The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."
President Shafik, one week ago, you authorized
the New York Police Department to clear Columbia’s South Lawn of
student protesters. We watched police officers zip-tie and arrest 108 of
our friends, classmates, and coworkers. In response, students have
mobilized in the hundreds at Columbia and campuses across the country,
defending their right to peaceful protest for divestment from Israel.
Now, police battalions surround campus, students enter and exit through
security checkpoints, NYPD correctional buses circle the block,
helicopters drone overhead, reporters probe students for front-page
quotes, and communication from the administration has all but
disappeared—with the exception, of course, of ominous late-night emails.
Columbia
has become a national spectacle. Instead of defending your students’
right to free expression or engaging publicly with activist
organizations, you and other administrators are scrambling to save
face—granting campus access to select media outlets, the founder of a hate group that is as rabidly Islamophobic as it is antisemitic,
and the occasional opportunistic politician—while abandoning the rest
of campus. As tensions escalate here and elsewhere—Yale University,
Harvard University, New York University, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, University of Michigan, and Brown University, to name a
few—we question whether you understand the impact of what you have done.
President Shafik, this is your legacy: a president more focused on the
brand of your University than the safety of your students and their
demands for justice.
In our April 18 staff editorial,
we asked, “What is the role of the University if not to advocate
for—and protect—its students?” Now, we ask, “Columbia administration,
what is your end goal?” President Shafik, you have made it abundantly
clear that your priorities lie with Columbia’s image and assets, not
with its students. We have witnessed the total annihilation of Columbia
as the advertised collegiate beacon of free speech, expression, and the
right to protest. We have witnessed your capitulation to harmful media
representation and opportunistic Republicans whose aim, it seems, is to
put the values of a liberal education on trial. We have witnessed House
Speaker Mike Johnson threatening intervention from the National Guard from the steps of Low Library and a congressman call for withholding financial aid
from protesters in a press conference outside Columbia’s gates. Your
misguided allegiances and failure to negotiate effectively have
encouraged an environment where individuals are emboldened to climb the
116th Street gates, wave the flag of self-proclaimed terrorist group
Lehi, and verbally harass students—how did we get here?
While
you remain selective in your care for your students’ safety, they
remain steadfast in their commitment to their community. In response to
your identification of student protesters as a “clear and present
danger”—an assessment NYPD Chief John Chell distinguished
from the NYPD’s perspective—thousands of us, along with faculty and
guests from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, have organized
to uplift the spirit of the encampment. When the University fails to
provide consistent community values,
it is the true community of students who come together to fill that
gap. Protesters have led teach-ins and assembly meetings, introduced and
reinforced community guidelines, and manifested their own vision of
meaningful University life. The students, not the administrators, have
stepped up to protect one another from the media’s eagerness to “expose”
the demonstration as antisemitic, anti-American, or something else
entirely irrelevant to Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s clear demands.
The United States proves increasingly inhospitable to free speech, a
cornerstone of democracy; and it seems nearly every private and public
institution has been corporatized, militarized, or both. Reprising the
historical role of universities as centers of knowledge and public
interest as students are doing now could offer a site for pushback to
not just the genocide in Gaza, but much more.
In the coming days, there may be many more encampments in an
ever-widening range of sites around the world. The protesters are united
in their purpose; as a common chant, “Disclose, divest; we will not stop, we will not rest!” is heard across the globe.
Friday, April 26, 2024. Calls for cease-fire increase as campus
activism in the US soars -- even as some outlets ignore the students and
their bravery.
Sabreen al-Sakani has
passed away. Her life was brief, not even one week. Born last Sunday
after her mother was killed, she seemed a 'survivor' of the assault on
Gaza. BBC NEWS explains:
Baby Sabreen al-Sakani was delivered by Caesarean section in a Rafah hospital shortly after midnight on Sunday.
Amid chaotic scenes doctors resuscitated the baby, using a hand pump to push air into her lungs.
However she died on Thursday and has been buried next to her mother after whom she was named.
Baby
Sabreen was among 16 children killed in two air strikes in Rafah last
weekend. All were killed in a bombardment targeting the housing complex
where they lived.
[. . .]
Sabreen's mother, also called Sabreen, was seven-and-a-half months
pregnant when the Israeli air strike on the al-Sakani family home took
place just before midnight on Saturday as she, her husband Shukri and
their three-year-old daughter Malak were asleep.
Sabreen
al-Sakani: one name among the more than 34,000 people killed in Gaza
since 7 October. Sabreen was 30 weeks pregnant when she died after
sustaining terrible head injuries in an Israeli airstrike in the south
of the enclave.
