#pro hamas

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Michael Powell

Published: Apr 22, 2024

Yesterday just before midnight, word goes out, tent to tent, student protester to student protester—a viral warning: Intruders have entered the “liberated zone,” that swath of manicured grass where hundreds of students and their supporters at what they fancy as the People’s University for Palestine sit around tents and conduct workshops about demilitarizing education and fighting settler colonialism and genocide. In this liberated zone, normally known as South Lawn West on the Columbia University quad, unsympathetic outsiders are treated as a danger.

“Attention, everyone! We have Zionists who have entered the camp!” a protest leader calls out. His head is wrapped in a white-and-black keffiyeh. “We are going to create a human chain where I’m standing so that they do not pass this point and infringe on our privacy.”

Privacy struck me as a peculiar goal for an outdoor protest at a prominent university. But it’s been a strange seven-month journey from Hamas’s horrific slaughter of Israelis—the original breach of a cease-fire—to the liberated zone on the Columbia campus and similar standing protests at other elite universities. What I witnessed seemed less likely to persuade than to give collective voice to righteous anger. A genuine sympathy for the suffering of Gazans mixed with a fervor and a politics that could border on the oppressive.

Dozens stand and echo the leader’s commands in unison, word for word. “So that we can push them out of the camp, one step forward! Another step forward!” The protesters lock arms and step toward the interlopers, who as it happens are three fellow Columbia students, who are Jewish and pro-Israel.

Jessica Schwalb, a Columbia junior, is one of those labeled an intruder. In truth, she does not much fear violence—“They’re Columbia students, too nerdy and too worried about their futures to hurt us,” she tells me—as she is taken aback by the sight of fellow students chanting like automatons. She raises her phone to start recording video. One of the intruders speaks up to ask why they are being pushed out.

The leader talks over them, dismissing such inquiries as tiresome. “Repeat after me,” he says, and 100 protesters dutifully repeat: “I’m bored! We would like you to leave!”

As the crowd draws closer, Schwalb and her friends pivot and leave. Even the next morning, she’s baffled at how they were targeted. Save for a friend who wore a Star of David necklace, none wore identifying clothing. “Maybe,” she says, “they smelled the Zionists on us.”

As the war has raged on and the death toll has grown, protest rallies on American campuses have morphed into a campaign of ever grander and more elaborate ambitions: From “Cease-fire now” to the categorical claim that Israel is guilty of genocide and war crimes to demands that Columbia divest from Israeli companies and any American company selling arms to the Jewish state.

Many protesters argue that, from the river to the sea, the settler-colonialist state must simply disappear. To inquire, as I did at Columbia, what would happen to Israelis living under a theocratic fascist movement such as Hamas is to ask the wrong question. A young female protester, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, responded: “Maybe Israelis need to check their privilege.”

Of late, at least one rabbi has suggested that Jewish students depart the campus for their own safety. Columbia President Minouche Shafik acknowledged in a statement earlier today that at her university there “have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behavior.” To avoid trouble, she advised classes to go virtual today, and said, “Our preference is that students who do not live on campus will not come to campus.”

Tensions have in fact kept ratcheting up. Last week, Shafik called in the New York City police force to clear an earlier iteration of the tent city and to arrest students for trespassing. The university suspended more than 100 of these protesters, accusing them, according to the Columbia Spectator, of “disruptive behavior, violation of law, violation of University policy, failure to comply, vandalism or damage to property, and unauthorized access or egress.” Even some Jewish students and faculty unsympathetic to the protesters say the president’s move was an accelerant to the crisis, producing misdemeanor martyrs to the pro-Palestinian cause. A large group of faculty members walked out this afternoon to express their opposition to the arrests and suspensions.

As for the encampment itself, it has an intifada-meets-Woodstock quality at times. Dance clubs offer interpretive performances; there are drummers and other musicians, and obscure poets reading obscure poems. Some tents break out by identity groups: “Lesbians Against Genocide,” “Hindus for Intifada.” Banners demand the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Small Palestinian flags, embroidered with the names of Palestinian leaders killed in Gaza, are planted in the grass.

