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| Fifth Column |
| Hamas and Antifa in the universities, step 1 is institutional neutrality: Round-up for the week of September 9 |
| 2024-09-15 |
| Brown University trustee resigns in protest of upcoming vote on Israel divestment [IsraelTimes] Politically conservative, multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Joseph Edelman decries school’s ‘stunning failure of moral leadership’ in agreeing to student protesters’ demand in letter also published in the Wall Street Journal; university criticizes his ‘misunderstanding’ of decision. Repeat protester, 40, charged over flag-burning at Columbia anti-Israel protest [IsraelTimes] James Carlson, unaffiliated with school, faces accusations of arson, trespassing and more after setting stolen Israeli flag on fire, helping break into Hamilton Hall. Carlson is not a student, staffer or faculty member at Columbia, Bragg’s office said. The son of the late advertising executive Dick Tarlow, he owns a multi-million dollar townhouse in Park Slope, Brooklyn and has a history of arrests dating to 2005, according to the New York Post,. He is one of more than a quarter of the people arrested at the Hamilton Hall protest who were not affiliated with Columbia, according to the NYPD. Punitive punishments dished out to university students who participated in pro-Palestinian protests ”You embarrassed our beloved school. Now you will pay! BWAHAHAHAH” [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Students who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests last spring are now being punished by universities with protracted suspensions and mandatory contrition essays. As the fall term gets underway, college authorities figuring out the right disciplinary actions to take against the groups who gathered on campus and erected encampments as they demanded their schools sever financial ties with Israel. Students for Justice in Palestine plans 'Day of Action' one day after 9/11 [CampusReform] The group will be hosting the day of action for its student followers as a means to continue to protest in favor of Palestine on college campuses. University Of Pennsylvania Adopts Institutional Neutrality In Wake Of Israel-Hamas War. After Gaza protests, University of Wisconsin system rules college heads must stay neutral [IsraelTimes] Move comes after one chancellor struck a deal in May to end pro-Palestinian campus protests by agreeing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to discuss cutting ties with Israel Universities are trying a new strategy on Israel and Gaza: Say nothing [IsraelTimes] After suffering intense blowback for statements on Oct. 7 and war, many schools have codified policies of political neutrality. “The practice of issuing statements supports some members of our community while disregarding others, intentionally or otherwise,” Maud Mandel, the president of Williams College and a Jewish Studies scholar, wrote in a letter to campus last week explaining her own decision to remain neutral after Oct. 7 — a decision she has now codified into college policy. “It makes some issues visible while leaving many more unseen.” She wasn’t the only one to opt out. This week the University of Pennsylvania, Barnard College and the University of Alabama’s campuses were some of the latest schools to announce they would institute a broad policy of “institutional neutrality” on world events that do not directly affect the populations of their universities. Yale University, too, announced it would be exploring whether to adopt a similar policy. These schools join around two dozen others that already have codified some policy of political neutrality, according to the campus free-speech organization FIRE, which supports adopting such policies. Most of them have only been implemented within the past few months. And Jewish leaders, many of whom pushed for strongly-worded university statements in the wake of Oct. 7, are divided on the issue. In a statement to JTA, Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman called institutional neutrality “a good step forward in returning campuses to their core missions of education, learning and research.” But, he said, the policy “is not a panacea that solves the problems of harassment, intimidation and discrimination directed at Jewish students.” The list of schools that adopted a neutrality policy this year includes elite universities such as Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and the University of Southern California, all schools that faced significant unrest over campus responses to Oct. 7. It also includes some large public universities and systems, including Syracuse, and the University of Texas. The University of North Carolina adopted such a policy in July 2023. Neutrality is also the word of the moment for closely-watched university investments in Israel. The University of Minnesota recently said its investing strategy would “adopt a position of neutrality” and that “investment decisions continue to be based on financial criteria already defined in policy.” But other Jewish activists in the campus space are against institutional neutrality. Speaking to Jewish Insider, Mark Yudof, chair of the pro-Israel Academic Engagement Network and former president of the University of California system, said the idea had “iffyness” when it came to Israel because what happens there does directly affect Jewish members of campus. “If you’ve had assaults of women, racist misbehavior, if Jewish students can’t cross campus safely, I expect presidents to speak out about that and I don’t want institutional neutrality to say they can’t look out for the best interests of students, faculty and staff,” Yudof said. At least one Jewish college president, Oakland University head Ora Pescovitz, said she opposed neutrality. Even schools that had already embraced institutional neutrality before Oct. 7 found themselves wading into the dialogue on Israel. Notably, Michael Schill, the Jewish president of Northwestern University, condemned Hamas after Oct. 7, even as he used the same statement to endorse a policy of institutional neutrality. Months later, Schill was pilloried by Jewish groups including the ADL, who called for his resignation for brokering a deal with his school’s pro-Palestinian encampment; Northwestern this week announced an investigation of a faculty member who took part in the encampment, and said it is canceling his classes for the semester. Bill Barr: Mob Rule and Moral Bankruptcy at Columbia [TheFreePress] Antisemitism isn’t borne of ignorance at my alma mater. Antisemitism is taught there. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 Pro-Palestinian injured while attacking demonstrator is not charged |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-09-15 02:30 |