the SJP, below, sketched graffiti from the Wall in Israel.

Photo via the Gruber Foundation

Bwog’s Infrastructural Warfare Correspondent Megan McGregor braved the snowstorm on Wednesday to report on Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkia’s lecture in the IAB.

On Wednesday evening, as we all know and enjoyed, classes and campus activities were cancelled due to the severe winter weather. Still, 707 IAB was packed with many shivering and damp individuals. Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkia, visiting from Jerusalem, braved the storm to deliver her passionate lecture, “My Jerusalem: Tense Politics of the Everyday,” to an eager crowd.

Professor Nadera is, among many things, a therapist, social researcher, feminist activist, senior lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the director of the Gender Studies Program at Mada al-Carmel in Haifa. She visited from the Old City of “her Jerusalem” not only to promote her new book Militarization and Violence against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: A Palestinian Case Study, but “to share with [us] the day to day events” that affect the lives of Palestinians living in Jerusalem after the erection of the Israeli West Bank “wall of separation.”

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Graphic used by Adalah New York speakers

Bwog’s Liz Naiden squeezed into Hamilton 517 early for the Columbia Palestine Forum.

Eager throngs crowded closer to the door and looked longingly into a small Hamilton classroom where the Columbia Palestine Forum was about to commence (Columbia Palestine Forum being both the name of the event and the group that sponsored it). Quick background: the group demands (among other items) that Columbia issue a declaration of support for academic freedom in Palestine, “condemn the destructive actions of the Israeli state,” and hold “an open forum detailing its investments in companies and corporations actively involved in or profiting from the Israeli occupation, to begin a conversation University-wide conversation about divestment.” 

The four-professor panel (Gil Andijar, Bruce Robbins, Brinkley Messick, and Mahmood Mamdani) mainly addressed issues of academic freedom, how universities are involved in governmental and military policy, and the application of the term “apartheid” to the situation in Israel and Palestine. Anidjar opened with a discussion about the relationship between boycotting and freedom, ultimately agreeing with the US government�s view that boycotting is a legitimate way to promote and exercise freedom. Read more…

Today, a group of faculty members sent a letter with 120 professor signatures regarding PrezBo’s “silence regarding academic freedom in Palestine.” While the last Israel/Palestine student rally may not have exactly been of 1968-proportions (ah, but what is these days), the faculty list has many well-known professors, including Lila Abu-Lughod, Gil Anidjar, Richard Bulliet, Yinon Cohen, Victoria de Grazia, Rashid Khalidi, Philip Kitcher, Mark Mazower, Bruce Robbins, Gayatri Spivak, and Michael Taussig. 

Several campus groups, including Students for a Democratic Society, have also been forwarding the email to several political and activist groups on campus with the hope that they can accumulate a “sizable list of student signatures” to add to their 107-person-and-growing Student, Alumni and Community Support list. The student list will not, however, be presented to Bollinger.

The full letter and faculty list can be found after the jump. UPDATE: Our post originally reported that the letter had been made public by SDS. In fact, according to SDS members, the letter was created by “faculty have passed it on to students, who have forwarded it around.” (Photo by LPM) Read more…

Proving that even middle grounds can be staked forcefully, the Campus Democrats released a statement lambasting the recent Gaza protests on campus, accusing both camps of harmful divisiveness. They urged dialogue instead of separate protests and unveiled their plan to cosponsor, along with CIRCA, the College Republicans, Hillel, Turath, and the Chaplain’s Office, a “community conversation on the recent conflict” on February 10th. The Dems emphasized that “all perspectives are welcome” at the event.

Although underlining the openness of their upcoming conversation, the Democrats showed little restraint in criticizing the protest groups. They compared the quibbling in Morningside Heights to the battling in the Middle East. “If words possessed the force of rockets or the power of bombs,” the press release says, “Columbia’s campus would be as devastated as Gaza City or Sderot.” And that would no doubt suck.

The Dems concluded by declaring it “is time for us to beat our polemics into plowshares.” No word on whether the Dems apply that to their own press releases. Full statement after the jump. Read more…

The violence in Gaza sparks tense but ultimately peaceful peace rallies.  Everyone wants to converse, but nobody has yet.

