#pro Palestinian student groups banned

[news4dzhozhar]

#columbia university #student activism #protest for palestine #pro Palestinian student groups banned #double standards #hypocrisy #harassment #islamophobia #sad that places of learning are so ignorant #uc berkeley #apartheid #save palestine #ethnic cleansing #israel is an apartheid state #seek truth #free palestine 🇵🇸 #genocide #illegal occupation #collective punishment #israel is an illegal occupier #israel lies while palestine dies #propaganda kills

[magz]

Palestine related news summary from LetsTalkPalestine, May 1 to May 4, 2024.

[Ways to help, sources, and more: LetsTalkPalestine Linktree]

May 1.

(Instagram reel of UCLA protest. Includes footage of treating n washing a pro-palestine protestors' bloody head)

Day 208

🇨🇴 Colombia to cut diplomatic ties w/ Israel

•⁠ ⁠33 killed, 57 injured in the last 24 hours. Real number likely higher

⚖️ US lobbying ICC not to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, after Israel's threat to respond by retaliating against Palestinian Authority for sparking ICC investigation

🇫🇷 France denies selling weapons to Israel used in Gaza, claiming what's sold will be re-exported to 3rd countries via Israel, but did supply Israeli Iron Dome defense system

🇹🇷 Turkey set to follow Columbia & Nicaragua by joining South Africa's ICJ case against Israel

🎓 Zionist mob attacked Palestine protestors at UCLA w/ fireworks & pepper spray for 3 hours, police didn’t intervene (📹👆). Columbia & CUNY asked NYPD to raid & arrest 280+ student protestors. New encampments across UK, Tunisia & Canada

🚚 First aid trucks enter through Beit Hanoon crossing to north Gaza despite Israel's promise to open 1 month ago. Nearly half of aid convoys to north Gaza denied by Israel.

May 2.

(Instagram post, news update. The Israeli occupation has killed Palestinian Dr. Adnan Al-Barash.)

Day 209

• 28 Palestinians killed, 51 injured in last 24 hours. Note that the toll is underreported.

🏥 Dr. Adnan al Barash killed in captivity after IOF abducted him in Dec (📷👆)— 496 medical personnel killed in Gaza + 309 in captivity

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia arrests many for anti-Israel online posts, incl. an executive & media figure. Timing suspicious w/ reports of renewed normalization talks

• IOF attacks aid convoy, killing 1

🇹🇷 Turkey stops all trade w/ Israel after banning 54 exports to Israel

🇺🇸 US House pass “antisemitism awareness” bill using repressive IHRA definition of antisemitism despite antisemitism covered in anti-discrimination law. Why is IHRA definition problematic? See tinyurl.com/ynsfy8sx

• IOF airstrike in central Gaza killed 5, incl. a child

🪨 37m tons of rubble in Gaza, heavy contamination w/ unexploded ammunition & 800,000 tons of asbestos

🎓 Columbia & Emory University face federal investigation for anti-Muslim discrimination, reports of doxing & harassment

May 3.

Day 210

• World Press Freedom Day: Israel killed 100+ journalists since Oct 7 + holding 53 captive

• 26 killed, 51 injured in the last 24 hours. Note the toll is underreported.

• Israel attack on Rafah killed 7, incl. a mother & her children — the children’s bodies were shredded by the airstrikes

🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago recognizes the State of Palestine as West Bank & Gaza

🇬🇧 UK sanctions 2 Israeli groups + 4 settlers for violence in West Bank, warns of more sanctions if no Israeli action against settler attacks

• Israeli strike on Bureij camp killed 5, incl. a child

💰 UN estimates cost to rebuild Gaza at $40bn; more than post-WWII reconstruction

🎓 Goldsmiths University students in London win & obtain demands after occupying library — @ goldsmithsforpalestine on instagram for details

🎓 University encampments for Gaza go global spreading to 🇨🇦 🇮🇳 🇳🇿 🇪🇸 🇦🇷 🇯🇵 🇰🇼 🇱🇧 🇹🇳 🇯🇴. US crackdown w/ 2,200 students arrested

• Iran-backed Bahraini militia launches attack at southern Israeli port Eilat

May 4.

Day 211

✝️ Israel blocks entry of many Palestinian Christians to Jerusalem for Holy Saturday celebrations

•⁠ 32 Palestinians killed, 41 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours. Toll underreported

•⁠ ⁠IOF killed 5+ in 15-hour siege on Tulkarem (West Bank) & clashes with Hamas resistance fighters. IOF targeted fighters’ homes w/ women & kids inside, demolished homes trapping many under rubble

•⁠ ⁠Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 11 incl. 3 in bombings of tents in Rafah

•⁠ Head of UN WFP says north Gaza experiencing “full-blown famine” and it’s only a matter of time before south Gaza faces same level of starvation

🇫🇷 British-Palestinian @ dr.ghassan.as denied entry to France for Senate address as witness of Gaza Genocide as Germany put year-long ban on his entry to Europe (Schengen)

🇺🇸 88 US lawmakers warn Biden that Israeli aid blockade violates US ‘foreign assistance’ law

•⁠ IOF abducts 5 overnight in West Bank

🎓 Uni encampments spread to Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Cuba & Costa Rica

#on palestine #palestine #letstalkpalestine #text post #o post #magz upload #sij

[determinate-negation]

I see your answer, and it frankly infuriates me, your denial of documented hateful comments on campus and ACTUAL Jewish people saying they feel threatened. The refusal to acknowledge even the slightest defect in your "side" leads me to the conclusion that you yourself are not immune to propaganda and you certainly do not value jewish voices (unless, of course they agree with you). You are more than welcome to check the jewhatedb to have a taste of the spirits in some campuses.

