Columbia University faces full-blown crisis as rabbi calls for Jewish students to ‘return home’ | CNN
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Columbia University is facing a full-blown crisis heading into Passover as a rabbi linked to the Ivy League school urged Jewish students to stay home and tense confrontations on campus sparked condemnation from the White House and New York officials.

The situation at Columbia has even drawn the attention of the White House, joining local leaders in urging calm.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement shared with CNN on Sunday.

  • @[email protected]English
    30•7 months ago

    “… calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous” …

    Yeah, cool bro. True, but also, nothing in this article suggests that’s what’s actually happening.

    While a lot of hand-wringing was done about how bad it would be if people did harassment or violence, not one single solitary scrap of a story about someone actually being targeted in that way emerged from the reading. (Edit: Correction: Precisely one single solitary scrap of a story implying violence occurred in the article, see the end of this comment) Despite this, of course, the brownshirts are being called in to remove protestors and silence the extremely loud criticism of Israel’s recent actions.

    A video taken on the university’s campus Saturday night also shows a small group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting, “F**k Israel. Israel is a b*tch,” while waving the Palestinian flag.

    Does not constitute a threat, violence, or harassment. A protected first-amendment expression of opinion about Israel’s bitchiness.

    … videos circulated showing a man outside the university saying, “Never forget the seventh of October,” and “that will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10 more times, not 100 more times, not 1,000 more times, but 10,000 times!”

    And he’s right, too. It will keep happening while Israel continues to act like a bitch.

    Another student, Noah Lederman, told CNN he was “terrified, angry, upset, and horrified that the university failed to take action.” Lederman said he had been accosted in early February and had asked the university for remote learning options. “What’s happening on campus is blatantly antisemitic,” he added.

    You were spoken to in a challenging and/or aggressive way? On a college campus? Oh you poor thing. I feel so sad- That must have been really hard for you.

    “This is a time of genuine discomfort and even fear for many of us on campus,” the Hillel said…

    Cool bro. I’m so sorry you’re uncomfortable. For some reason though, when you say the words ‘discomfort’ and ‘fear’ I get a persistent mental image of exploded children. And crocodiles for some reason? Crying crocodiles.

    He contrasted the “pretty peaceful” environment on campus with the more energized demonstrations outside campus, referencing “deeply disheartening” incidents that took place Saturday night outside campus by people Emery said were not affiliated with the university. He added that some more observant Jewish friends of his had experienced harassment but that Jewish students should feel safe on campus.

    Yeah, CNN, would you mind being more fucking specific? If there’s Actual Violence occurring, that’s the thing I want to know about. Until then, your framing contributes to a pretty specific narrative that doesn’t seem to align with the facts you’re reporting. Weird, that.