Thankfully, her baby daughter lived after being
delivered by emergency Caesarean section, at a hospital in Rafah last
weekend. With more on this story - and the latest on the war in Gaza
that was sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel – UN
News’s Daniel Johnson spoke to Dominic Allen, from the UN sexual and
reproductive health agency, UNFPA.
She
was thought by some to have been a sign of hope but on Thursday she
became another sign of reality, another child dead as a result of the
actions of the Israeli government and their never-ending assault on
Gaza. Sabreen al-Sakani is one more child in the growing number of over
14,000 dead as a result of the Israeli government.
And
yet some wonder why US students are protesting the assault on Gaza. If
you're one of those wondering, the many reasons why are staring you in
the face if you'd only open your eyes.
President Shafik, one week ago, you authorized
the New York Police Department to clear Columbia’s South Lawn of
student protesters. We watched police officers zip-tie and arrest 108 of
our friends, classmates, and coworkers. In response, students have
mobilized in the hundreds at Columbia and campuses across the country,
defending their right to peaceful protest for divestment from Israel.
Now, police battalions surround campus, students enter and exit through
security checkpoints, NYPD correctional buses circle the block,
helicopters drone overhead, reporters probe students for front-page
quotes, and communication from the administration has all but
disappeared—with the exception, of course, of ominous late-night emails.
Columbia
has become a national spectacle. Instead of defending your students’
right to free expression or engaging publicly with activist
organizations, you and other administrators are scrambling to save
face—granting campus access to select media outlets, the founder of a hate group that is as rabidly Islamophobic as it is antisemitic,
and the occasional opportunistic politician—while abandoning the rest
of campus. As tensions escalate here and elsewhere—Yale University,
Harvard University, New York University, University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, University of Michigan, and Brown University, to name a
few—we question whether you understand the impact of what you have done.
President Shafik, this is your legacy: a president more focused on the
brand of your University than the safety of your students and their
demands for justice.
Her
legacy is in tatters and her actions last week, her resorting to lies
(the peaceful students were no clear and present danger) and bullying
tactics did more to grow the movement than anything else. This will
remain her legacy.
What she can't grasp, the US Secretary of State does. AFP quotes
Antony Blinken speaking of the campus protests this morning while he
was in China, "It's a hallmark of our democracy that our citizens make
known their
views, their concerns, their anger, at any given time. I think
that reflects the strength of the country."
I went to MIT, class of 1969. It is now 2024 not the late sixties,
but rebellion for change is again in the air. I think it is just getting
revved up. I can feel it. I’ll bet you can feel it too. And maybe,
hopefully, it will not crescendo any time soon but will instead persist.
And perhaps, hopefully, it will seek more than immediate changes. And
maybe, and I think I can feel this too, it will be much smarter than we
were back then, back in 1968.
The rebellious events at Columbia last week have spurred rebellions
of students and sometimes others at a rapidly enlarging community of
campuses, including at my personally much-despised alma mater, MIT.
[Note, I am not unbiased about campus rebellion or about MIT. The former
undergirds mass change, over and over. Have at it. The latter is an
instance of elite, academic, grossly rotten business as usual. When I
was president of MIT’s student body, during steadily growing and
intensifying rebellion, among the epithets I used for MIT was “Dachau on
the Charles” because of its war research. Some on campus were too
literal or too dense to see why I named it thus. For them, I would
acknowledge the main difference, which was that MIT’s victims were not
local, like Dachau’s—no, MIT’s victims way back then were half a torn-up
world away in Vietnam enduring American carpet bombing. And regarding
Dachau, MIT’s victims were not hanging like burned out lightbulbs in
MIT’s corridors nor lying breathless like fish out of water gassed in
MIT’s labs. And now, 56 years later, MIT’s current victims are way off
in Gaza enduring Israeli carpet bombing (but with American bombs). They
are not being forcefully exiled from MIT’s classes, dorms, playing
fields, and clinic—not yet, anyway. My point: history sometimes repeats,
sometimes with ironic differences, sometimes with healthy differences.
A number of people were arrested at Ohio State University in
Columbus after demonstrators refused to leave part of campus Thursday
night, a university spokesperson said.
The number of arrests was not immediately available.
“Well
established university rules prohibit camping and overnight events.
Demonstrators exercised their first amendment rights for several hours
and were then instructed to disperse,” spokesman Ben Johnson said in an
email.
“Individuals who refused to leave after multiple warnings were arrested and charged with criminal trespass,” he said.
CBS NEWS adds, "In Philadelphia, more than 100 students at Temple University walked out of class and marched from campus to City Hall, CBS Philadelphia reported. The protesters were also joined by students from Drexel University."
AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
NERMEENSHAIKH:
Protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza have rocked campuses from
coast to coast over the past week amid an intensifying police crackdown.