As for this: "more cops on campus and administrations destroying academic freedom cynically framed as “preventing antisemitism” is actually a bigger threat for us in the long run" oh how nice of you to ignore those pesky jews in name of the greater cause of academic freedom, consider this, a space that ignores Jewish voices and excuses antisemitism wasn't free to begin with. You are willing to accept their absence for some sort of "long run" greater cause and that's, for the lack of better words, fucked up.

i didnt deny shit, i stated multiple times that antisemitism exists on college campuses, but i did point out that your examples are not coming from pro palestine students. theyre coming from people who are trying to vilify pro palestine students. why doesnt it infuriate you that people are threatening to murder jews just to make muslim students look bad? why is it not infuriating to you that bad media coverage on this makes jewish students unneccesarily scared when the threats are coming from our zionist so called allies? when did jews start cheering for police repression? do you think that attacks on left wing political organizing on college campuses are actually good for jews in the long run? i see someone didnt do their nazi history homework.

also im a marxist not a liberal that subscribes to bankrupt identity politics so the identity of voices is less relevant to me than the content of what theyre saying, but if you want to go on that path why the fuck are you ignoring my jewish voice and the voices of other anti zionist jews who agree with me?

as ive said many times before, there is a difference between feeling threatened and being threatened and jewish students feeling threatened by the existence of pro palestine organizations that are generally progressive and full of jews is in my mind separate from being threatened by real antisemitic incidents. which should be taken seriously but arent coming from pro palestine students as much as they are from reactionaries and opportunists.

besides the fact that “jewish voices” are not a monolith, academia does not ~ignore jewish voices~ except for anti zionist ones. anti zionist jews get doxxed by organizations like canary mission, get kicked out of jewish centers, get slandered by college admins and pro zionist organizations. college administrations bend over backwards to support israel and denigrate sjp and jvp on their campuses. as for academic freedom, its historically never been free for critics of israel, not zionists. jewish professors have been blacklisted from academia for criticizing israel in fact. you said youre glad youre not in american academia and its very obvious you understand nothing of american academia

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-blacklist-in-the-coal-mine-canary-missions-fear-mongering-agenda-college-campuses

#anti zionism #antisemitism

[odinsblog]

“First, H.R. 6090 could result in colleges and universities suppressing a wide variety of speech critical of Israel or in support of Palestinian rights in an effort to avoid investigations by the Department and the potential loss of funding, even where such speech is protected and does not qualify as harassment. Even without H.R. 6090, advocacy groups have already filed or threatened to file numerous Title VI complaints and lawsuits, alleging that colleges have violated Title VI merely by condoning Palestinian rights groups, events, and advocacy. For example, in September 2023, the pro-Israel group Santa Fe Middle East Watch claimed that the University of New Mexico's anthropology department would violate the New Mexico Governor's executive order using this same definition of antisemitism if they hosted Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet and writer currently serving as the Nation's Palestine correspondent.

Moreover, in February 2020, the David Horowitz Freedom Center sent a letter to Pomona and Pitzer college officials alleging “the colleges’ liability under Title VI” for, among other things, co-sponsoring a Students for Justice in Palestine event featuring a screening of the film ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom,’ and funding a panel on “Perspectives on Colleges and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

Additionally, there have been multiple instances of university censorship of pro-Palestinian expression after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. These include the University of Pennsylvania denying a screening of a documentary which raises concerns some young Jews have about Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and Brandeis University banning the student group Students for Justice in Palestine.* Equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism by law, under a threat of investigation, will only create more fear in schools, prompting administrators to silence this speech regardless of whether it is protected.

Second, even where administrators do not take formal action, students and their organizations, faculty, and university staff may be deterred from speaking and organizing on these issues. Activists would be understandably hesitant to engage in political expression criticizing Israel or advocating for Palestinian rights if they have reason to believe the federal government will actively investigate such expression in connection with harassment complaints and investigations.

Finally, the bill would likely inspire an increasing number of complaints focused on constitutionally protected criticism of Israel. These complaints will not only cause schools to limit speech out of fear, but will also force both the Department and covered universities to devote time and resources to addressing complaints about constitutionally protected speech, instead of meritorious harassment complaints.”

(source) (source)

#politics #palestine #israel #hr 6090 #antisemitism awareness act #weaponized antisemitism #columbia university #campus protests #student protests #🇵🇸 #censorship #bds #boycott divest sanction #hasbara #anti zionism ≠ antisemitism #zionism #israel is a terrorist state #idpol #weaponized identity politics

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Troy O. Fritzhand

Canary Mission, an antisemitism watchdog group, has made headlines since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war for its work exposing groups and individuals that support the Palestinian terror group and express hatred for the Jewish state.

Critics have accused Canary Mission of what they call unfair “doxing,” or publicizing information about a person or organization without their consent. However, that has not stopped the watchdog from calling out a wide range of entities for allegedly antisemitic behavior and spreading hateful ideology throughout North America, especially on college campuses.

The organization, which operates anonymously, spoke to The Algemeiner about its work since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel. To stay anonymous and protect the safety of staff, the group did not attribute its remarks to a specific individual.

Since the outbreak of the war, Canary Mission has been working on what it calls four “significant” developments.