Campo is to decamp to the space between Furnald and the Journalism Building.

But until then, you can decamp to our very own nearly-on-campus Greenmarket for produce.  Even though it’s winter.

And, of course, everyone’s still excited and awed by our most notable Columbian who’s working, oh, somewhere else for a while.

Bwog paid a visit to Low Steps this frigid Monday morning to see the Solidarity with Israel Rally at the Sundial. As reported earlier, the official pro-Gaza rally has been canceled due to the fact that the group never had Low secured as a venue for a demonstration. Head of LionPAC Jacob Shapiro began the Israel rally by thanking those who made the event possible as campus security mulled about and group of Palestinian supporters grew across from the sundial at the bottom of the Steps.Those in the crowd of Israel-supporters held signs reading “Hamas is a terrorist organization” and “we support a sustainable ceasefire” while the group of Palestinian-flag-waving Columbians stood quietly on the Steps.

The rally seemed like “the fight of the flags,” as a fellow Bwogger put it – the 80-member group of Israel supporters, all supplied with flags being passed out by event coordinators, while the 30-ish group of Palestine supporters unfurled large flags and held them over their heads. A group in the middle of the two rallies held a huge cardboard sign, and a member told us of their hope for a “constructive dialogue.”

Still, the scene could be best summed up by a young man trotting down Low Steps, who took it all in and muttered to his friend: “this is awkward.” 

Looking for a little activism to go with your lunch next Monday or Tuesday? A group claiming the name “The Columbia Community Stands With Gaza” has announced a series of pro-Gaza events to take place next week.

The events include a protest, a speak out, and a series of candlelight vigils (three types of events often called the “Activist Trinity”). The protest and speak out will start at noon on Monday on Low Plaza and Tuesday at the sundial, respectively, while the vigils will be held at sundial in the early evening throughout the week. For the protest, the announcement encourages students to make different kinds of posters, giving examples like “Columbia Students Stand with Gaza,” “Jewish Students Stand with Gaza,” “People of Color Stand with Gaza,” and “Queers Stand with Gaza.” Though there just may be a pattern in those examples, Bwog recommends against “White People Stand With Gaza” or “Ewoks Stand With Gaza.”

And since Columbia is known for its rational discussion of all things Palestinian and Israeli, we’re confident this’ll go just as swimmingly. Absolutely confident.

UPDATE: Bwog has been informed that the Monday protest coincides with a “Rally of Solidarity and Peace for Israel,” taking place at the same time on Monday at the sundial. Organizers tell Bwog that that the rally was scheduled before the “Columbia Community Stands With Gaza” events were announced.  Should be fun.

After six months in Glasgow, arts columnist still assumes there’s bagpipes in everything.

No fair: Columbia students can love their bodies — or have eating disorders — just like everyone else!  

As it turns out, major declaration is not as dramatic as Harry Potter would lead you to believe.  

“Bullen said she thinks that the ‘giant letter B’ on her Barnard stationery is ‘stark and ugly. What does a big B mean? The big B is the big bitch.’”

As it turns out, when a story about Columbia and Israel is reported by the Sun, and their only source is a right-wing blog, that story is often a big pile of crap.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning Arab-Israeli journalist and correspondent for the Jerusalem Post, delivered a presentation last night to a crowd of a little less than 50 students in Lerner Cinema. On a lecture tour sponsored by Hasbara Fellowships, Abu Toameh had also recently spoken at other colleges in the northeast including UPenn, Harvard, and Brown. Here, he was sponsored by LionPac, the Pro-Israel Progressives, and the Republicans.

Playfully identifying himself as an Israeli-Arab-Muslim-Palestinian living in Jerusalem, Abu Toameh described his long career as a journalist, which interestingly began at a newspaper sponsored by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). During his studies at Hebrew University, he decided to leave the PLO-sponsored papers and become a “real journalist” by joining the international and Israeli media. His feelings on the issue were quite clear, as he spent the first half of his presentation sharply criticizing the restrictions on media in the Palestinian Authority, citing both the direct lack of free press as well as poor security for journalists. Stating that foreign journalists face no restrictions while working inside Israel, he celebrated his freedom at the Jerusalem Post to write, he said, whatever he wants. Read more…