At the University of Texas in Austin, school officials called in local
and state police, including some on horseback, who violently broke up a
student encampment on campus. At least 50 people were arrested,
including at least one journalist. Some faculty at UT Austin are going
on strike today to protest the police crackdown.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University
continues a week after over a hundred students were arrested in a failed
attempt by the university administration to clear the demonstration.
University President Minouche Shafik had said on Tuesday — had set on
Tuesday a midnight deadline to reach an agreement on clearing an
encampment, but the school extended negotiations for another 48 hours.
On a visit to campus Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson called on
Shafik to resign.
SPEAKERMIKEJOHNSON:
I am here today joining my colleagues in calling on President Shafik to
resign if she cannot immediately bring order to this chaos. As speaker
of the House, I am committing today that the Congress will not be silent
as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home
from their classes, hiding in fear.
AMYGOODMAN:
For more, we’re joined in New York by Sarah King, member of Columbia
University Apartheid Divest. She is Jewish, one of the students arrested
at the encampment last week who’s now suspended. We’re also joined by
Joshua Sklar, a graduate student at University of Texas Austin, a member
of Jewish Voice for Peace Austin, who was at Wednesday’s protest.
We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Josh, there were more
than 50 arrests at UT Austin. If you can respond to the House speaker,
who’s saying that these encampments around the country are antisemitic
and pro-Hamas?
JOSHUASKLAR:
It’s absolutely ridiculous. I was there with a contingent of Jewish
students, and we were received very warmly. There were even Jewish
Zionists there, and they were not harassed at all. In fact, I would say
that they probably felt safer than the majority of protesters.
NERMEENSHAIKH: Sarah King, if you could describe what’s happening now at Columbia University and your own position? You were suspended?
SARAHKING:
Yes, I was one of the over 100 students who was arrested as part of a
peaceful protest in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, and I’m one of the
student who’s been suspended, as well, so I’m currently not allowed to
be on campus. And I have to say it’s — the camp itself is very
beautiful. It’s been a real place of interfaith celebration and
solidarity, in support of the people of Gaza, who are now at over 200
days of genocide. But, you know, the threat is really coming from
Columbia University, which has sent the police on hundreds of its
students who are entrusted to its care.
AMYGOODMAN:
And can you talk, Sarah, about what’s happened, how you got suspended
and your treatment? I’ve been talking to a number of Columbia and
Barnard students who said that some of them were given 15 minutes to get
out of their dorm, and your meal card canceled, as you’re banned from
campus, as well.
SARAHKING:
Yeah, that’s exactly right. I’m one of the lucky ones, because I live
off campus. But many students live in Columbia housing, and so they were
evicted from their homes or locked out from their homes, probably
illegally in many cases. We’re looking into it. And they lost access to
their normal food. I had an undergraduate who is low-income and was
staying with me, because she was evicted with no notice and lost access
to her meal plan.
And it’s really very concerning the way Columbia uses the threat of —
initially it was just — “just,” quote-unquote — the threat of housing,
the threat of loss of food to try to — you know, as a cudgel to get
students into the correct political line that is best for its
pocketbook, its investment portfolio. And now they’re threatening to set
the National Guard on us, risking another Jackson State, another Kent
State, where students have been killed because the National Guard were
set on students. And they’re willing to risk the threat of violence at
their hands because we’re not, you know, consistent with what’s best for
their board of trustees or for their portfolios.
NERMEENSHAIKH: And, Sarah, what about your response to Mike Johnson being invited to speak at Columbia University on campus yesterday?
SARAHKING:
Yeah. I mean, first, I think it’s shameful that he was allowed there.
Like, I myself am not allowed on campus. I’m, you know, one of many
talented and promising students with bright futures who have been banned
from campus, but Mike Johnson, who is an open racist and white
supremacist, along with people like Gavin McInnes, the head of the Proud
Boys, they were welcomed on campus yesterday.
And to me, that really tells the story of what’s at stake here, which
is that, you know, the students fighting for Palestinian liberation are
part of an interracial coalition — so many Jewish students, Muslim
students, Black, Brown, Arab students — working together for the cause
of freedom, on one side, and then, on the other side, you have political
opportunists, like the House speaker, who, you know, will take any
excuse they can get to come after that kind of interfaith,
multigenerational coalition fighting for freedom. And right now it
happens to be under the guise of something like antisemitism. But, you
know, there’s no substance to it at all. And I think anybody who came to
campus and saw, the worst prosecution that the Jewish students on
campus are facing is from Columbia University. We were
disproportionately banned by Columbia because so many of us are part of
the Gaza Solidarity Encampment trying to prevent a genocide in our name.