“First, there has been a sharp escalation in global antisemitism, both in frequency and severity,” a representative said. “We are no longer discussing simple breaches of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Discourse has alarmingly shifted to overt expressions of hate, including endorsements of Hamas’ violence against Jews, coupled with a stark indifference to the suffering of kidnapped, raped, and murdered Jews.”

Antisemitic incidents have skyrocketed globally since the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7. Most recently, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported a 360 percent surge in such incidents over the past three months, with about two-thirds directly related to the Israel-Hamas war.

“Second,” Canary Mission continued, “antisemites on the left and right seem even more willing to work with each other in their common cause against Jews and Israel.”

“Third, a bipartisan consensus has emerged with a clear recognition of the extreme antisemitism fostered within the anti-Israel movement,” the group added.

Lastly, Canary Mission addressed the presidents of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) refusing to say at a congressional hearing last month that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ codes of conduct against bullying and harassment.

“Fourth, despite the dismal failure of Harvard, UPenn, and MIT leadership to condemn calls for the genocide against Jews, there have been some positive campus developments,” the watchdog said. “Several universities have finally understood that Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is essentially an incubator for hatred and have taken action against them.”

Some schools have banned or suspended SJP chapters, which have orchestrated pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses across the US, for violating school rules.

Over the past three months, Canary Mission has, among other projects, linked US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) to fundraisers with Hamas ties, profiled dozens of signatories of a letter denouncing Israel just one day after the Oct. 7 massacre, and exposed the organizers of a recent rally in Philadelphia that targeted a local Jewish restaurant for having a history of backing Hamas and calling for the destruction of Israel.

“Our support has significantly grown since the war began,” Canary Mission said. “The traffic to our website has substantially increased, reflecting the heightened interest in our cause … Our new support comes from across the political spectrum from individuals and organizations who understand the danger and hatred Jews are facing. Naturally, we have also received plenty of threats and abuse from neo-Nazis and anti-Israel activists alike.”

Canary Mission described its work as necessary and “far from finished” in combating “unfounded hatred towards Jews and the Jewish state.”

“Since our inception in 2015, Canary Mission has stood as a vigilant watchdog against antisemitism, with a particular focus on the spread of antisemitism in academic institutions,” the group said. “From UPenn to Harvard, our findings reveal an unsettling reality that has been simmering in American academia for years … Our work is comprehensive. We highlight instances of antisemitism across the political landscape and refuse to ignore or excuse it regardless of its source. The profiles we create are not just records but tools that hold individuals accountable for their words and actions. In doing so, we create lasting consequences for those who propagate hate against Jews and Israel.”

Canary Mission dismissed criticism that it’s doxing, saying it does not release any personal information such as home addresses, emails, or phone numbers. The watchdog added it “presents an individual’s words and actions. This enables the public to form their own opinion and decide on their own response to the content presented.”

Concluding, the group said, “Critics will continue to dislike the Canary Mission platform, and supporters will continue to recognize the vital importance of shining a light on anti-Jewish hatred during this difficult time in our history.”

“And a note to our critics: We are not going away — we have only just begun.”

#canary mission #doxing #antisemitism

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lex McMenamin at Teen Vogue:

College students have been at the forefront of the movement for a ceasefire in Palestine since Israel's ongoing incursion of Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attack. As soon as organizing for that movement began, there was backlash against it, including doxxing and harassment at Harvard, attempted state-level bans of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters in Florida, and also the banning of protests and SJP chapters at other universities. In Vermont, Palestinian college students on a walk, wearing kuffiyehs, were shot at during Thanksgiving break. (The reported shooter, who has pleaded not guilty to attempted second-degree murder, remains in jail as the case proceeds.)

Over the past few weeks, several student protesters have received criminal charges, expulsions, suspensions, and campus bans due to their involvement in protests for Palestine. This includes students at Columbia, who say they are being scapegoated before an April 17 congressional hearing to investigate Columbia University over campus antisemitism. (After a similar proceeding in December, the president of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania each stepped down.) According to Inside Higher Ed’s reporting, "some observers have described [the April hearing as] a political trap set by Congressional Republicans critical not only of campus leaders’ response to antisemitism but also of higher education in general.” The apparent suppression on campuses, while currently intensifying, isn’t new or recent: For the past several years, the organization Palestine Legal has represented and supported student organizers facing similar backlash. A representative for Palestine Legal tells Teen Vogue that, since October, the group has received “over 720 reports of suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy on campuses across the country.”

Meanwhile, the movements for ceasefire and Palestine are credited with reanimating student organizing, as well as pushing President Joe Biden’s policy stance on US support for Israel. That outcry has manifested in Uncommitted campaigns that have built momentum in presidential primaries across US states, and may also be pushing Biden to shift his policy. But these same organizing movements are seeing pushback on forms of protest that are historically common on campuses. Some students have been suspended or arrested for occupying campus buildings. In other instances, the backlash comes after students pushed to hold student body votes on divesting university funds from Israel or Israeli companies; at Vanderbilt, Ohio State, and Harvard, attempted referendum votes on the matter were canceled, suspended, or indefinitely postponed.

Teen Vogue reports on the disturbing trend that colleges across the USA are suppressing pro-Palestinian protests and referendums against divesting funding from Israel Apartheid State by arresting, suspending, or even expelling students protesting for Palestinian rights.