During my nine-hour visit, talking with student protesters proved tricky. Upon entering the zone, I was instructed to listen as a gatekeeper read community guidelines that included not talking with people not authorized to be inside—a category that seemed to include anyone of differing opinions. I then stood in a press zone and waited for Layla Saliba, a social-work graduate student who served as a spokesperson for the protest. A Palestinian American, she said she has lost family in the fighting in Gaza. She talked at length and with nuance. Hers, however, was a near-singular voice. As I toured the liberated zone, I found most protesters distinctly nonliberated when it came to talking with a reporter.

Leaders take pains to insist that, for all the chants of “From the river to sea” and promises to revisit the 1948 founding of Israel, they are only anti-Zionist and not anti-Jewish. To that end, they’ve held a Shabbat dinner and, during my visit, were planning a Passover seder. (The students vow to remain, police notwithstanding, until graduation in May).

“We are not anti-Jewish, not at all,” Saliba said.

But to talk with many Jewish students who have encountered the protests is to hear of the cumulative toll taken by words and chants and actions that call to mind something ancient and ugly.

Earlier in the day, I interviewed a Jewish student on a set of steps overlooking the tent city. Rachel, who asked that I not include a surname for fear of harassment, recalled that in the days after October 7 an email went out from a lesbian organization, LionLez, stating that Zionists were not allowed at a group event. A subsequent email from the club’s president noted: “White Jewish people are today and always have been the oppressors of all brown people,” and “when I say the Holocaust wasn’t special, I mean that.” The only outward manifestation of Rachel’s sympathies was a pocket-size Israeli flag in a dorm room. Another student, Sophie Arnstein, told me that after she said in class that “Jewish lives matter,” others complained that her Zionist beliefs were hostile. She ended up dropping the course.

This said, the students I interviewed told me that physical violence has been rare on campus. There have been reports of shoves, but not much more. The atmosphere on the streets around the campus, on Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, is more forbidding. There the protesters are not students but sectarians of various sorts, and the cacophonous chants are calls for revolution and promises to burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Late Sunday night, I saw two cars circling on Amsterdam as the men inside rolled down their windows and shouted “Yahud, Yahud”—Arabic for “Jew, Jew”—“fuck you!”

A few minutes earlier, I had been sitting on a stone bench on campus and speaking with a tall, brawny man named Danny Shaw, who holds a master’s in international affairs from Columbia and now teaches seminars on Israel in the liberated zone. When he describes the encampment, it sounds like Shangri-la. “It’s 100 percent love for human beings and very beautiful; I came here for my mental health,” he said.

He claims no hatred for Israel, although he suggested that the “genocidal goliath” will of course have to disappear or merge into an Arab-majority state. He said he does not endorse violence, even as he likened the October 7 attacks to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during World War II.

Shaw’s worldview is consistent with that of others in the rotating cast of speakers at late-night seminars in the liberated zone. The prevailing tone tends toward late-stage Frantz Fanon: much talk of revolution and purging oneself of bourgeois affectation. Shaw had taught for 18 years at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, but he told me the liberated zone is now his only gig. The John Jay administration pushed him out—doxxed him, he said—in October for speaking against Israel and for Palestine. He was labeled an anti-Semite and remains deeply pained by that. He advised me to look up what he said and judge for myself. So I did, right on the spot.

Shortly after October 7, he posted this on X: “Zionists are straight Babylon swine. Zionism is beyond a mental illness; it’s a genocidal disease.”

A bit harsh, maybe? I asked him. He shook his head. “The rhetoric they use against us makes us look harsh and negative,” Shaw said. “That’s not the flavor of what we are doing.”

We parted shortly afterward. I walked under a near-full moon toward a far gate, protesters’ chants of revolution echoing across what was otherwise an almost-deserted campus. I could not shake the sense that too many at this elite university, even as they hoped to ease the plight of imperiled civilians, had allowed the intoxicating language of liberation to blind them to an ugliness encoded within that struggle.

