I know this is a crazy idea, but maybe their next move should be to crack open a textbook, study for their next exam, and possibly even graduate? The rate of graduation at City College is about 60%, but in your opinion these folks are doing great things for civilization by spending time on the lawn and in court instead of what they allegedly went to school for. Although, in fact, most of them were not students; they apparently embrace the notion of being "outside agitators", which seems very cool and anti-establishment until you realize that most of the students actually came to learn.
CUNY, incidentally, is not at war with Hamas or Hezbollah; in fact, no college is. I don't know if anyone noticed that. CUNY's $8.5 million investment in Israel's $525 billion economy is a joke; let them sell all their stock, by the next day someone else will have bought every share. The BDS movement is not a joke: they reject a 2-state solution and support the "river to the sea" ideology of Hamas. No college should ever subscribe to it.
I understand you think the protesters should not face felony charges. Here is what CUNY administration wrote: "A group of them quickly attempted to break into the college’s landmarked Shepard Hall before moving on to the Administration Building, where they smashed glass doors, vandalized offices, covered security cameras with paint and trashed files and computers as they tried to barricade themselves in the Financial Aid Office before CUNY public safety officers were able to subdue them and arrest 31 individuals. As we began surveying the damage, public safety officers found bags left behind by those arrested, which contained chains, flares, a bolt cutter and box cutters." Sure sounds like a felony to me. Glad they aren't taking the plea bargain.
You probably have a romantic view in which anything that resembles the anti-Vietnam protests of the 60's and 70's must be a good thing and justifies the disruption of educational institutions. But this movement is a farce - there is nothing heroic about disrupting universities because of their microscopic investments in Israeli companies, and there's something demented and extremely reactionary about treating an anti-Semitic, fascist and terrorist group as a liberation army and hoisting their blood-soaked banners and symbols on campus.
"CUNY “public safety” are the pigs! The pigs are the IOF! Anyone that chooses to play the role of a pig is the enemy. A principled encampment should never collaborate with the pigs." Why didn't you quote that tidbit from the CUNY 28 statement? Even the radical left had abandoned that despicable language by the end of the Vietnam War. Even BLM doesn't use it. What planet are these "outside agitators" from?
"An encampment should not normalize the institution—it should disrupt it, dismantle it and abolish it." Why didn't you quote that irresponsible nonsense from the CUNY 28 statement? These are not progressives, they are extreme reactionaries who do not have a prayer of succeeding in anything except disrupting the education of thousands of students who actually want a degree. (Though in a worst case scenario they might also succeed in getting Trump elected, in an unholy alliance with the infantile leftists in the movement.)
"We're not just fighting for a free Palestine but for the liberation of all." That's modest. At least they have a clear agenda. I'm sure lots of people would love to be liberated in the way that Hamas has "liberated" Gaza. Israelis, for instance - no doubt they foresee a bright future in a single state with a Palestinian majority in which Hamas is the dominant political force, among a constellation of violent, corrupt, self-enriching terrorist organizations. I just can't wait for the "liberation of all"!
"Reveal the spiderwebs the [Zionist] entity laid and burn them.” Er... they need to clear the cobwebs from their own minds first. So does the Indypendent. This is a deplorable student movement, and the CUNY 28 are a particularly deplorable corner of it. They are making the world a worse place for everyone, including, possibly first and foremost, Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom now detest Hamas (and did even before Oct 7) and blame them for the nightmare they are now enduring.
I cannot even repeat the disgusting support this group mouths for Iran's terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East. That this is a gang of reactionaries and supporters of anti-Semitic terrorism is clear to anyone who is not blind as a mole. You should close up shop until you can manage to tell a friend from an enemy. Then again you have printed some equally perverse pro-Putin stories, so maybe you have already chosen sides, in spite of the superficial veneer of progressivism.