#Colleges #Palestine #Ceasefire NOW #Israel/Hamas War Protests #Israel/Hamas War #Ceasefire NOW Protests #Protests #Free Palestine #Israel Apartheid #Boycott Divest Sanctions #BDS #College #Higher Education #Israel/Palestine Conflict #Gaza Genocide #Students for Justice in Palestine

[the-light-of-stars]

Another news item:

The german government is currently in the process of creating laws for the prohibition and judical persecution of members or sympathisers of not just hamas but a palestinian organisation called Samidoun, a "network for solidarity with palestinian prisoners" and is considering to outlaw more pro-palestinian organisations, including BDS, calling them extremist terrorist organisations.

here some excerpts from the second article, detailing three organisations that are deemed "antisemitic terrorist organisations" , which the german state either is currently in the process of outlawing with threat of prosecution in courts of law or deportation, or whose outlawing it is currently considering :

" Samidoun: Chancellor Scholz has announced a ban of activity for this group as well [context: the other group he announced a ban for is hamas itself] . According to the Security Bureaus Samidoun does not have solid structures in Germany. The group is a network for support of imprisoned palestinians and developed as part of the marxist-leninist PFLP, the popular front for the liberation of palestine.

Samidoun reacted "scandalized" to the announced ban. On its website the network speaks of a "racist hate campaign" of the german press "against palestinian and arab youth in germany and especially against the Samidoun-network" . [According to the network] the german state is a partner in the defamation and dehumanisation of the palestinian people as well as a partner of "the murderous war crimes and crimes against humanity of the occupational regime"

"PFLP: The popular front for the liberation of palestine, in short: PFLP, exists since 1967 and caused Fear and Horror in the 1970s , among other things via multiple airplane hijackings - among those the bloody highjacking of the Lufthansa-plane "Landshut" in the year 1977. Until today it is committing attacks in Israel. The EU lists it as a terror-organisation since 2002.

In germany the PFLP has not been outlawed so far, since according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution it is not "terroristically active" here. However, so the Report on Protection of the Constitution for the year 2022 says, former terrorists are enjoying great recognition among its followers and "are specifically getting invited into germany for indoctrination purposes".

The PFLP counts roughly 100 members in germany. It follows a marxist-leninist ideology, wants a socialist palestinian state and denies Israel's right to existence."

"BDS: BDS stands for "Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions" and is an international palestinian movement that exists since 2005 and has an active following even in germany. The movement calls for science and students not to work together with israeli universities and institutions. Cultural institutions in Israel are supposed to be boycotted as well.

It also is directed against companies, who BDS claims support "Israel's politics of occupation, colonialism and apartheid" and calls for international sanctions against Israel. The BDS movement has not only palestinian followers but has followers in Germany as well, even in the so called civil milieu [context: they mean middle and upper middle class academics and other civilians] . According to the ARD-capital city studio and SWR's informations [two state sponsored news channels] the movement is being watched by the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution and is listed as "an extremist suspect".

The german federal parliament accepted a comprehensive proposal by CDU/CSU [conservatives], SPD [social democrats] , FDP [liberals] and large parts of the Greens [progressives] , in which the BDS movement is described as an "allencompassing call for boycott" and gets condemned heavily. With this proposal the federal government, so it is said, is decidedly standing against any form of antisemitism even in its beginning stages.

Projects that support the BDS movement must not be allowed financial support, so it was said. BDS activists have sued against this proposition in front of the Berlin high administrative court, without success.

Currently BDS is organising demonstrations and "vigils for palestine" in all of germany, which in parts have been prohibited."

#german stuff #palestine #israel #gaza #politics #current events

[eretzyisrael]

by Dion J. Pierre

Baime, who is a Brandeis alumnus, shared more of his thoughts with The Algemeiner on Tuesday.

“Brandeis University was founded at a time when Jews were unwelcome at the same Ivy League schools where they feel unsafe today, and I applaud my alma mater for refusing to recognize a group calling for the murder of Jews and annihilation of Israel,” he said. “[Florida] Governor DeSantis was the first to set such a policy, but Brandeis University is the first school, public or private, to actually revoke recognition of this hate group. Others should do the same. Who’s next?”

Brandeis University’s opposition to extreme anti-Israel activity on campus is not new. Last year, the university canceled an institutional partnership with the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) after it endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Liebowitz, who has served as Brandeis’ president since 2016, on Monday described the BDS movement as “another blatant demonstration of antisemitism on campuses” for aiming “to dismantle the Jewish state and end the right to Jewish self-determination.”

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, several SJP chapters and other pro-Palestinian student organizations declared solidarity with Hamas and circulated propaganda that rationalized its violence.

#sjp #students for justice in palestine #brandeis university

[tieflingkisser]

Pro-Palestinian speech is now effectively banned in German universities

Pro-Palestine activists are facing extreme repression and censorship at German universities as a growing number of students are finally questioning Germany’s unwavering commitment to Israel.

In November, students at Universität der Künste Berlin formed the group, notinournameUdK, calling for a student strike in solidarity with Palestine and demanding a response from their university administration. Every Wednesday, students and faculty members have initiated a strike, which they plan to continue until further notice. The strike includes weekly sit-ins on campus to draw attention to the situation in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire, as well as mourn the loss of innocent lives. According to their press statement, notinournameUdK says that the strike aims to voice the “urgent need for solidarity with the Palestinian people and to express dissatisfaction with the university’s official position of selective solidarity and its failure to create spaces of respectful dialogue.” Early in November, the Presidum’s office released a statement updating the student body on the position of the university. In it, the University President’s office stated that the Israeli flag that accompanied its initial statement after October 7 was done under the “clear commitment to the right of existence of the state of Israel. It is the despicable attack on the civilian population on October 7 [that] required a moment of contemplation.” “As the Presidum, we are responsible for assessing whether acts of the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression jeopardize the freedom and dignity of others and endanger the peace of the university,” the statement said. “We’re appalled at the insinuations that our intention is to incite violence or intimidate any fellow students,” notinournameUdK wrote in a press statement. “The current position of the UdK and the publication of recent articles, clearly misrepresent the student collective and has led to some striking students, including Jewish students, fearing for their safety.”