[ Via: https://archive.today/ziQes ]

==

At the core of what they call "anti-Zionism" is the belief that "Jews control the world." Left-wing conspiracy nuts and right-wing conspiracy nuts are now collaborating, it seems.

Zionism | ˈzīəˌnizəm | noun a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.

Somehow this justifies slaughtering over a thousand, raping dozens, and kidnapping hundreds. And for brain cell-starved students to defend and support terrorists who would happily slit their throats.

It's hard to take the "we're anti-Zionism, not anti-Jew" thing when they intimidate and attack Jews without bothering to ask them what they think. In reality, it's just cover for their antisemitism. When they don't make the distinction, we should stop pretending it's a distinction at all.

#Michael Powell #Columbia University #useful idiots #hamas #hamas terrorism #hamas supporters #pro hamas #student protesters #student protestors #antisemitism #israel #palestine #pro palestine #islamic terrorism #islam #religion is a mental illness

[zionultra]

A very important and needed message to the goyim/pro-Hamas supporters:

you need to put the word genocide back on the shelf until you learn it’s actual meaning and use it the right way. What Israel is doing in response to the gruesome and savage October 7th attack is not a genocide. Hamas RUNS the health ministry and it has been proven that they have LIED about the death toll. Israel is not going after civilians like hamas does, they are going after TERRORIST MILITANTS. Hamas uses their people as shields and political leverage. When Israel warned the people of Gaza to flee before attacking, hamas TOLD THEIR PEOPLE TO STAY. There are literal drone videos of hamas militants picking up children and running with them from tunnel to tunnel because they know Israel won’t purposely kill children like HAMAS DOES. so take the time to learn the meaning of the word, but until then, shut. the. fuck. up.

#jumblr #am yisrael chai #jewish #judaism #hamas #hamas is isis #pro hamas #gaza

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

Source

#university of california san diego #uc san diego #pro hamas

[hole34]

sure, call me pro-hamas

i don’t know about you but i certainly believe in the right to resist oppression

is it really terrorism to even try to take down an apartheid who’s taken your land, killed your family, raped and starved and abducted your people and beaten your friends?

a victim of rape is allowed to hit their rapist, hamas is rightful resistence

#hamas #palestine #from the river to the sea #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #pro palestine #pro hamas #end israeli terror #israel #israel hamas conflict #end israel's genocide #stop genocide #end israeli apartheid #end israeli occupation #zionism is racism #zionism #fight back #resistence #no justice no peace #keep talking about palestine

[eretzyisrael]

Source

#loay alnaji #pro hamas #murder #murderer #paul kessler

[that-one-queer-poc]

btw hamas is a resistance group not terrorists. in case it wasn’t clear. and they are right

#palestine #hamas #pro hamas

[swagging-back-to]

"hurr durr this all started with a rocket on oct 7th".

hamas is fighting terrorists that have been decimating them for a century. die fucking mad.

#fuck israel #israel is a terrorist state #anti israel #free palestine #palestine #israel #pro hamas

[bloodycoolfrye]

This is our truth.

#free palestine #anti israel #end israeli apartheid #al aqsa storm #death to israel #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #pro hamas #is equal to #pro resistance #and #pro palestine #حسبنا الله ونعم الوكيل #اللهم عجل لوليك الفرج #god is with us #long live the resistance #long live yemen #long live hamas #🇵🇸❤️‍🔥لبیک یا حسین

[timaeusluver88990]

If Israel is “colonists” which I wouldn’t even know how cuz they stayed in the Middle East and never expanded beyond that, why wouldn’t they states to colonize other countries? I mean they were all in Europe.

I meant it IS one of the world’s top religion.

I know Muslims do when they move into an area they change laws to benefit them. Places in the UK attempt to incite sharia law.