AMYGOODMAN: And, Joshua Sklar, wrote a piece in The Austin Chronicle.
“We need a ceasefire now,” it was called, the subtitle,
“Anti-Palestinian violence is not 'on the other side of the globe.' It’s
here in Austin, too.” If you can talk about that and how protesters
were treated yesterday? You had riot police on horseback?
JOSHUASKLAR:
Yeah. I think that there’s been this narrative that there’s been
rampant antisemitism. And this simply is not the case. The people who
are being targeted are Muslim students, Arab students, and especially
Palestinian students. Police came in on horseback, and they attacked
protesters. I heard from other students that during an earlier part of
the protest, they were clearly targeting Brown people and women. I
wasn’t there personally, but this is what I heard.
AMYGOODMAN:
Let me ask Sarah King a final question. We have 10 seconds. And that
is, 48-hour extension goes ’til tonight. What are the plans? Ten
seconds, Sarah.
SARAHKING:
You know, I think most of the people at the encampment have already
agreed to risk arrest, and they won’t move unless moved by force or
until Columbia concedes to our demands, which are for divestment,
amnesty and financial transparency.
AMYGOODMAN:
We want to thank you both for being with us, Sarah King, Columbia
University Apartheid Divest, and Joshua Sklar at UT Austin. I’m Amy
Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.
As Mike
has said repeatedly at his site, "I stand with the students." The
students have taken action because elected leaders have failed to lead.
For over 200 days, this active genocide has taken place and the best
the US can offer is Joe Biden say, "I'm not kidding, Israel, you calm
down or I'm pulling this car over." Joe does nothing except give the
government of Israel -- a corrupt and brutal regime -- millions and
billions of US tax dollars -- $26 billion just this week, he just signed
it this week. There are no consequences for the War Crimes. Joe
continues to turn a blind eye. That's why the students have to lead --
because officials have failed and the body count grows higher and higher
each day that this assault continues.
Rather than address that truth, college officials and politicians call for the students to be attacked.
At
the University of Texas in Austin, school officials called in local and
state police, who violently crushed a student attempt to set up an
encampment on the university’s South Mall. At least 50 people were
arrested, including at least one journalist. Some faculty at UT Austin
are going on strike today to protest the police crackdown. In a
statement, the teachers wrote, “We have witnessed police punching a
female student, knocking over a legal observer, dragging a student over a
chain link fence, and violently arresting students simply for standing
at the front of the crowd.”
In Massachusetts, police made at least 108 arrests as officers broke
up a student encampment at Emerson College in Boston overnight.
Meanwhile, students at Harvard University defied school orders and began
a tent encampment at Harvard Yard, which had been closed on Tuesday.
And earlier this morning, police moved in and started arresting
Princeton students as they were setting up their own Gaza solidarity
encampment.
At Atlanta's Emory University, 28 demonstrators were arrested on Thursday after refusing to leave.
Emory's police force said protesters had "pushed past" officers protecting the area set up for commencement on Thursday morning.
The
force acknowledged that chemical irritants had been released as part of
crowd control measures, though they said it was in response to objects
being thrown at officers.
Atlanta Police also confirmed using chemical irritants but denied reports they had fired rubber bullets at protesters.
CNN adds, "A group of Democratic Georgia state lawmakers condemned the “excessive force used by Georgia State Patrol” during arrests at Emory." INDIA TODAY notes, "Police in the US state of Georgia used excessive force while trying to
disperse protesters at a pro-Palestine protest at Emory University in
Atlanta. A professor was knocked to the ground by a police officer,
while another held her down as they handcuffed her with zip-ties."
A day after Columbia University officials warned it may call on the
National Guard to remove nonviolent student protesters who have been
occupying campus lawns since last week in solidarity with Gaza, advocacy group Palestine
Legal on Thursday filed a federal civil rights complaint demanding an
investigation into the school's "discriminatory treatment of Palestinian
students and their allies."
The school discriminated against pro-Palestinian protesters last week when President Minouche Shafik summoned New York Police Department officers in riot gear to arrest more than 100 students, said Palestine Legal.
The
complaint details how the escalation against students, who have set up
an encampment on campus to demand Columbia divest from companies that
work with the Israeli government and to support calls for a cease-fire
in Gaza, is part of a monthslong pattern of the university's targeting
of pro-Palestinian students.
According to
Palestine Legal, students of all backgrounds who have demanded an end
to Israel's U.S.-backed massacre of Palestinians in Gaza "have been the
target of extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic
harassment, including receiving multiple death threats, being harassed
for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxxed, stereotyped, being treated
differently by high-ranking administrators including... Shafik, an attack with a chemical agent
that led to at least 10 students requiring hospitalization and dozens
of others, including a Palestinian student, seeking medical attention,
and more."
