NYPD clears Columbia University's Hamilton Hall during anti-Israel student protests in New York, and rightly so.
Anyone who wants an “intifada revolution” who wants to expel “Zionists” who “have no place here” or even show solidarity with Hamas is either very ignorant or looking for a confrontation. In any case, the student protests at Columbia University in New York have nothing to do with a peaceful protest.
The violent entry into the traditional university building Hamilton Hall was inevitably followed by an eviction. The decision by the Manhattan university administration, as elsewhere, to impose clear sanctions against anti-Israel protests was completely correct. Even at the risk of being accused of restricting freedom of expression. Whoever refuses to let those who think differently speak cannot expect to be heard.
Columbia University students are among the most privileged in the country. The course costs the equivalent of about 50,000 euros per year. You should be able to assume some basic knowledge about the Middle East conflict and recent events.
However, it is doubtful that they really know what they are shouting with slogans like “We are all Hamas” or “Zionists have no right to live.” Clearly one or two lessons have been ignored here: what exactly happened on October 7, not to mention the Holocaust.
Elite students call for violence and expulsion
The fact that Israel is far from perfect is definitely part of the workload that needs to be addressed. The radical, partly right-wing government must go, the violent settlers in the West Bank must be persecuted and punished, and the demand for a ceasefire is as legitimate as the demand for the immediate release of the hostages still in the hands of the Islamists.
The demand for even more violence, for the Intifada revolution and the expulsion of the Israelis, however, has no place at the universities of New York and Pittsburgh or anywhere else.