Columbia University Students Stand Against Genocide in Gaza

It is that simple, it’s not about Jew hate, it’s about humanity, justice, life and liberty.

Police in riot gear face demonstrators outside the Columbia University campus in New York on Thursday. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Student protests have a long and storied history on the campus of Columbia University. In 1968 student activists protested Columbia’s plans for the Morningside Park gymnasium. There were organized student protests of racism and of course major opposition to the Vietnam War.

On Thursday, NYPD moved it at the request of the School’s President to break up a student encampment where students were demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and for the university to financially divest from Israel.

Students argued the lawn was previously designated a “free speech zone” as a part of the university’s policy on protesting, but students were removed, some arrested and suspended from campus, and some also evicted from their on-campus housing, the student newspaper reported.

It appears the actions were the result of the encampment being organized by the student-led coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace. Tensions have been high on numerous University campuses since Israel’s military offensive on the Gaza strip in retaliation for the 7 October attack on southern Israel by Hamas. The opposition has grown as a result of the continuation of actions by Israel that have resulted in massive food insecurity and signs of famine and starvation, as well as attacks on civilian populations that have leveled 70-to 80% of the housing and deaths in excess of 34,000.

Such opposition has brought out allegations of antisemitism by some students and fueled by conservative GOP House members. In the House Republicans have conducted a “dog & pony show” of sorts, parading University President before them in hearings to grill them on antisemitism.

While the MAGA movement has shown antisemitism is alive in America, and the increased visibility of Nazi sympathizers, one must ask the question can a person oppose on humanitarian grounds the IDF tactics and war that Israel is waging in Gaza without antisemitism? Is such opposition anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli government?

It is important to distinguish the difference between the two. One member of Congress, Rep. Aaron Bear (R-FL) has shown as many of here colleagues have, they have difficulty separating the two. One of the groups targeted by University President, Minouche Shafik, was Jewish Voice for Justice. There is wide spread belief by many Jews, especially in the west, that Israel has in fact created a humanitarian disaster in Gaza on the level of Genocide.

Many Jews have been quoted as saying, “Not in our name” to separate themselves from the policies of the Netanyahu government. So many people have over the years equated antisemitism with hate for Jews that they cannot distinguish the difference between hate for a person and hate for government policy that may or may not be supported by a given Jew or even the majority of the state of Israel. In fact, Israel is actually a secular state. We may think of it as a Jewish state, but it’s population includes 27% non-Jewish. And as much as a third of the actual Jewish population are not practicing Jews.

No doubt the Holocaust has contributed to the general use of the term antisemitism. People in the west equated Hitler’s horrific assault on the Israeli population with the term antisemitic almost to the exclusion of anyone else. Encyclopedia Britannica says:

Antisemitism “is especially inappropriate as a label for the anti-Jewish prejudices, statements, or actions of Arabs or other Semites,”

Why would this be? Because Semites are an ethnic, cultural, or racial group associated with people of the Middle East, including Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. There is no specific term that is comparable and specific to Arabs. I suppose you could say someone is Islamophobic, but that still is not quite on the same level.

What is clear is that the coinage of the term antisemitic has evolved — starting in the 19th century. When members of Congress want to label something antisemitic they are specifically suggesting something. That something is Jew Hate. That is what they want you to hear, and that is what to focus on, because it’s connotation is of course ugly.

So at Columbia University we have students who are saying ENOUGH! Stop killing Palestinian babies. Stop Killing Palestinian women. Stop starving the civilian population of Gaza! Stop investing in Israel as long as they are committing genocide and practicing apartheid.

This isn’t about hating Jews. Leave it to the GOP to have difficulty with things like discrimination, racism, hate in general. Interestingly the GOP in general doesn’t call out Trump on blatant issues of hate. For Republicans this comes down to getting sound bites. About making Universities appear to be a hotbed of liberalism. They couldn’t care less about the genocide.