Officials at Columbia University, facing surging tensions on campus that raised safety concerns, have announced all classes will be virtual on Monday as Passover begins.

Columbia President Minouche Shafik said in a statement the decision was made to “deescalate the rancor and give us all a chance to consider next steps.”

The move underscores how tense the situation has become at the Ivy League school and the enormous challenge facing Shafik to get the situation under control.

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[–] 206 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Wowza, they actually went through that whole article without mentioning that the university ordered an NYPD raid on student protesters last week and issued suspensions against a bunch of them.

But, no, that couldn't have anything to do with these increased tensions, it's definitely 100% because this is the first day of Passover /s

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  • [+] 112 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)
  • [–] 41 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    This is why you don't commit war crimes: it puts your whole diaspora I'm danger.

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  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago* (9 children)

    While it shouldn't be on them, the diaspora could shift its position and join the protests against the war crimes. Break the Israel-Jew connection semites and antisemites are drawing for their respective purposes. I bet this would decrease antisemitism and improve its safety dramatically.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    While I don't disagree with the concept at all here, I'm a little uneasy over the idea that anyone would have to do anything to go out of the way for their own safety, especially taking up a political cause. That should be the default

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago

    I’m a little uneasy over the idea that anyone would have to do anything to go out of the way for their own safety

    What's interesting, or awful, is that was exactly what was being asked of Palestinian and Middle Eastern diaspora members: that they hadn't disavowed Hamas (or ISIS, or going back to 2001, Al Qaeda) enough and were suspect until they did.

    It was so bad that we saw joke headlines like "Palestinian children killed in Israeli strike criticised for not condemning Hamas".

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago*

    No question. Unfortunately some folks would go out of their way to endanger the safety of others, whether they like it or not. If I've learned anything about democracy and society it's that passive stability (in safety and other regards) seems impossible. Some people have to be actively working to maintain such stability. If you have a well funded government that represents your interests, then public servants will do most of this work, you just go and vote. If you don't... more of that work gets outsourced to private individuals. And since there always are private individuals who are working towards replacing, underfunding, undermining governments, it follows that even if you have such a government that is favorable to protect you, you still have to work to counteract those other folks.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Jewish groups have been protesting the whole time. Fuck, before all this it was Jewish folks who introduced me to anti Zionism. In late October I had to hear a whole thing about the crackdown against Jewish pro Palestine protesters in New York and how the media keeps ignoring them or brushing aside the fact that some of these protests are Jewish led. (I was at a party hosted by a Jewish anti Zionist friend the day after a Jewish anti Zionist protest in central station was broken up) In fact Israel had to crack down against Israeli protestors arguing for peace and a measured response.

    This is not Jews vs Palestinians or Jews vs Muslims. This is Israel (the government and a significant portion of their citizens) and their supporters against the people of Palestine.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago

    So nice for the school to make classes virtual so you can go out and protest while listening to lecture.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    It’s all just a bunch of religious nonsense.

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    [–] 3 points 2 years ago*

    Columbia made a Pantheon building?

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