Gaza Solidarity Shuts Down Columbia University

@mott-the-hoople said
what part of these hamas terrorist holding US citizens hostage are you fools ok with?

If Americans go and support Israel's unjust, oppressive regime and get captured, that's their problem.

@spruce112358 said
If Americans go and support Israel's unjust, oppressive regime and get captured, that's their problem.

Israel's "oppressive regime"?
Like Hamas is some kind of peace & freedom party.
(Or any other Muslim-based government)

@mott-the-hoople said
except for Jan 6th right?

Good. That needs parsing.

Is protesting by: 1) sitting on the lawn of Columbia University and even occupying the office of the President (they didn't, but it's been done other places) JUST LIKE: 2) breaking into the Capitol building on Jan 6th?

There are some similarities. I think the differences lie with who set the protest up and why.

1) A student-lead, grassroots effort to get their University to divest from an apartheid-like regime.

2) A conspiracy organized by high-ranking officials, including the President, to whip up a crowd to overthrow the government and install a dictator in power.

It would be as if the President of Columbia, having been voted out, whipped up the conservative student's union to storm a Board of Directors meeting and tried to derail the process of installing her successor.

So no. Quite different.

@mott-the-hoople said
who attacked any muslims?

you are a terrorist sympathizer

I don’t sympathise with any religious fundamentalism.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873825

Demonstrations and heated debates about the Israel-Gaza war and free speech have rocked US campuses since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, which prompted Israel's campaign in Gaza.
In the US, students on both sides say there has been a rise in both antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents since then.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68828082

Ms Tabassum is the 2024 valedictorian, a student picked out for high academic scores and involvement in campus life.
The decision to cancel her speech came after claims that her social media activity was antisemitic. A debate about free speech on US college campuses has intensified since the Israel-Gaza war erupted last October.
Ms Tabassum's Instagram account links to a website that criticises Israel and calls for its "complete abolishment", instead arguing for a "one-state solution... in which both Arabs and Jews can live together".
The website also claims that "Zionism is a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land".

Your freedom of speech rhetoric does go both ways, doesn’t it?

@shavixmir said
I don’t sympathise with any religious fundamentalism.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68873825

Demonstrations and heated debates about the Israel-Gaza war and free speech have rocked US campuses since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October, which prompted Israel's campaign in Gaza.
In the US, students on both sides say there has been a rise in both an ...[text shortened]... built on Palestinian land".

Your freedom of speech rhetoric does go both ways, doesn’t it?

you confuse freedom of speech with terrorism.

You know, not long ago you libs were doing blacks the way you are doing Jews now.

@mott-the-hoople said
you confuse freedom of speech with terrorism.

You know, not long ago you libs were doing blacks the way you are doing Jews now.

Hello, my cuddly little trailer trash, redneck, inbred, incel racist retard…

You are the one posting racism year after year. Let’s hear you defend a moslim’s right to protest. The girl being cancelled is not a terrorist.

And I’m not a lib.

@spruce112358 said
2) A conspiracy organized by high-ranking officials, including the President, to whip up a crowd to overthrow the government and install a dictator in power.

Again with the "we almost lost our Democracy" nonsense.
As if they stayed in the capital building, they could have ruled the whole country.
Load of BS.

@shavixmir said
Islamophobia and anti-semitism is seemingly on the rise. Or both sides are just getting heated in debate and saying / doing things which is probably not who or what they are.

Protests on campusses aren’t anything new. They did it in the 60’s and 70’s too.
Why not? It’s not the end of the world. It’s young people being vocal about the injustices they see.

And, in Isra ...[text shortened]... al solidarity.

Not everyone can sit back and watch ethnic cleansing happen and just shrug it off.

Not everyone is filled with so much bigotry that they will defend a government that sent people to kill and rape and take kidnap Israeli citizens.
While you have a right to voice your stupid message, you certainly don't have a right to cause so many threats of harm that schools need to be closed.