So if Israel are these “land stealing territory’s” why haven’t they done it? I mean they have had thousands of years to do it 🧐

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #israel hamas war #hamas massacre #hamas terrorism #terroism #Jewish hate #anti Israel hate #pro palestine #pro Gaza #pro hamas #I don’t get it #Europe #history #Muslims #Muslim

[transparentgentlemenmarker]

Des militants pro Hamas interrompent la célébration de Pâques à la cathédrale Saint-Patrick 31 mars 2024

#pâques #pro hamas #saint patrick's cathedral

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

More absolute insanity out of @Columbia tonight. “Al-Qassam you make us proud! Take another soldier out!” “We say justice, you say how? Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!” “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets too!” “Red, black, green, and white, we support Hamas’ fight!” “It is right to rebel, Al-Qassam, give them hell!” “It is right to rebel, Hamas give them hell!” “Free, free, free Palestine!” Jihadists are openly chanting for terrorism on the streets of New York.

You can officially stop pretending that "pro-Palestine" doesn't mean pro-Hamas, pro-terrorism and pro-Jihad. We can see for ourselves.

This is the rise of Islamic Naziism.

#Columbia University #israel #antisemitism #hamas #hamas supporters #pro hamas #hamas terrorism #jihad #jihadis #pro jihad #jihadists #islamic terrorism #islamic violence #islam #terrorism #domestic terrorists #palestine #pro palestine #pro terrorism #terrorism supporters #religion is a mental illness

[bakugosmosaicbrokenhearts]

The Iranian diaspora are a bunch of genocidal pussies. BECAUSE GUESS WHAT ?? Nobody likes your zionist ass, nobody wants your fuckass monarchy back, and most importantly, nobody likes you, you are a shame to the iranian people ffs

#Iran #gaza #free palestine #I am against the IR and the mollahs but it’s time to grow up and realize that their international policies are good #and fuck reza pahlavi btw all my homies hate reza pahlavi! #anti monarchy #pro Hamas

[diamonddolljeanette]

Being anti Israel is being antisemitic and there's no way around that.

Antisemitic incidents have rose 400% just here in America. They even has to heighten security at the Macy's parade last week because they were worried about a incident then.

So to put it in terms you idiots can understand, being pro Hamas makes you no better then a Nazi because you are supporting hate on innocent Jews.

#pro israel #antisemitism #pro hamas

[hole34]

palestine is not a trend

from the river to the sea, palestine must be free

don’t stop talking about palestine, we are their voice. 🇵🇸

#palestine #free palestine #freepalastine🇵🇸 #eyes on palestine #eyes on gaza #eyes on rafah #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #from the river to the sea #zionism is racism #end israeli occupation #end israeli apartheid #end israel's genocide #end israeli terror #pro hamas

[we-the-human]

Did you hear agbout "anti war" activists saying death to america in farsi?

Why are there pro islamic republic people in the usa....

Yes. I’m from Canada. And even being from this country and having all the rights and entitlements as a citizen…I cannot imagine being so pissed off and mad at my government about policies happening OVERSEAS that I would shout “death to Canada!”

And on top of that, many of these people aren’t even American citizens. The USA was kind enough to let these people into their country and they have the fucking audacity to shout “death to America!”

Congress is calling on the department of justice to investigate this. They probably won’t. If Trump gets in again, I wouldn’t be surprised if he followed through on this.

And I hope they do. Because there’s some very entitled little shits on student visas, on their social welfare, demanding both access to a country and damning it at the same time. Well, I hope these little fuckers get sent right back to where they came from. Fuck America? Well, do that from your own country that you clearly wanted to escape. Try shouting “death to” your own country in your actual country and see what leadership does to political dissidents.

Fucking ridiculous.

We are seeing it here in Canada too. Trudeau is too much of a wimp to do anything about it though.

#pro Hamas #pro palestine #Israel #Gaza #pro israel #Canadian politics #usa politics #american politics

[palesoftangel]

#palestine #gaza #free palestine #gazaunderattack #save gaza #anti israel #pro palestine #anti zionisim #hamas #social justice #palestine resources