Isra Hirsi was suspended along with two other students and they say the decision only 'galvanises the student body even more'

Three Barnard College students, including US lawmaker Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi, have been suspended for participation in an ongoing Gaza solidarity protest encampment at Columbia University in New York City.

The suspension of the three students came as university administrators called on the New York Police Department (NYPD) to dismantle the tents that had been set up earlier on Wednesday.

Several students told MEE that heavily armed police dressed in riot gear entered the university lawns on Thursday to tear down the 50-plus tents. By late Thursday afternoon, the camps were gone and dozens of students had been arrested.

The developments on Thursday followed the revelations that three students - Isra Hirsi, 21, along with Maryam Iqbal, 18, and Soph Dinu, 21 - had received letters earlier in the day informing them they had been suspended, effective immediately, due to refusing to pay heed to calls to end their protest.

  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
    0·
    7 months ago

    Massad, who once called Israel “a racist state”, has also previously come under fire for allegedly spewing anti-Israeli remarks in class and for comparing Hamas aggression against Israel to the Warsaw ghetto uprising against the Nazis during WWII.

    Yep checks out. Hamas forgot to be the perfect victim again. Time to ban free speech.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      The tenured academic has faced widespread calls to be fired ever since he referred to the Oct. 7 attack inflicted by Hamas terrorists as “awesome” and a “stunning victory of the Palestinian resistance.”

      “The sight of the Palestinian resistance fighters storming Israeli checkpoints separating Gaza from Israel was astounding,” Massad penned in a 1,800 word essay published 24 hours after the bloodshed.

      “Perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them.”

      Mohamed Abdou

      Just days after the Oct. 7 attack, Abdou controversially declared on social media, “Yes, I’m with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”

      Hamid Dabashi:

      He’s come under fire in recent years for a slew of controversial social media posts, including a since-deleted one in which he blamed Israel for every “dirty” problem in the world.

      “Every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious happening in the world just wait for a few days and the ugly name ‘Israel’ will pop up in the atrocities,” Dabashi wrote in the 2018 Facebook post, cited by the Jewish Journal.

      Anti-Palestinian sentiment in institutions is strong and must be fought, but most of the situations cited here are not about Hamas not being the ‘perfect victim’.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
        0·
        7 months ago

        So who is going to stand up for the Palestinians? Is it Genocide Joe that just blocked recognition for a Palestinian state after half a year of Genocide and the entire world turning against israel? Are you going to save the Palestinians?

        Put people in a concentration camp for 20+ years, completely ignore their suffering and peaceful protests, and when they finally fight back go “Oooh that’s bad! They didn’t do it perfectly!”.

        If you want to deny Hamas that’s fine. Then tell me, who else is fighting for Palestinians. How is it going in the West Bank without Hamas?

        • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
          0·
          7 months ago

          “Who will stand up for the Palestinians, if we don’t simp for Islamofascists?”

          It’s funny how your kind always lands on “NOT GOOD ENOUGH” whenever liberals are involved, but “Critical support for holsum pro-genocide chungus 😊” whenever authoritarians are involved.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
            0·
            7 months ago

            “Liberals involved” = liberals supporting Genocide instead of fighting against it.

            And then flipping reality and saying the resistance is actually the Genocidal ones.

          • hark@lemmy.world
            0·
            7 months ago

            Couldn’t you turn that around on yourself? I mean, I’ve heard plenty of people claim that we shouldn’t let a little thing like support for genocide deter us from voting for biden.

            • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
              0·
              7 months ago

              I didn’t realize Hamas was running in a FPTP election in which the other viable party was also a supporter of genocide. Here I thought they hadn’t had elections in almost two decades in Gaza while Hamas has squeezed every last ounce of political independence from the local institutions. Silly me.

              • hark@lemmy.world
                0·
                7 months ago

                I didn’t realize biden has to support genocide. Mighty convenient for that lover of genocide to have the other guy be worse, must be one reason why the democrats helped trump be the republican nominee in the first place. Here you are helping them out with their brilliant strategy while thinking democrats will ever improve things. Why would they bother when they have an infinite supply of worse candidates to run against?

                • PugJesus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  0·
                  7 months ago

                  I didn’t realize biden has to support genocide.

                  Do I have to break out the polls again? Or do you just not understand what ‘democracy’ means? “Democracy” doesn’t mean “What I agree with, and the more I agree with it, the more democratic it is”.