I know this is a crazy idea, but maybe their next move should be to crack open a textbook, study for their next exam, and possibly even graduate? The rate of graduation at City College is about 60%, but in your opinion these folks are doing great things for civilization by spending time on the lawn and in court instead of what they allegedly went to school for. Although, in fact, most of them were not students; they apparently embrace the notion of being "outside agitators", which seems very cool and anti-establishment until you realize that most of the students actually came to learn.
CUNY, incidentally, is not at war with Hamas or Hezbollah; in fact, no college is. I don't know if anyone noticed that. CUNY's $8.5 million investment in Israel's $525 billion economy is a joke; let them sell all their stock, by the next day someone else will have bought every share. The BDS movement is not a joke: they reject a 2-state solution and support the "river to the sea" ideology of Hamas. No college should ever subscribe to it.
I understand you think the protesters should not face felony charges. Here is what CUNY administration wrote: "A group of them quickly attempted to break into the college’s landmarked Shepard Hall before moving on to the Administration Building, where they smashed glass doors, vandalized offices, covered security cameras with paint and trashed files and computers as they tried to barricade themselves in the Financial Aid Office before CUNY public safety officers were able to subdue them and arrest 31 individuals. As we began surveying the damage, public safety officers found bags left behind by those arrested, which contained chains, flares, a bolt cutter and box cutters." Sure sounds like a felony to me. Glad they aren't taking the plea bargain.
You probably have a romantic view in which anything that resembles the anti-Vietnam protests of the 60's and 70's must be a good thing and justifies the disruption of educational institutions. But this movement is a farce - there is nothing heroic about disrupting universities because of their microscopic investments in Israeli companies, and there's something demented and extremely reactionary about treating an anti-Semitic, fascist and terrorist group as a liberation army and hoisting their blood-soaked banners and symbols on campus.
"CUNY “public safety” are the pigs! The pigs are the IOF! Anyone that chooses to play the role of a pig is the enemy. A principled encampment should never collaborate with the pigs." Why didn't you quote that tidbit from the CUNY 28 statement? Even the radical left had abandoned that despicable language by the end of the Vietnam War. Even BLM doesn't use it. What planet are these "outside agitators" from?
"An encampment should not normalize the institution—it should disrupt it, dismantle it and abolish it." Why didn't you quote that irresponsible nonsense from the CUNY 28 statement? These are not progressives, they are extreme reactionaries who do not have a prayer of succeeding in anything except disrupting the education of thousands of students who actually want a degree. (Though in a worst case scenario they might also succeed in getting Trump elected, in an unholy alliance with the infantile leftists in the movement.)
"We're not just fighting for a free Palestine but for the liberation of all." That's modest. At least they have a clear agenda. I'm sure lots of people would love to be liberated in the way that Hamas has "liberated" Gaza. Israelis, for instance - no doubt they foresee a bright future in a single state with a Palestinian majority in which Hamas is the dominant political force, among a constellation of violent, corrupt, self-enriching terrorist organizations. I just can't wait for the "liberation of all"!
"Reveal the spiderwebs the [Zionist] entity laid and burn them.” Er... they need to clear the cobwebs from their own minds first. So does the Indypendent. This is a deplorable student movement, and the CUNY 28 are a particularly deplorable corner of it. They are making the world a worse place for everyone, including, possibly first and foremost, Palestinians in Gaza, most of whom now detest Hamas (and did even before Oct 7) and blame them for the nightmare they are now enduring.
I cannot even repeat the disgusting support this group mouths for Iran's terrorist proxies throughout the Middle East. That this is a gang of reactionaries and supporters of anti-Semitic terrorism is clear to anyone who is not blind as a mole. You should close up shop until you can manage to tell a friend from an enemy. Then again you have printed some equally perverse pro-Putin stories, so maybe you have already chosen sides, in spite of the superficial veneer of progressivism.
https://samidoun.net/2024/09/statement-of-the-cuny-28-palestine-is-everywhere-we-are-all-outside-agitators/