#germany #free palestine #palestine #news

[queersatanic]

On Monday, the university sent Brandeis [Students for Justice in Palestine] a notice that its status as an official campus group had been rescinded “because it openly supports Hamas, which the United States has designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.” “This decision was not made lightly, as Brandeis is dedicated to upholding free speech principles,” the notice said. ... Brandeis’s decision means the group is no longer an officially sanctioned organization. It will not receive university funding and it is prohibited from using the university’s logo. The group was forced to cancel a vigil Monday that it had planned to hold for the victims of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.

The original Brandeis SJP statement:

[ID: Four panels of Instagram post, text to follow:

We rise today in unwavering solidarity with the Palestinian resistance in all of its forms. It is a moral imperative to recognize and support the resilience of the people who have endured 75 years of oppression, displacement, and the denial of their basic rights. The Palestinian resistance is a multifaced struggle for self-determination, justice, and the restoration of human dignity. It encompasses not only armed resistance, but also civil disobedience, grassroots organizing, and cultural expression. It is a testament to the unwavering spirit of the people who refuse to be silenced in the face of adversity. We reject the characterization of Palestinian resistance as "terrorism" as indicated in President Ron's email to the student body. Such a label ignores the ongoing occupation of Palestine, the expansion of illegal settlements, and the denial of basic human rights. We must understand that the Palestinian resistance, in all of its manifestations, is a response to a history of dispossession and oppression. To condemn resistance but not the terrorist colonial violence, that resistance came as a response to, is despicable, ahistorical, and a deliberate misrepresentation of what is going on in the occupied land. Instead, we should strive for Justice for the Palestinian people. We encourage our community to follow instagram accounts such as @eye.on.palestine and Resistance News Network on Telegram for live news from the ground, and to reach out to us for any clarification on Al-Aqsa Flood battle. From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free. /ID]

#Palestine #Gaza #From the River to the Sea #Brandeis #Students for Justice in Palestine

[lee-a-p]

so last week, there was a chemical attack on pro-palestine protestors at columbia university. the perpetrators, who tried to blend in with the crowd by wearing kufiyas, are former members of the IDF. they likely sprayed Skunk, a chemical used against Palestinians in the West Bank, on the protestors. by the most recent count, nine protestors have been hospitalized, many of them with severe symptoms like intense nausea, irregular heart rhythms, shortness of breath, etc. columbia has yet to reach out to any of these students.

the university claims it has banned the perpetrators from campus, but students have reported seeing one of the attackers on campus this week. the school also initially BLAMED the protestors for holding an “unauthorized event.” notably, they suspended the campus chapters of JVP and SJP in November after a unilateral policy change by the university leaders (and without the typical input of the student senate and other faculty groups). they then used this policy change to suspend JVP and SJP for a walkout. it's abundantly clear that columbia doesn't care about student safety. they care about protecting their image, which means punishing students who voice dissent regarding the university's involvement with Israel (through investments, partnering with a university in Tel Aviv, and making membership in the IDF something that bolsters applications).

let’s be honest. if this were the other way around, if pro-palestine actors (with a military background!) chemically attacked a pro-israel student protest, it would be front page news. god knows claudine gay’s dissertation was enough for the new york times to obsess over. but when it’s pro-palestine protestors facing violence? barely any coverage. and when there is coverage, it’s buried within everything else, with no effort by publications to publicize these stories (via placement on front page or on their social media).

these institutions will never exist to protect marginalized students, no matter how much they claim otherwise. they will tout their diverse population and their programs studying colonization, and then they will turn around and punish students for protesting genocide. they only care about us insofar as doing so protects their reputation and bottom line. they don't keep us safe—we keep us safe.

#palestine #free palestine #columbia university #nyc #activism #politics #american politics #media criticism

[kendrixtermina]

Misleading Claims about Gaza I’ve seen flying around

So I want to speak to a set of claims I’ve seen flying around that, while not 100% lies, get presented in a hugely misleading way.

I, a rando with an internet connection, was able to find with a simple google & wikipedia search that they were severely taken out of context.

1. They threw a gay person off a roof

Never happened.

This is a clear echo off of roof-related execution done by ISIS meaning to conflate the orgs in the mind of an uneducated westerner who doesn’t know how ME political groups are different.

There was indeed one (1) case of a person being accused of being gay & then executed (not by being thrown off a roof) – but that was among a long list of other crimes, & their relatives say it’s a pretext/slander to cover internal hamas power struggle.

Not great, part of a larger tendency to be repressive toward some rival factions, but hardly „systematic persecution and executions of gays“.

While it’s not exactly Amsterdam, there is no systematic or legally encoded persecution. There are cases of ppl being shunned or kicked out by their family, but you can say the same about, say, Alabama.

I’ve come across various posts by LBTQ people who travelled there and were not especially harassed. One even wore a flag pin.