@quackquack
I personally have not read these posts because nothing can be derived from them that is not on the news, and it makes me nauseous to converse with people who say 'I am Hamas' which is to support terrorism...rape and murder.
Am i wrong? I dare you to differ.

@cliff-mashburn said
Again with the "we almost lost our Democracy" nonsense.
As if they stayed in the capital building, they could have ruled the whole country.
Load of BS.

Why did the "zip-tie" guy bring zip-ties?

Is that just how he parties? Must be a big hit with you guys.

@suzianne said
Why did the "zip-tie" guy bring zip-ties?

Is that just how he parties? Must be a big hit with you guys.

Did anyone get zip-tied?

@averagejoe1 said
@quackquack
I personally have not read these posts because nothing can be derived from them that is not on the news, and it makes me nauseous to converse with people who say 'I am Hamas' which is to support terrorism...rape and murder.
Am i wrong? I dare you to differ.

I don't really know what is gained by discussions with people who support terrorism, rape and murder (as you put it) but just ignoring their increasing emboldened speech doesn't seem to work either.
Separate from their message (which I agree is condemnable) is their method of transmitting their message. No one has the right to hijack public areas or cause such hostility that public/ educational areas are no longer safe. If you are against the violence caused in school shootings, you should be against protests that are so violent that schools like Columbia need to avoid in person contact.

@quackquack said
I don't really know what is gained by discussions with people who support terrorism, rape and murder (as you put it) but just ignoring their increasing emboldened speech doesn't seem to work either.
Separate from their message (which I agree is condemnable) is their method of transmitting their message. No one has the right to hijack public areas or cause such hostility ...[text shortened]... be against protests that are so violent that schools like Columbia need to avoid in person contact.

Clearly, all posters are for free speech. I am for it even if it leads to a measure of violence....violence is sometimes necessary. I am no shrinking violet. Let them protest, no problem.
But look at these smelly people. Many of them are NOT citizens, maybe greencarders or just interlopers stirring up trouble. If I were Pres, I would round up all noncitizens, who have NO,,,,NO...right to protest, and send them to their country of origin.
Back to the subject, some on this Forum say "I am Hamas'. That means I am rape, I am murder. No other way to cut it. Yes, they have a right to protest, but look what they are. You speak of their message, that is the only message I hear.

@spruce112358
Boy the ultrarightwingnuts are out in full force, I guess to be followed by a show of arms by the Proud Boys and that bunch.

The Israeli government has suppressed Palestinians for decades, I know full well because we lived in Jerusalem for several years and saw the suppression up close and personal.

We have dear friends on both sides the tweed and saw clearly what the Israeli government does to the Palestinians stealing their land and building settlements, literally bulldozing over olive orchards and such in their zeal to grab land literally owned by the Palestinians.

That said, we do have close Jewish friends there also, just had a nice near hour long phone call with Jill and Mike last week but it is the Israeli government we have issues with like NetanYAHOO, about two shades to the right of even Donald Trump and is trying to finish taking over completely so he can just like Donald, avoid going to jail on his corruption charges. Sound familiar?

BTW, how many people were killed in the Columbia protests?
Which in no way am I condoning the Hamas attacks on Israel, killing 1200 people and taking hundreds of hostages, 200 or more just kids at a music festival, real courageous attack, fukking COWARDS attacking unarmed civilians.

But the strikes back by Israel has killed more than ten times the number of civilians Hamas killed and those attacks are on going. Is there something wrong with anyone wanting a cease fire? Or is it ok for the Israeli government to just slaughter every Palestinian in Gaza?

@cliff-mashburn said
Seems like liberals are becoming more like Nazis every day.

Ethnic cleansing? Creating "lebensraum" for your settler movement in neighboring lands? Allowing the "lesser races" to work for you but not give them full citizenship? Imprisoning "undesirables" in large camps which they cannot leave? Attacking those camps when they rise up?

WHO is becoming more like Nazis everyday? Did you say liberals? Or did you mean some other group of "Chosen People" is acting more like Nazis everyday?!? Pretty ironic, but then:

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche