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Racial Tensions Split Leading Pro-Hamas Group at Columbia University
Pro-Hamas demonstrators at Columbia University in New York City, US, April 29, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs
Identity politics has sundered Columbia University’s leading pro-Hamas student group, CU Apartheid Divest (CUAD), pitting progressive advocates of secular humanism against those who believe that ethnic identity should be the main determiner of who leads the anti-Israel student movement.
First reported by The Columbia Spectator, the split has led to the formation of a new group, Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC), and in its first public statement, it accused unnamed racial groups of crowding out Palestinian voices.
“We regret CUAD has shifted from a horizontally structured coalition founded on Palestinian liberation to a nebulous organization that is not led by the affinity group of Palestinian student organizers,” CPSP said, according to an op-ed published by the Spectator on Oct. 19. “As a people already denied the right to narrate our struggle, let alone the right to exist, we refuse to have our liberation dictated for us. We refuse to allow anyone to speak over us any longer.”
With its announcement, CPSC specified that a Palestinian “affinity” group will head the new organization.
Affinity groups, which first emerged on college campuses following the advent of racial preferences, are segregated student groups which admit, and sometimes exclude, members based on racial and ethnic origin. Columbia University has authorized dozens of such groups, including the Black Student Organization (BSO), Student Organization of Latinxs (SOL), and the Asian American Alliance (AAA). Some groups have designated “community spaces” on campus. For example the university describes the Malcolm X Lounge as a “safe space for students of African descent” that is “operated by the Black students Organization.”
CUAD has proven to be one of the most disruptive pro-Hamas student groups in the country since last academic year, when Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel set off an explosion of anti-Zionist activity.
In April, its members commandeered a section of campus and, after declaring it a “liberated zone,” lit flares and chanted pro-Hamas and anti-American slogans, according to numerous reports. When the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrived to disperse the unauthorized gathering, hundreds of students reportedly amassed around them to prevent the restoration of order.
“Yes, we’re all Hamas, pig!” one protester was filmed screaming during the fracas, which saw some verbal skirmishes between pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist partisans. “Long live Hamas!” said others who filmed themselves dancing and praising the al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Hamas terrorist organization. “Kill another soldier!” they also shouted.
In September, during the university’s convocation ceremony, CUAD distributed literature calling on students to join the Palestinian terrorist group’s movement to destroy Israel.
“This booklet is part of a coordinated and intentional effort to uphold the principles of the thawabit and the Palestinian resistance movement overall by transmitting the words of the resistance directly,” said a pamphlet distributed by CUAD, a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) spinoff, to incoming freshmen. “This material aims to build popular support for the Palestinian war of national liberation, a war which is waged through armed struggle.”
Other sections of the pamphlet were explicitly Islamist, invoking the name of “Allah, the most gracious” and referring to Hamas as the “Islamic Resistance Movement.” Proclaiming, “Glory to Gaza that gave hope to the oppressed, that humiliated the ‘invincible’ Zionist army,” it said its purpose was to build an army of Muslims worldwide.
CPSC now argues that CUAD has “lost focus” of its true aim.
“Statements and actions by CUAD in recent months have alienated and abandoned Palestinian students in the name of pursuing ideology,” it said in last month’s op-ed. “By forming a new Palestinian-led coalition dedicated to divestment, we evolve and redirect: Palestine will be the compass of the pro-Palestinian movement on campus, with Palestinian students its bearers. To do so, we universally uphold two political tenets: the right to return and the right to resist.”
The organization will likely be more extreme than its predecessor, Columbia University freshmen Shoshana Aufzien told The Algemeiner on Thursday.
“The schism was inevitable. CUAD leverages students’ ignorance, exploiting [social justice warriors] and sheeple alike” Aufzien said. “While CPSC claims to ‘center Palestinian’ voices,’ their rhetoric remains virtually indistinguishable from CUAD’s. Both groups propagate misinformation, foment antisemitism, and condone terror.”
Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Racial Tensions Split Leading Pro-Hamas Group at Columbia University first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Protesters trapped students in a Calgary lecture hall during a talk by Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy
Demonstrators trapped Jewish students in a classroom at the University of Calgary (UofC) on Oct. 31, during a talk with Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy. Students had to evacuate the […]
The post Protesters trapped students in a Calgary lecture hall during a talk by Israel’s former spokesperson Eylon Levy appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Iran’s Quds Force Chief Pens Letter to New Hezbollah Leader Vowing Support to Destroy Israel
Brigadier General Esmail Qaani, the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, speaks during a ceremony in Tehran, Iran, April 14, 2022. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
The head of Iran’s elite military force responsible for Iranian proxies and terrorist operations abroad has written a letter to Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, expressing unwavering support in their joint mission to destroy Israel.
“The Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] will remain alongside Hezbollah until the malignant Zionist tree [Israel] is uprooted and Palestine, along with holy al-Quds, is liberated,” Iranian Brigadier General Esmail Qaani wrote in the letter, according to Iranian and Lebanese media.
Another translation from Iran’s state-owned Press TV quoted Qaani — who leads the extraterritorial wing of the IRGC, an internationally designated terrorist organization — as saying to Qassem that “your brothers in the Quds Force will stand by Your Excellency and Hezbollah until the elimination and eradication of the evil lineage of Zionism and the freedom of Palestine.”
Qaani praised the appointment of Qassem as the new leader of Iran’s chief proxy in the Middle East and commemorated his predecessor, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September after heading the Lebanese terrorist organization for decades.
“By the grace of God, the resplendent and struggle-filled path of the martyrs will continue with more speed and strength under the management and leadership of Your Excellency,” Qaani wrote. “You are a seasoned and honorable fighter, widely respected among the noble fighters in the resistance.”
The Iranian commander added, “I pray to Almighty God that this enlightened and Jihadi path of the martyrs will continue under your leadership with greater strength and resolve.”
Hezbollah officially named Qassem, 67, as its new secretary general on Tuesday. He was appointed as the terrorist group’s deputy chief in 1991 and has been one of its leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media.
Shortly after Qassem’s appointment was announced, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X/Twitter, “Temporary appointment. Not for long,” along with a photo of the new Hezbollah chief as an apparent threat.
The Israeli government wrote a similar message on its official Arabic account on X: “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors … There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force.”
Over the past several weeks, Israel has intensified its military operations against Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon, where the terrorist group wields significant influence. Israel has significantly degraded Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpiles and killed much of its leadership, including not only Nasrallah but also others expected to replace him.
Hezbollah has been firing drones, missiles, and rockets at northern Israel almost daily since Oct. 8 of last year, one day after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — another Iranian proxy — invaded the Jewish state from the south and launched the ongoing war in Gaza.
About 70,000 Israelis have been forced to evacuate their homes in northern Israel amid the relentless Hezbollah attacks. Israel has vowed to do whatever is necessary, including military action, to ensure its displaced citizens can return to their communities.
Meanwhile, Qaani, 71, was reportedly questioned in recent weeks by Iranian authorities about apparent security breaches surrounding the killing of Nasrallah in Beirut, Lebanon.
According to the Middle East Eye, Iranian authorities have serious suspicions about a major security breach in Qaani’s office but do not seem to believe that Qaani was involved. The news outlet quoted sources as saying that Qaani’s “negligence” and “weak management” had “led to untrustworthy people entering his office,” adding that they may have been the cause of security breaches that led to Nasrallah’s death.
The Algemeiner could not independently verify these claims about potential breaches in Qaani’s office.
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US Truce Efforts on Lebanon Fail Ahead of Election, Diplomatic Sources Say
Israeli tanks are being moved, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, in the Golan Heights, Sept. 22, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jim Urquhart
American efforts to halt fighting between Israel and the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah have failed after the US drafted an “unrealistic” ceasefire proposal and Israel‘s insistence on being able to enforce a truce directly, people briefed on the diplomacy told Reuters.
With no workable proposal on the table ahead of Tuesday’s US presidential election, the conflict could drag on for months, according to a Lebanese political source close to Hezbollah, two diplomats and a person briefed on the talks.
They all spoke on condition of anonymity. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not respond to questions from Reuters.
A US official said talks between US envoys and Israeli officials on Thursday yielded better results than expected. A second US official described the meetings as “substantive” and “constructive” but said the US would not negotiate in public.
The State Department referred Reuters to comments by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said Israel and Lebanon were moving toward understandings on what was required to end the conflict but more work was needed.
Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire for a year in parallel with the Gaza war but fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel says it has uncovered Hezbollah tunnels and weapons stores in south Lebanon, and that the terrorist group had planned an incursion into Israel even larger than the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.
The US had drafted a 60-day truce proposal that would see Hezbollah pull back from Lebanon’s southern border, both sides cease attacks, and 10,000 Lebanese army troops deploy in the south, according to Israel‘s public broadcaster Kan.
But two diplomats told Reuters the diplomatic efforts had failed because that draft was not viable.
“It was totally unrealistic because of the onus it places on the Lebanese army to solve these problems,” a Western diplomat told Reuters.
A regional diplomat echoed those doubts, specifically pointing to elements of a “side letter” between the US and Israel published by Kan which gave Israel the right to take action against imminent threats to its security. The diplomat described this proposal as “unworkable.”
Lebanon’s government has not commented publicly on the draft, but officials told Reuters that Israel‘s insistence on “direct enforcement” of a deal would breach state sovereignty.
US envoys Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, who were in Israel on Thursday to discuss a ceasefire with Israeli officials, did not continue on to Lebanon for talks.
“After Hochstein’s attempt yesterday, that’s it. It seems only the battlefield will decide,” the Lebanese political figure close to Hezbollah told Reuters.
The US has struggled to break the deadlock in talks.
This week, Hochstein asked Lebanon to declare a unilateral ceasefire with Israel to make headway, two sources told Reuters — a claim denied by Lebanon’s premier and Hochstein.
Netanyahu is facing pressure in Israel from the tens of thousands evacuated from northern areas to make sure that Israel would be able to ensure that any agreement was respected and that Hezbollah and other militias would not be able to return.
“It is essential, therefore, that Israel insists on retaining security freedom of action to enforce an agreement in Lebanon,” the conservative Israel Hayom daily said.
Netanyahu’s office said he told Hochstein on Thursday that Israel‘s main concern was not “this or that agreement on paper but Israel‘s ability and determination to enforce the agreement and thwart any threat to its security from Lebanon.”
On Friday, Lebanese leaders blamed Israel for undermining any deal.
“Israeli statements and diplomatic signals that Lebanon received confirm Israel‘s stubbornness in rejecting the proposed solutions and insisting on the approach of killing and destruction,” Lebanon’s prime minister Najib Mikati said.
Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah and the main diplomatic channel used to mediate with it, said Israel had “wasted more than one opportunity” to reach a ceasefire.
In comments to pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, Berri said Netanyahu had rejected a roadmap that Lebanon and Hochstein had been on board with, and said any diplomacy had been postponed until after Tuesday’s US presidential election.
“The most likely scenario now is that the Israelis will keep doing what they want to do — with no ceasefire,” the Western diplomat said.
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