39 Comments
This being the sixth anniversary of the Al-Aqsa intifada, a bunch of Palestinian sympathizers have gathered on the sundial, wearing kaffiyehs and angrily puffing on cigarettes.
Socialists, Palestinian nationals, and Mealac majors/TA’s are all in full force.
Also, overhead, the sweet sounds of political/cultural hatred:
“Your prime minister is a war criminal!”
“You’re a fucking racist!”
After the jump, some blurry photos.
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39 Comments
@WHY? Are we wasting so much time with Israel/Palestine…neither has oil…can we just concentrate on Iraq?
@asdf this amazes me…..you are all up in arms about sakib taking a stance because he’s the chair of SGB, which decides the budget for Hillel? So far I have yet to see that Hillel has or is needing money or given an unfair budget. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Hillel is probably one of the best funded and well exposed groups on campus. And honestly, no one would care what he said if he left a pro-Israel comment. None of you who are upset truly care that he is taking a political side, you only care that he took the “wrong” side.
@bullshit There was an uproar this summer as well when the Dems president sent out an email with a link to a pro-israel petition.
The uproar has nothing to do with the side Sakib chose
@ok1 “angrily puffing on cigarettes”?
Hahaha, damn Socialists and Palestinians puffing on those cigarettes. I’m surprised the bow-tie wearing Scotch-drinking Republicans didnt come out in full force…
BWOG: how about you get someone who can actually write about campus events/problems in a realistic and thoughtful manner instead of whoever writes these pathetic generalizations of campus “social groups”.
@ttan This is really not hard:
1. Military occupation is wrong.
2. Terrorist uprisings are wrong.
3. Capitalism is right.
@Anonymous Hey everybody, let’s all CELEBRATE the fact that our region has been overrun with violence! Let’s CELEBRATE how people on both sides have been ruthlessly murdered! Let’s CELEBRATE the peace process being set back decades! What a great day for a party!
Any celebration of war is plain disgusting. But that’s what martyrdom is about.
@commemoration is not celebration. its rememberance. and its legitimization.
@Thank you for pointing that out # 28. Look at other such events/commemmerations throughout the globe. Some people are so willfully myopic and ready to launch into being offended when anything Palestinian is brought up. There is no narrative to talk about their oppression, people jump at the chance to de-legitemize them or the human rights abuses they have to deal with daily under Israel’s occupation. And yes, if one member or leader of a campus group like the Dems can have a clear stance or opinion without being shouted down, so can Saqib.
@please the president of the dems went ahead and made pro-Israel remarks on behalf of the dems weeks ago. Fuck trying to keep people for basic Palestinian rights always on the defensive, instead of looking at the nuances of what they are saying. “Oh no he supports terrorists!” in “discussions” surrounding resistance movements is so typical it’s disgusting.
@An offended Jew The Dems is a political organization. Josh Lipsky, who wrote the op-ed last year with Chris Kulawik, is a member of the Dems.
Is it a surprise when people who are active in political organizations have opinions on political questions? Doubtful.
SGB, however, is in no way supposed to be political. In fact, its supposed to be far from political, as evidenced by the fact that it funds groups across the political spectrum. Its chair should not be taking sides in political debates and then also be in charge of funding the participants on both sides of the debate. Its a pretty big conflict of interest.
@An offended Jew The Dems is a political organization. Josh Lipsky, who wrote the op-ed last year with Chris Kulawik, is a member of the Dems.
Is it a surprise when people who are active in political organizations have opinions on political questions? Doubtful.
SGB, however, is in no way supposed to be political. In fact, its supposed to be far from political, as evidenced by the fact that it funds groups across the political spectrum. Its chair should not be taking sides in political debates and then also be in charge of funding the participants on both sides of the debate. Its a pretty big conflict of interest.
@An offended Jew The Dems is a political organization. Josh Lipsky, who wrote the op-ed last year with Chris Kulawik, is a member of the Dems.
Is it a surprise when people who are active in political organizations have opinions on political questions? Doubtful.
SGB, however, is in no way supposed to be political. In fact, its supposed to be far from political, as evidenced by the fact that it funds groups across the political spectrum. Its chair should not be taking sides in political debates and then also be in charge of funding the participants on both sides of the debate. Its a pretty big conflict of interest.
@wasnt josh lipsky, now vice president, wrote the op-ed against finkelstein as well?
wow, i wonder what their board meetings are like
@for the sake of objectivity- SGB Treasurer Jonathan Seigel was involved in writing the anti-intifada editorial in the spec
in-fighting w/in sgb?
@human there was no anti-intifada ed. in spec. just an anti cawc stance on opposition to iraq including opposition to israel. and for those who feel that freaks like finkelstein need a platform at columbia, not every liberalminded human being needs to agree that Israel is evil. Probably whta bugs at you is the fac that Israel exposes the evils in the region because it is the closes to REAL democracy, supporting freedom of religion and similar values that are NOT supported elsewhere in the MIDDLEAST. wake up. or odn’t.
@to clarify 2 things 1) the stance cawc’s working group: students for justice in the middle east took was that it would take a more wholistic approach to the wars in the middle east, considering palestine, lebanon, iraq, afghanistan, and potentially syria and iran, as all fronts in the same campaign for the bush administration’s “war on terror” and “vision for a new middle east”. the majority view was that those two concepts need to be opposed on the whole, so israel needs to be part of (but there is still debate as to how much of) the campaign.
anyone is invited to selectively partake in any parts of programming for the year that they’d like,
and cawc has offered its full logistical support to the dems for any iraq sans israel programming it wants to do.
2) no one organizing this programming ever claimed to be representing “liberals” or declaring that “you’re not liberal if you dont support us”. in fact, most people dont give two shits about who considers themselves liberal and who doesn’t.
@David I don’t think Sakib makes the anti-semitic mistake of equating Jews (ie Hillel) with Israel. But anyway, do you seriously think you could find someone competent to run SGB, so with some idea what these groups do, who didn’t have an opinion on Israel and Palestine? Or would just prefer someone who lied about what they thought?
@interesting point *but* today Sakib did make the mistake of equating himself (and other Muslims) with Palestine
and do i want the SGB chairman to lie? of course not, but I do expect him to exercise restraint and good judgement and work to maintain the appearance of propriety and the absence of conflicts of interest. which did not happen today. at all.
@An offended Jew You don’t think Sakib “makes the anti-semitic mistake of equating Jews (ie Hillel) with Israel?”
Read his post, wherein he explicitly says Israel is a state for Jews yada yada yada
@When the Israelis use force to protect their people, they do not celebrate, they do not commemorate – it is a time for mourning, a last resort. To stand out there and give three cheers for bus and cafe bombings just demonstrates a repugnant character.
@DUDE What’s important is that SAKIB KHAN, Chair of the SGB, has the poor judgment to publicly say these things and still expect the rest of us to believe that he is an appropriate choice to lead the group that sets HILLEL’s budget.
I mean, do you let GEORGE W. BUSH set the official budget of the DNC?
@no, whats fucked up is the Chairman of SGB actively endorses what some people (like yourself) call a “terrorist movement” and still claims that he’s unbiased when he leads the organization that sets the budget and/or grants official recognition to groups like Hillel and the college republicans
@they were CELEBRATING a terrorist movement… and only 4 posts?
…that says a lot about Columbia
@Anonymous Forgot an obvious benefit, both Israel and the PROP countries will have incentives to make additional investments to improve the other countries. Israel will have incentive to build up the infrastructure of Gaza, Lebanon, etc. And the PROP countries will have incentive to send oil capital to Israel’s hi-tech industries.
Why?
Because equity dividends.
@Sakib Tao, you forget the political reality: Israel as a Zionist project strives to be a state primarily for Jews. A state primarily for Jews cannot be owned primarily by non-Jews, because then the project would be for… everyone.
As to why the Intifada must be commemorated–for years, Israel has occupied and subjugated Palestinians and extended no political status to those people. These people live under Israeli rule as much as Israeli citizens, and they have no protections from actions the Israeli government takes against them. As such, Israel has essentially maintained disenfranchised and subjugated populations in the West Bank and Gaza. The Intifada is the legitimate resistance against this prolonged occupation. Occupation without representation = Intifada.
@A.R.Q. The Palestinians have an elected government that represents their interests (in the West Bank, at least). Without the intifada, Israel wouldn’t be too busy in what are arguably pretty squalid and unproductive territories.
The Palestinians have, as is readily acknowledged, one of the better-function democratic processes in the world. The slow transition to *governance* by this method is not helped by a pattern of revenge bombings and suicide attacks, and to deny that is fallacy.
@is anyone else disturbed that sakib khan can say these things in public and still be the Chair of SGB, which, dont forget controls the budgets of
Action for Immigrant Rights
American Civil Liberties Union
Columbia Global Justice
Columbia Anti-War Coalition
Columbia Iranian Students Association
Muslim Students Association
Student Coalition on Expansion and Gentrification
Students for Environmental and Economic Justice (SEEJ)
Columbia Student Solidarity Netwrok
AND
College Libertarians
Columbia College Conservative Club
Columbia College Republicans
Columbia Military Society
Students United for America
Hillel
of *course*, i don’t mean to say mr. sakib khan is biased in the performance of his job… buuuut when he makes announcements like these, ya gotta wonder
the NYTimes, for example, forbids its reporters from taking part in public demonstrations, etc to avoid any perception of bias and conflict of interest
@Anonymous Sakib, here’s what I think:
1. Israel’s laws do not establish an official religion in any way.
2. Islam, however, is established as an official religion in most, if not all, surrounding countries.
2a. That being said, I find it a bit specious of you to rant about how Israel is a “state primarily for Jews” while in every surrounding country (and the PA), it is codified law that Islam is the state religion, and in some, it is a crime to be a non-Muslim.
3. That being said, I am neither a fan of suicide bombings nor do I go to sleep at night thinking about Israel.
4. Ted Childs over at IBM once told me “Nobody hates anyone else more than they love money.”
5. I’ve said my piece. Now I’m going to sleep.
@dude As for number 4, merchant of motherfucking venice. the guy did not take all that fucking money double because he wanted to get revenge on the other guy, and that guy was a stingy jew (not that all jews are stingy, but this guy’s character was a jew who was stingy)
@Anonymous Here’s how to bring peace to the Middle East:
1. Hire an investment bank to value both Israel and the surrounding countries that are not on the best of terms with Israel as two publicly traded entities able to issue equity or ownership stock. Let’s call these financial instruments Pro-Israels and Pro-Palestines (PROIs and PROPs).
2. Allocate 60% of the PROPs to Israel. Allocate 60% of the PROIs to the countries that make up the PROP. These allocations are of preferred stock are to be done by private placement. The remaining 40% of PROIs and 40% of PROPs (now common stock) are to be put up for global public auction.
2a. See what I’m doing here? Israel will own 60% of the surrounding Islamic countries, and those countries will own 60% of Israel. The rest of the world will own the other 40% of each.
2b. The preferred stock (held by Israel and the PROP countries) will carry super-voting privileges so the rest of the world can’t get too involved,
3. Both Israel and the PROP countries now have incentives to work toward peace. After all, if disturbances arise, it will negatively impact what they own in the other country. Additionally, just in case Israel and the PROP countries decide to screw the capital markets system and fight anyway, the rest of the world (which owns 40%) will intervene. Countries that never dreamed of getting into the Israel-Palestine mess will jump in to protect their investment. I want to see fucking ZIMBABWEAN paratroopers parachuting in if violence flares up. I want to see the Berkshire Hathaway Army marching in to protect their investment.
4. Grant both Israel and the PROP countries the right to repurchase the equity that makes up their country at the price they were originally valued at in accordance with benchmarks.
What kind of benchmarks? Well, lets say that 100 days goes by without a suicide bombing or a outbreak of violence; congratulations, both Israel and the PROP countries can buy back 1% of their country.
It’s important to grant them options to buy back shares at purchase price, for the simple reason that incentives are built in. If 100 days goes by without an outbreak of violence, then the economy of Israel and the PROP countries will likely have grown. So, let’s say a share of PROI was worth $100. If 100 days goes by without an outbreak of violence, then its worth $103 now, but Israel can buy it back for $100. Options rock!
4a. First, the preferred stock has to be bought back, and then they can rebuy the common stock. This will ensure that Israel and the PROP countries will first take care of their own relations, while the rest of the world exercises shareholder oversight.
5. Let’s set this benchmark at a nominal rate of 1% buyback (of original issue quantity, not 1% of 99%, etc.) per 100 days of no violence. At that rate, ownership of both countries can be completely restored in about 27-28 years under the best of circumstances. Of course, if violence happens, the 100-day counter is reset, but both countries (and the rest of the world) have an incredible incentive to behave and to see their citizens behave.
Now my question – the way things are going now, can you picture peace in the Middle East inside of 30 years?
With this plan, there’s can be measurable progress toward peace, it’s placed under world supervision, everyone has a stake in it, and everyone has an interest in seeing peace happen, and frankly makes a lot of money in the process. :)
@wow Tao thats insane… but i gotta admit, pretty fucking brilliant
@sick I walked by and saw a Jewish boy and a pro-palestinian screaming expletives at each other. The palestinian guy was being held back by his friend. It was completely disgusting and whenever I wonder why there can’t be peace in that region I will think back to those two people, filled with hatred for each other in the middle of our campus, on the most beautiful fall day. It made me want to cry.
@they were CELEBRATING a terrorist movement… and only 4 posts?
…that says a lot about Columbia
@actually I think it has less to do with people choosing not to repond out of agreement than the fact this sort of thing refutes itself.
@shut up. leave columbia, then
@correction I wans’t at the rally and don’t even care that much about this stuff, but Bwog, I don’t know why you equate pro-Palestinian ideas with “political/cultural hatred.”
@mental ineptitude hey you dolt. notice the colon (:) after that which clearly indicates the following yells were the examples of ‘political/cultural hatred’.
god. i hate idiots.
@dear bwog -- were any rocks thrown?
@sakib i’m bwurry on bwog