A common thing you hear is that ppl are too busy just surviving & ending their more general oppression to worry too much about stuff like holding a pride march.

2. It’s forbidden to teach the holocaust in Gaza

This should have you very suspicious if you’re aware how little control Palestinians actually have over their education system and how they’re often handed textbooks with pro-zionist curriculums that present the Nakba as good (!) - to the point that arab students in mixed town hear their teachers call them the „enemy“ & younger palestinian educators often have not heard of famous palestinian writers & poets.

Indeed the claim probably goes back to a single dispute about a single UN course on human rights where Hamas officials expressed concerns about a curriculum that might include the holocaust for fear of indoctrination & zionist propaganda.

(Not an unreasonable fear, if you’re aware of the racist textbooks issue.)

During the discourse, there was an individual Hamas official who made some statement to the effect that the holocaust was probably just another lie made up by the Zionist to justify taking their country.

The man hasn’t been in power for years, btw (a good thing, seeing as he seems ignorant & incendiary) – genuine L for that guy & Hamas for hiring him. Not defending him at all, that guy is an idiot. But its NOT a comprehensive ban on the subject at all (indeed many Palestinians you see online seem quite well-informed)

But note how the claim is often presented in a way to evoke western neo-nazis who have long been motivated to explain away the biggest argument as to why their ideology is a bad idea.

Can you really compare these situations, though?

Make no mistake: The holocaust defo happened.

But why do I know this? Because I’ve read books by survivors as well as accounts of US & russian soldiers who found the mess. I’ve been to Dachau on a school trip & the walls of the gas chambers still had nail marks on them. I’ve been to that house in prague where all the walls are covered in victim’s names. My grandmother saw the infamous auschwitz human skin lamp with her own eyeballs. Heck, her father in law narrowly survived by jumping out of one of those death trains.

Now, does an older arab guy in a besieged, impoverished enclave have access to that proof? It’s not like he can travel to europe & go to a museum.

Also, as someone who went to an european school, I remember being told precious little about the middle east and some of it was stereotypic bullshit. So why would an arab guy living under a much worse-funded education system know much more about european history?

He’s used to the zionists spouting 2+2 = 5 lies, propaganda & spin all the time, so if he doesn’t know a lot about europe, he might jump to the conclusion that this thing they use to justify the conquest of his home is probably a lie as well.

Quite different from an european neo nazi denying mountains of proof out of wounded pride. (or because he actually thinks it was nbd but can’t say so publicly)

It’s kinda like the way radfems refuse to believe that men aren’t making up all their problems...

Again, it’s an L for that hamas guy, kids have nothing to fear from learning accurate facts about foreign countries, I'll always be against censorship & pro free information.

But one (1) idiot politician saying something offensive does NOT equal the subject being explicitly banned from discussion in all gazan schools.

The claim also leaves out the context that since Hamas also provides schooling & welfare there’s a bit of a rivalry/power struggle between it & the aid orgs (golly gee, I wonder why a population utterly abandoned by the international community would distrust foreigners...)

Something that was very telling about the post is „liberate gaza so they can finally learn about the holocaust!“ like its this all-important thing - I mean, it IS very important… if you’re european or jewish, cause in that case it massively impacted your civilization and your own family history. But it wasn’t the only mass murder nor the worst by method (rwanda) or number (stalinist purges) & doesn’t have this magic objective value, europe isn’t the navel of the earth & the ppl aren’t wrong not to want eurocentrism shoved down their throats.

I do think everyone should be taught about the evils of discrimination but probably a more natural place to start might be the armenian genocide, since Palestine used to be Ottoman. Or examples of discrimination in the arab world (including against jews)

I mean in that instance the guy was most likely being paranoid & advancing some power strugle agenda, & I’d say he was in the wrong, but the touchiness & concern about indoctrination has a reason & one instance of complaining about one course does NOT equal a general ban on the subject in schools. (many of which, are, after all, run by international orgs)

Frankly, a people living in a walled ghetto probably already know more about the evils of discrimination than anyone who doesn’t.

Also, it’s very ironic for Israel to go accusing others of denying atrocities when even mentioning the Nakba can cost you your academic career.

There’s no Israeli teens going to Nakba Museum and indeed school books portraying it as good that are forced on the arabs as well.

Imagine if a Romani, Jewish or Polish person in modern day Germany were forced to look upon textbooks full of common Nazi apologia like „Hitler built the Motorways“, „But Dresden!“ and „We only lost WWI cause the socialists backstabbed us!“ (For the record, all of those are all bullshit.)

3. When Israeli settlers pulled out of Gaza, the first thing they did is raze the synagogues

Again, this is deliberately phrased to remind westerners or diasporic jews of neo-nazis throwing molotovs and the like (if only our governments did as much against those as they’re presently doing to slander anti-war protesters… ), to trigger immediate sympathy for Israel & portray gazans as a bunch of vandalizing hatecrimers.

As the previous claims, this is „very loosely based on a true story“ as in it technically did happen but there’s a lot of context missing, such as:

Israel demolished TONS of Mosques & Christian Churches during the Nakba, or worse, turned them into warehouses bars & factories.