Faculty from universities across the country have begun to mobilize in
solidarity with the student movement for Palestine. From NYU, where faculty linked arms to protect students from police; to Columbia University, where faculty engaged in a solidarity walkout with the Gaza Solidarity Encampment; to Barnard College, where faculty planned a sick-out in defense of their students — faculty are rising up in defense of their students. At the University of Texas Austin, faculty have announced a 24-hour work stoppage as part of the fight against student repression.
The action is the first so far in which faculty are using their power
as workers to halt university operations in solidarity with student
protestors. They are leveraging the fact that they make the university
run in order to grind it to a halt. As we noted recently,
while the past few years have seen many graduate worker and contingent
faculty strikes, it’s very unusual in recent decades for faculty to
mobilize to this extent outside of the context of collective bargaining.
Notably, public sector workers in Texas have serious restrictions
on collective bargaining, meaning they do not have the ability to
organize unions and negotiate from those unions. In other words, these
workers are acting as a united group without having a union.
Additionally, Texas has a full ban on public sector workers engaging in
work stoppages — this means faculty at UT Austin are acting together,
without a union, to break the law and stop work in order to protect the
student movement. This action shows that, even if workers have no current legal pathway for unionization, they can still act as a union — in fact, public sector collective bargaining rights were won through strikes like these.
These
protests are huge news. We've covered them every day this week, for
example. And some e-mails wonder why I'm ignoring progressive
outlets?
I'm not. We're noted many. We're
posting YOUTUBE videos throughout the day from Marc Lamont Hill,
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA, THE MAJORITY REPORT, SECULAR TALK, MIDDLE EAST EYE,
DEMOCRACY NOW!, etc and the snapshots have included those and COMMON
DREAMS and COUNTERPUNCH articles.
But the
people e-mailing me are actually wondering why I'm not noting coverage
from THE PROGRESSIVE? That's the US magazine and website that bills
itself as "A voice for peace and social justice since 1909." Why am I
ignoring their coverage?
I'm not.
They've offered no coverage.
This is week two. This all started last week at Columbia University.
And THE PROGRESSIVE can't say one damn word about it.
That's very telling.
We
may call out a show -- Ava and I -- at THIRD. As it stands, we just
turned it off last night. But the reason that adults who think they're
on the left could misrepresent the protests so easily is because 'power
outlets,' 'prestige outlets' on the left are silent.
Hey,
IN THESE TIMES, don't sneak out of the room. We're talking about you
and your lazy ass too. I see you've published articles this week, just
not any on the brave students taking action. Trying to wait and see
where public opinion lands? Too scared so you want to play it safe?
You
should be ashamed of yourself. You're adults and your cowards.
Students are putting their futures on their line and you're too scared
to even publish a piece on the biggest US news story of the week. Shame
on you.
THE NATION?
Honestly,
I don't ever note THE NATION unless a friend with the magazine asks me
to. Why? It's one of those paywall sites and so people -- readers as
well as community members -- don't feel it should be noted.
But
I went there this morning (I do subscribe to the periodical) and
nothing. Story after story published this week. They had time to
wonder if Trump was on drugs (I think Ruth's "Is Donald Trump on a public drunken bender?"
is better -- and she certainly pulled her theme together better and
closed with a better ending), for example, but no time for the
students. And this is an election year. If you're unaware, that's when
THE NATION pretends to pay attention to students -- in order to turn
them out at the polls for the Democratic Party.
THE NATION doesn't care about the protesters.
So
next time when you're at your favorite site, look and see if they've
managed, since last week, to cover this huge story, the biggest story
this week in the United States. Bigger than Donald Trump, bigger then
any case before the Supreme Court. Students across the country are
standing up. This is a major news story -- as is the oppressive
response to the students' actions.
While the
Holy Trinity of Cowards -- THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE and IN THESE
TIMES -- played the quiet game, some elements of corporate media haven't
been so reluctant. Ari Paul (FAIR) notes:
A sense of delight has filled the city’s opinion pages. The New York Post editorial board (4/18/24)
hailed both the clampdown on protests and Congress’s push to ensure
that such drastic action against free speech was taken: “We’re glad to
see Shafik stand up…. Congress deserves some credit for putting
educrats’ feet to the fire on this issue.” The paper added, “Academia
has been handling anti-Israel demonstrations with kid gloves.” In other
words, universities have been allowing too many people to think and
speak critically about an important issue of the day.
In “At Columbia, the Grown-Ups in the Room Take a Stand,” New York Times columnist Pamela Paul (4/18/24)
hailed the eviction, saying of the encampment that for the “passer-by,
the fury and self-righteous sentiment on display was chilling,” and that
for supporters of Israel, “it must be unimaginably painful.” In other
words, conservative pundits have decided that campus safe spaces where
speech is banned to protect the feelings of listeners are good,
depending on the issue. Would Paul (no relation!) favor bans on
pro-Taiwan or pro-Armenia demonstrations because they could offend
Chinese and Turkish students?
And for Michael Oren, a prominent Israeli politico, Columbia students hadn’t suffered enough. He said of Columbia in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (4/19/24):
Missing
was an admission of the university’s failure to enforce the measures it
had enacted to protect its Jewish community. [Shafik] didn’t address
how, under the banner of free speech, Columbia became inhospitable to
Jews. She didn’t acknowledge how incendiary demonstrations such as the
encampment were the product of the university’s inaction.
Shafik
had assured her congressional interrogators that Columbia had already
suspended 15 students for speaking out for Palestinian human rights,
suspended two student groups—Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for
Justice in Palestine (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 11/10/23)—and had even terminated an instructor (New York Times, 4/17/24).
Corporate
media like FOX "NEWS" gets away with smearing and attacking the
protesters because The Holy Trinity of Cowards remains silent. And,
again, it's not just FOX "NEWS." I don't watch FOX "NEWS." Ava, Mike
and I were watching a 'reliable' program last night when the students
were attacked on air by a left or 'left' voice with the program.
AP provides a round-up of various campuses and we're going to note this on Northwestern:
Northwestern University changed its student code of conduct Thursday
morning to bar tents on its suburban Chicago campus as student activists
set up an encampment.
Groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and
Educators for Justice in Palestine said the encampment on the Evanston
campus was “a safe space for those who want to show their support of the
Palestinian people.” The students want the university to divest from
Israel, among other things.
Dozens participated as University
President Michael Schill issued an email saying the university had
enacted an “interim addendum” to its student code to bar tents, among
other things, and warned of disciplinary actions including suspension,
expulsion and criminal charges.
“The goal of this addendum is to
balance the right to peacefully demonstrate with our goal to protect our
community, to avoid disruptions to instruction and to ensure university
operations can continue unabated,” Schilling said.
While THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE and IN THESE TIMES ignore the students and their activism, the world doesn't. THE NATIONAL notes:
Student-led protests over the war in Gaza were widening in Europe on
Friday as activists in Britain and France follow the lead of a campus
demonstrations spreading in the US.
Protesters in Paris blocked an
entrance to elite university Sciences Po on Friday, refusing to back
down after a tent “occupation” was broken up by police a day earlier.
Activists
at University College London were planning a rally in the name of a
“global student movement for Palestine”, taking inspiration from
protests at New York’s Columbia University.
Groups of students in
both cities are demanding that university bosses cut ties with Israel
and give free rein to pro-Palestinian protesters.
In Berlin, 150
police officers moved to ban a protest camp set up near the German
parliament, citing repeated criminal offences. It was not clear whether
the activists were students.
The US unrest inspired by Columbia’s
tent occupation has meanwhile continued to spread, with more than 200
people arrested overnight at campus protests Los Angeles, Boston and
Austin.
Students in Paris protested again on Friday after police broke up a
pro-Palestinian solidarity demonstration Wednesday night at Sciences Po,
one of France's most prestigious universities. The Paris student
protest comes amid a wave of similar demonstrations at US universities.
Attempts to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war continued with an Egyptian
delegation heading to Israel ahead of a possible invasion of Rafah.
Read our liveblog to follow today's developments in the Middle East.
Again,
it's the biggest story of the week in US domestic news and its garnered
world attention but somehow the protests don't show up on the websites
of THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE or IN THESE TIMES.
The
U.S. State Department’s Arabic-language spokesperson, Hala Rharrit,
resigned Thursday, citing her opposition to the Biden administration’s
policy on Israel’s war in Gaza. Her departure marks at least the third
resignation in the department since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“I
resigned April 2024 after 18 years of distinguished service in
opposition to the United States’ Gaza policy,” Rharrit wrote on
LinkedIn.
When
asked about Rharrit’s resignation, State Department spokesman Vedant
Patel told reporters that the department offers avenues for employees to
express dissent when they disagree with the decisions of senior
leaders.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 203 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of
Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "At least 34,356 Palestinians have been killed and 77,368 wounded in
Israel's military offensive since October 7, Gaza's Health Ministry said
on Friday. The ministry said 51 people were killed and 75 injured in the 24-hour reporting period." Months
ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive
has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole
neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been
blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are
still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery
by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and
Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing
destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate
of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second
World War."
Footage published online and verified by Al Jazeera shows Israeli
soldiers preventing a number of young men from entering the mosque and
assaulting some of them.
Still, thousands of people made it to Islam’s third holiest site to perform Friday prayers.
In recent months Israeli authorities have imposed restrictions on
Muslim worshippers wanting to pray at Al-Aqsa. Only men over the age of
55 or women over 50 are allowed to enter and all must have a valid
permit. This means that the site is not accessible to the vast majority
of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Waqf department on Thursday said more than 1,000 settlers stormed the courtyard of the mosque.
Friday night, Amna Nawaz declared on PBS' THE NEWSHOUR, "One of the biggest developments of this week has been the expansion of
college protests and encampments. Encampments continue to pop up,
including today at the University of North Carolina." A very matter of fact and non-controversial statement. CNN had already noted, "A wave of pro-Palestinian campus protests is rippling across the US, with hundreds of people arrested at universities throughout the country this week." Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Jennifer Hassan, Richard Morgan and Karin Brulliard (WASHINGTON POST) had pointed out, "Arrests at pro-Palestinian protests that expanded Thursday to colleges
across the country brought the total number of people detained in a week
of demonstrations to more than 500, with officials struggling to quell
the unrest by clearing encampments and closing buildings." A lot of coverage from the media.
But a lot of silence too -- especially from the official left or 'left' media. As noted in Friday's "Iraq snapshot:"
These protests are huge news. We've covered them every day this
week, for example. And some e-mails wonder why I'm ignoring progressive
outlets?
I'm not. We're noted many. We're
posting YOUTUBE videos throughout the day from Marc Lamont Hill,
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA, THE MAJORITY REPORT, SECULAR TALK, MIDDLE EAST EYE,
DEMOCRACY NOW!, etc and the snapshots have included those and COMMON
DREAMS and COUNTERPUNCH articles.
But the
people e-mailing me are actually wondering why I'm not noting coverage
from THE PROGRESSIVE? That's the US magazine and website that bills
itself as "A voice for peace and social justice since 1909." Why am I
ignoring their coverage?
I'm not.
They've offered no coverage.
This is week two. This all started last week at Columbia University.
And THE PROGRESSIVE can't say one damn word about it.
That's very telling.
We
may call out a show -- Ava and I -- at THIRD. As it stands, we just
turned it off last night. But the reason that adults who think they're
on the left could misrepresent the protests so easily is because 'power
outlets,' 'prestige outlets' on the left are silent.
Hey,
IN THESE TIMES, don't sneak out of the room. We're talking about you
and your lazy ass too. I see you've published articles this week, just
not any on the brave students taking action. Trying to wait and see
where public opinion lands? Too scared so you want to play it safe?
You
should be ashamed of yourself. You're adults and your cowards.
Students are putting their futures on their line and you're too scared
to even publish a piece on the biggest US news story of the week. Shame
on you.
THE NATION?
Honestly,
I don't ever note THE NATION unless a friend with the magazine asks me
to. Why? It's one of those paywall sites and so people -- readers as
well as community members -- don't feel it should be noted.
But
I went there this morning (I do subscribe to the periodical) and
nothing. Story after story published this week. They had time to
wonder if Trump was on drugs (I think Ruth's "Is Donald Trump on a public drunken bender?"
is better -- and she certainly pulled her theme together better and
closed with a better ending), for example, but no time for the
students. And this is an election year. If you're unaware, that's when
THE NATION pretends to pay attention to students -- in order to turn
them out at the polls for the Democratic Party.
THE NATION doesn't care about the protesters.
Nothing changed over the weekend. In terms of coverage, nothing changed.
You know who hasn't been silent? FOX "NEWS," THE NATIONAL REVIEW, all the right wing websites. But the cowards at THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE and IN THESE TIMES have been silent.
Which is why, for example, we got the liar last week, a Jewish student, claiming to have been attacked on campus, at Yale -- why, she was poked in the eye!!!!!
Here's THE MAJORITY REPORT taking on the lie.
Where were THE NATION, THE PROGRESSIVE and IN THESE TIMES? Cowering in the shadows?
That would explain how, for multiple days, this liar was allowed to broadcast her lies. And they covered it -- FOX "NEWS" on "AMERICA'S" "NEWS"ROOM, THE NEW YORK POST, PIERS MORGAN UNCENSORED, CBS NEWS, on and on and on.
None of whom, by the way, has issued a correction.
We turn on MSNBC and find ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt lying about the student protesters and notice that the host doesn't correct his lies and that there's no guest brought on to offer a different viewpoint -- or even just the truth. The students are lied about and distorted and this is supposed to pass for news or for fairness?