                  Mighty convenient for that lover of genocide to have the other guy be worse, must be one reason why the democrats helped trump be the republican nominee in the first place.

                  … how many Republican candidates, do you think, would be better or even equal to Biden on the issue?

                  Please. Regale me.

                  Here you are helping them out with their brilliant strategy while thinking democrats will ever improve things. Why would they bother when they have an infinite supply of worse candidates to run against?

                  “Wow, I can’t believe that the candidate who won the Dem primary (or presumed she was going to win even before she did) wanted the weakest possible candidate as opposition! She should have fought for the STRONGEST candidate to oppose her to emerge from the GOP primary!”

                  It would be great if you could do something other than parrot the talking points of your fellow fascists.

                  • hark@lemmy.world
                    0·
                    7 months ago

                    Do I have to break out the polls again? Or do you just not understand what ‘democracy’ means? “Democracy” doesn’t mean “What I agree with, and the more I agree with it, the more democratic it is”.

                    These polls?: https://news.gallup.com/poll/642695/majority-disapprove-israeli-action-gaza.aspx

                    … how many Republican candidates, do you think, would be better or even equal to Biden on the issue?

                    I see you missed the point in my post where having the republican party as an excuse means nothing will ever improve. Nice job defending this system even after having it spelled out for you. Genocide is unacceptable, full stop.

                    “Wow, I can’t believe that the candidate who won the Dem primary (or presumed she was going to win even before she did) wanted the weakest possible candidate as opposition! She should have fought for the STRONGEST candidate to oppose her to emerge from the GOP primary!”

                    If you’re funding fascists, you get fascists. It’s not a risk worth taking, but democrats are either brain-dead morons or they don’t mind fascism because it gives them an excuse to never improve anything. Either way, they keep doing it: https://nypost.com/2022/09/12/democrats-spend-53m-to-boost-far-right-gop-candidates/

                    Trump wasn’t the weakest candidate at all in 2016. He promised changed in an election year where people were hungry for change. Meanwhile galaxy brain Hillary promised more of the same, insisting that the status quo was fine. Oh look, another mistake democrats keep committing, the geniuses that they are.

                    It would be great if you could do something other than parrot the talking points of your fellow fascists.

                    You’re calling me a fascist yet you defend genocide.

    • Apollo42@lemmy.world
      0·
      7 months ago

      Oppression is not an excuse to commit heinous crimes. A party can be brutally, illegally oppressed and still be held responsible for the things they do in retaliation.

      • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
        0·
        7 months ago

        That’s really cool maybe have the same feelings for those being oppressed for 75+ years instead of them striking back when everyone else has abandoned them.

        • Apollo42@lemmy.world
          0·
          7 months ago

          Hey guess what, most people can hold more than one idea in their heads at thw same time.

          Israel occupying palestine and committing genocide is bad! Israel killing civilians is bad!

          Hamas killing civilians is bad! Hamas kidnapping people is bad!

          These are not mutually exclusive, hamas don’t get a free pass to be cunts because Israel is a bigger cunt.

          • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
            0·
            7 months ago

            Absolutely they sure have massive flaws. But since there is nobody else standing up for the Palestinians right to self determination.

            Hamas is the lesser of all evils. Including the US as Biden just proved.

            If you want to prove Hamas wrong then show me someone else that’s stopping Palestinians from being Genocided.

            Else don’t condemn the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto.

            • capital@lemmy.world
              0·
              7 months ago

              Hm. Where the fuck have the billions in aid money to Gaza gone over the years?

              Hamas has done some amazing “standing up for the Palestinians”…

              • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
                0·
                7 months ago

                Why doesn’t Hamas just make a liberal paradise inside of their concentration camp? Great question.

                • capital@lemmy.world
                  0·
                  7 months ago

                  If your neighbor constantly shot at you, you’d build a wall between your houses too.

                  But Gaza has another boarder. Does Egypt participate in making Gaza a concentration camp?

                  • Linkerbaan@lemmy.worldOP
                    0·
                    7 months ago

                    If someone invades your land and kills your family you shoot them indeed. Which is what Palestinians do.

                    Israel controls the Egypt border so yes. Weird you bring that up.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      7 months ago

      I look for Hamas what I look for in Israel, an adherence to humanitarian law. Hamas is perfectly happy to kill Palestinians, especially when they happen to be their political rivals. They remind me of the IRA, using a justified grievance for political gain.