Officials at Columbia University, facing surging tensions on campus that raised safety concerns, have announced all classes will be virtual on Monday as Passover begins.
Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement the decision was made to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”
The move underscores how tense the situation has become at the Ivy League school and the enormous challenge facing Shafik to get the situation under control.
Could it be that some of the protesters are antisemitic and they are using the protest as cover? I don’t know that this is the right step to take, but this is really the perfect time for actual bigots to make attacks. It’s Israel’s fault since they associate themselves with Judaism and they’re the ones perpetrating the genocide, but that doesn’t change anything.
Yeah it looks like there’s some peaceful protesting going on, that’s also attracting more extremist elements. At least that’s what I got from reading the article.
It’s always a risk when ethnic groups are involved in conflicts of any sort and there are protests elsewhere in the world. It gives bigots cover.
I was with you until this. Criticizing Israel’s government is absolutely legit (and IMO justified at the moment) but criticizing Jews for being Jewish is… weird.
I’m not criticizing Jews for being Jewish. I’m Jewish. What I am not is Israeli, despite them trying to associate me with them.
Gotcha, agreed. To be fair, there is a LOT of antisemitism on the Palestinian/Arab side, so the Israeli govt is not the only one causing this conflation of Israeli policy and Judaism at large.
To be fair, why do you think they’re antisemitic? Could it be the years and years of oppression under Israel, who have conflated themselves with Judaism the entire time?
This isn’t me saying that antisemitism is good, but the same reason you were confused about the ties between Judaism and Israel (and lack thereof) is probably the same thing going through their heads.
I’m going to assume you mean well, but this is bordering on “She was asking for it, did you see what she was wearing?”