Settlers did horrific violence to ppl in Gaza. In one example, a house was burned with a toddler still inside. Settlers mocked & harassed the kid’s grandfather

When they pulled out, they destroyed the entire settlement, infrastructure & farming equipment so the locals couldn’t use it

They even considered destroying the synagogues themselves but then left them as the only buildings standing & tried to have them declared unesco heritage (possibly a ploy to maintain a presence in the strip after all or leave a backdoor to return, creating a strategic incentive to destroy them so the settlers wouldn’t have an excuse to come back)

We are talking about blocky cement structures a new as the settlements, NOT historic buildings (unlike the destroyed Mosques & Churches)

religious symbols & cultic objects were removed when the settlers left. Obviously. Why would they possibly leave it?

So what do we have left?

Some people vented their rage at empty concrete buildings that had no religious items in them, had no history and were never going to be used again. - which they were somewhat justified as seeing as symbols of domination leaving their mark on „their“ home, like a cat’s territorial piss markings, so it might as well be interpreted as an act of defiance against colonial power.

Still technically vandalism against a religious building, not very diplomatic, do not recommend etc.

but at the same time rather different from the idea suggested by „the first thing they did is raze the synagogues“… for once thing, there was nothing else left to raze cause the Israelis already did it themselves, it was retaliation for Palestinian sacral buildings being trashed & a response to finding out that israelis would destroy good farm tools rather than let them have it, and it was an interchangeable concrete block empty of actual synagogue stuff. - whereas without the context you are probably imaging hooligans singling out the synagogues out of useful, intact buildings, a unique historic building being thrashed or the cultic objects & holy books being broken & desacrated, similar to historic cases of nazi arson or russian pogroms. That just didn't happen.

The double standard, too, is very telling: This act of vandalism means gazans are evil hatecrimers out to get all the jews & means they can't be negotiated or made peace with, but Israelis’ much more widespread & systematic destruction of churches & mosques is assigned no such interpretation. Golly gee I wonder why.

Again, the point here is NOT to portray local government as perfect & flawless (what government is?) or to say that none of this stuff was bad. But sporadic events are being inflated into nonexistent systemic patterns, as well as misrepresented to appeal to very particular tropes & cliches to blatantly manipulate ya'lls emotional reactions.

#gaza #free gaza #palestine #free palestine #israel #zonism #hasbara

[soon-palestine]

In late October, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Brandeis Center published an open letter urging universities to investigate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a student activist group with both national and local chapters, under the material support statute. According to this letter, SJP chapters merit investigation under the material support statute for “endors[ing] the actions of Hamas” and “voicing an increasingly radical call for confronting and ‘dismantling’ Zionism on U.S. college campuses.” As the ACLU and others have observed, the ADL offers no evidence that SJP students have done anything more than exercise their constitutionally protected speech rights. Still, the state of Florida has already obliged the ADL’s request, invoking the material support statute and its state analog to ban Florida’s SJP chapters. (The ACLU of Florida and Palestine Legal have filed a lawsuit against the ban, and fears of personal liability may have led the chancellor of Florida’s state university system to walk it back.)

Indeed, it is possible that the ADL itself may coordinate with groups connected to Israeli intelligence to conduct its own campus spying operations and report the information to law enforcement. There is historical precedent animating this concern: the ADL was implicated in a large-scale operation spying on Arab-American activists on the West Coast in the early 1990s.

Given these expansive definitions of anti-Semitism, it is also concerning that the White House is promising over $38 million in DOJ grants to “civil rights groups, including awards to organizations serving Jewish and Arab American communities,” to “support the investigation and prosecution of hate crimes.” The ADL, which has close and long-standing connections to the FBI, would presumably be a prime contender for this outsourcing of investigative responsibility. Thus, in the name of combating anti-Semitism, the White House may wind up relying on an organization that has plausibly been alleged to spy on college campuses, and has expressly avowed a desire to wield the material support statute as an investigative weapon.

Both congressional leaders and the leading GOP presidential candidates have expressed their desire to punish student protesters of Israel, including with proposed travel bans and visa cancelations for Palestinian students. (The Florida chancellor’s ban of state university SJP chapters was at the behest of Governor Ron DeSantis.) Such calls suggest forthcoming moves—if not by this White House, then by the next—to discard the lessons of the Church Commission and use the material support statute against student protesters. University leaders should not ignore the possibility that today’s call to shut down SJP chapters will be followed by a government request to assist in the criminal prosecution of SJP members.

#palestine #gaza #free palestine

[moontyger]

It only took a day and a half after the first Columbia encampment was set up for Shafik to call the police on April 18. In her letter to the NYPD, she wrote that she had “determined that the encampment and related disruptions pose a clear and present danger to the substantial functioning of the University.” Shafik did not explain what threat the encampments actually posed. (Samantha Slater, a spokeswoman for the university, told Vox that Columbia would not offer comment beyond Shafik’s letter.)

The protest itself was not especially disruptive — even the police said protesters were peaceful. They didn’t get in the way of students going about their daily activities, including attending classes.

In many ways, the demonstration at Columbia was a standard student protest: Demonstrators were raising awareness about a problem and asking their university to do something about it. Encampments have been used as a protest tactic on college campuses for decades, including in recent years, like when students ran divestment campaigns against fossil fuels.

In the 1980s, when Columbia students protested against South African apartheid, with virtually the same divestment demands as the current protesters have, they blockaded a campus building for three weeks. In that case, the school came to an agreement with the student protesters rather than turning to the police to break up the demonstration.

While other campus protests historically have led to arrests, few have attracted such a massive national police response so swiftly. What’s taking place now looks similar to how schools responded to anti-war protests in the 1960s and ’70s, when schools, including Columbia, violently cracked down on students. And in 1970, the National Guard infamously shot at protesters at Kent State in Ohio and killed four people. Yet, as my colleague Nicole Narea wrote, the protests then were more aggressive than the encampments on campuses today.