We flip over to CNN and find a roundtable and find Dana Bash participating as an objective CNN journalist -- when we clearly know that Dana is Jewish and pro-Israel but most viewers probably don't know that since it wasn't disclosed -- about her or about the other Jewish pro-Israel participant. If they'd disclosed those realities, they might have had people asking why there was no seat at the table for anyone Arab -- let alone Palestinian. After that, people might want to ask why a roundtable on student protests featured . . . no students.
The whole discussion is rigged before anything is broadcast or printed. And to make it worse, you've got THE NATION, IN THESE TIMES and THE PROGRESSIVE too scared, too whorish to speak out.
"Ava and C.I.," you say, "those rags have never led on Palestinian issues."
True. But equally true, this is a story about American students, about activism in the US.
And it was the biggest story of last week.
Thursday night, we were trying to watch THE DAILY SHOW. Even though the hideous Jordan Klepper was on. After failing at both of his own shows at COMEDY CENTRAL, Klepper returned to THE DAILY SHOW where he's done little of value other than demonstrate that a receding hairline paired with a very high forehead is truly a frightening thing to see.
There he was at the desk with Ronny Chieng and we weren't supposed to notice that Ronny was reduced to a stereotype for the 'jokes'? That Jordan was glorified as informed? We kept waiting for the pay off in this clearly racist bit. But we had to bail because suddenly Jordan was talking about the student protests and declaring, "Loud and even disruptive protests are a cherished tradition on campuses. And college investments in Israel are a legitimate issue for students. But, at the same time, there’s a real element of antisemitism among some protests, and Jewish students have the right to feel safe at their own schools."
That's Jordan Klepper, trash who spent forever doing a podcast with an LGBTQ+ hating Republican politician. Jordan gets to play left on TV.
There's a real element of antisemitism at some protests? Really, Klapper, which ones? If they exist surely you can cite them, right? And do Palestinian students on US campuses not have a right to feel safe at their own schools? Do students protesting not have a right to feel safe?
What may be most frightening about the segment is that the left or 'left' outlet THE GUARDIAN actually praised it. Time and again, those outlets the left counts on have repeatedly failed.
As
we did in 2021 and 2023, we're attempting to again increase book coverage in the
community. After a review posts, we try to do a discussion with the
reviewer. This go round, we're talking to Ann about her "Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life ..." Ann?
Ann: Anna May Wong was a film actress who came to prominence during the silent picture era. There have been some very good books written about her. This year saw the publication of Katie Gee Salsbury's NOT YOUR CHINA DOLL: THE WILD AND SHIMMERING LIFE OF ANNA MAY WONG. The bad book isn't bound by facts or reality. Katie Gee reads a story about how Douglas Fairbanks was on the set of a film and she just fan-fictions a scene similar on the set of THE THIEF OF BAGDAD -- no "H" in the title of that film, by the way. She doesn't really know about Anna May's family laundry but has read of others from that period so she just creates stories. It's fan fiction and written as though the intended audience was eight years old. It's just a really bad book.
What's the worst section?
Ann: When she spends forever on THE GOOD EARTH. Anna May Wong was not in that film. Luis Rainer was. She quotes a lot of press but doesn't write the obvious: Anna May screwed herself out of that role. The film was made in 1936 and released in January 1937. Around this time, David Selznick is attempting to cast GONE WITH THE WIND. Anna May has been mentioned by the press often for THE GOOD EARTH and she is asked outright if she will test for the role. She says "No" and adds that she looks Chinese and everyone knows it. That wasn't the issue. The issue was how she looked on film. Katharine Hepburn wanted the role of Scarlet in GONE WITH THE WIND and was asked to test for it. She refused and told Selznick he knew what she looked like and he replied that indeed he did and he couldn't imagine any man carrying a torch for her for years. She didn't get the role. Anna May was 31 years old -- considered old for a leading role. She came to prominence in B-movies. A screen test might have convinced people that she looked good and that she had the charisma for the role. The film cost a fortune for the time period and she wouldn't test for the role. By offering just some of the information I just did regarding Hepburn and GONE WITH THE WIND, the bad author could have written of how Anna May outsmarted herself and lost a role. But that reality wouldn't fit with the fan fiction. Sadly, after she lost the lead role, to Luise Rainer who won her second Academy Award for the film, she was asked to test for a secondary supporting role and did. Anna May did two screen tests for that role but was judged not attractive enough and wasn't cast.
Anna May Wong became the first Asian-American woman to star in a TV series. How is that handled?
Ann: Very poorly. As we all know, none of the 13 episodes survive. That is the lazy author's excuse to basically write nothing. The show as promoted, the show was reviewed and other authors have managed to cover it. Not so, Katie Gee. It's just a very bad book. In the end, we can be happy that Anna May Wong has another book about her but this book is pointless and for non-thinking readers.
Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).