The line between legal and illegal protest is often clear. Students have a right to protest in certain campus areas, but occupying a building constitutes trespassing. Enforcement of these rules, however, is seldom applied equally.

In many cases, universities have alleged that the protests were disruptive and pointed to the fact that some Jewish students felt that the encampments created an unsafe environment for them on campus. While harassment and intimidation can be reasons to involve law enforcement, the accusations against these protesters mostly focused on their chants and campaign slogans — and in many cases wrongly conflate anti-Israel rhetoric with antisemitism. (It’s worth noting that the arrested student protesters have largely been charged with trespassing, not harassment or violent acts.)

One of the other problems with how many universities and officials have responded to pro-Palestinian demonstrations is that they have changed their protest rules since October 7, in some instances specifically targeting Palestinian solidarity groups.

At Columbia, for example, the university issued onerous protest guidelines, including limiting the areas students are allowed to protest and requiring that demonstrations be registered weeks in advance. Northwestern University abruptly imposed a ban on erecting tents and other structures on campus, undermining ongoing protests. Indiana University preemptively changed its rules one day before its students set up an encampment by disallowing tents and changing a decades-old rule. And in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order requiring that public universities change their free speech policies and singled out pro-Palestinian groups that he said ought to be disciplined.

Such moves have only added fuel to the protests. They also put students and faculty in danger, as police have conducted violent arrests. (Why were there snipers on roofs at Indiana University, anyway?)

It can also ultimately be ineffective; after state troopers arrested students at the University of Texas, for example, the Travis County Attorney’s Office dismissed the criminal trespassing charges, saying they lacked probable cause.

Is there a better response to campus protests?

Not all universities have turned to the police in response to pro-Palestinian protests. Those that chose a different path have seen much less tension than those that did.

Evergreen State College, for example, agreed to its student demands, promising to divest from businesses profiting off human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories. Students agreed to end their encampment in response.

Schools that didn’t necessarily acquiesce to protesters’ demands took other, non-escalatory steps to quell demonstrations. Brown University, which had last year called police to disband protesters, took an alternative approach this time around: The university negotiated with protesters, and organizers agreed to clear the encampment earlier this week after the school’s governing body announced that it will hold a vote on divesting from companies with ties to Israel later this year. Northwestern University similarly reached a deal with its students by reestablishing an advisory committee on its investments.

At Michigan State University, President Kevin Guskiewicz visited the student encampment himself and talked to the protesters about their concerns. He allowed students to continue the protest, so long as they applied for a permit, which the students did and the university granted. As a result, the school has avoided the kind of disruptions seen at Columbia and other universities.

There’s a simple way for universities to handle these protests: Treat them like other protests.

#current events #campus protests #double standards #US history #US politics #free Palestine

[beardedmrbean]

Berlin's Jewish community has been shaken by two petrol bombs thrown at a synagogue amid a spike in antisemitic incidents in some European countries.

Police said two people threw "burning bottles filled with liquid" in what was described as attempted arson.

"We could feel the tensions more and more," said director Anna Segal. She said the community had felt very threatened in recent days.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has expressed outrage at the attack.

Violence broke out elsewhere in Berlin overnight during anti-Israel protests. Emergency services were pelted with bottles, stones and fireworks. Protesters set barricades alight in a number of streets and one demonstration close to the Brandenburg Gate involved 700 people, police said.

The latest attacks came as Lebanon's Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah, called for a "day of rage" over an explosion at a hospital in the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of people are feared dead.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany said "day of rage" was not just a phrase but "psychological terror that leads to concrete attacks". The synagogue also houses a community centre, a kindergarten and high school for 130 children.

Anna Segal told the BBC that the community felt on edge and needed better protection: "We knew it was only a matter of time and it's not the end."

There was little sign of the petrol bombs that burned out in front of the synagogue and Jewish community centre at around 03:45 (02:45 GMT).

Jewish institutions typically have ongoing police protection in Germany and reports suggest officers were at the scene when the attack happened.

Hours later, police briefly detained a man who approached the building on a scooter and ran towards the synagogue shouting anti-Israel slogans.

Barriers have been set up around the synagogue and Jewish community centre in the centre of Berlin and officers were positioned along the street.

Last week France and parts of Germany banned pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and Paris police broke up a banned rally in the centre of Paris with tear gas and water cannon.

In a ruling on Wednesday France's Council of State, which advises the government on law, rejected an appeal against the ban.

It said local prefects would have to decide on a case-by-case basis, but could not stop a protest purely because of a note from Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin or because a demonstration was pro-Palestinian.

Responding to a spike in antisemitic incidents on Tuesday night, Mr Darmanin said "nobody will touch a hair of a French Jew without facing a lightning-fast response from the state".

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday that Hamas terror had plunged Israel and the Palestinians into a new spiral of violence.

"We are seeing a rise in antisemitic incidents, including here in Europe. Synagogues have been vandalised. Hate speech and fake news are spreading at worrying speed, and this is something that we simply cannot accept," she said.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the rise in antisemitic incidents in the UK as "disgusting".

The Community Security Trust, a British charity which has the role of protecting the Jewish community, called on universities to act "swiftly and firmly" against antisemitism and protect Jewish students. The CST said 36 antisemitic incidents had been recorded on campuses between 7 and 16 October.

#nunyas news

[klbmsw]