Isra Hirsi, Ilhan Omar's Daughter, On Columbia Arrests, Barnard Suspension, Palestine Protests

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Source: Teen Vogue

When Barnard junior – and former Teen Vogue cover star – Isra Hirsi, 21, tweeted on April 18 she was suspended for her involvement in the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University, I immediately headed uptown so we could talk about the suspension. While I was on the subway, she stopped responding. Columbia students launched the encampment in the center of campus at 4 a.m. on Wednesday April 17, timed to a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism featuring Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik. Though her mother, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), would go on to make noteworthy contributions at the hearing, Hirsi was otherwise occupied with the occupation.

...

Social media posts showed that during that same 1 p.m. block on Thursday, Shafik emailed the Columbia University community, informing them that she had officially told the New York Police Department to enter campus and dismantle the encampment. Isra, fellow Barnard junior Soph Askanase, and Barnard freshman Maryam Iqbal were the first to receive suspensions at the encampment; the three were arrested alongside over 100 students in the 20 minutes it took me to get into Columbia’s campus — past the police officers, campus security, additional hired Allied Universal private security, media, and protesters swarming the locked gates. (Despite the heavy security presence, NYPD Chief John Chell later told the Columbia Spectator that the students “offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner.&quot

That Thursday, Columbia became one of the nation’s trending topics, and Hirsi in particular caught intense heat, though not for the first time, as a longtime advocate on social justice issues. After her release, Hirsi faced being evicted from her dorm and inflamed social media backlash — much of which, she says, is based on “misunderstanding” and “misrepresentation.” Simultaneously, pro-Palestine campus encampments in solidarity with Columbia’s were popping up across the country, from Miami University in Ohio to the University of North Carolina to Yale. We met on Saturday at Morningside Park, 48 hours after her arrest.

Read more: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/isra-hirsi-ilhan-omar-columbia-arrests-barnard-suspension-palestine

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I am told that the Barnard protesters who were evicted were given 15 minutes to remove their possessions from their dorms. For a wealthy student whose family resides in the area, this is a surmountable problem. For a student on financial aid, or with no support system in the area, the move is a de facto expulsion. Columbia and Barnard represent themselves to students and parents as centers of debate and free thought. But a non-violent camp set up to protest policies was met with arrests and evictions.

[JohnSJ]

1. Not quite non-violent protests

Link to tweet

?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1782114800723456131%7Ctwgr%5E37303aa0187d63d45ca4075b04021e04e33fec22%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2F%3Fcom%3Dview_postforum%3D1002pid%3D18882766


https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18882766

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=18882809

[JustAnotherGen]

9. That doesn't look peaceful to me

[Algernon Moncrieff]

14. Watching the video from the service FKA Twitter, most of what I saw was not-violent

Noisy? Yes. Unkind? To be sure. Scary? I suppose it depends on experience level and tolerance.

I saw someone pushed and knocked over at the 55 second mark. Clearly violent - no debate from me. What I would point out is that that was on the street (I couldn't tell - I think Broadway - not Amsterdam) . The streets aren't part of the Columbia campus, so I have no proof one way or the other whether that was a student. I'd see the same thing in Berkeley in the 80s. A protest would get out of hand and invariably it was outside activists - not the students.

Overall, all of this reminds me of the lyric Buffalo Springfield sang about controversial protests in a previous generation - "Nobody's right if everybody's wrong."

[LuvLoogie]

2. This is what I was alluding to in a different thread. The students were protesting peacefully

in areas designated for protest. So the school president had to suspend them so they could say the students were trespassing.

[agingdem]

7. so "peaceful" because they didn't throw

Molotov cocktails?...

[NoRethugFriends]

8. Uh huh

Link to tweet

[JustAnotherGen]

10. How the hell do they behave this way

To their fellow Americans?

Oh wait! I remember! Aunt Boot in the third class of African Americans to attend Alabama U.

That's where I've seen and heard this before.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

15. In the video, I mostly see kids running their mouths on full automatic

...just as kids in a previous generation called American soldiers baby killers while they burned flags. I'll also point out that I've seen very peaceful pro-Gaza protests in cities outside NYC at busy intersections at which they are called unkind names and told to go back where they came from by passing motorists. It cuts both ways from where I sit.

I made a very ill-considered post about Iran (for which I apologize to the admins) the other day because I'm still very salty about the hostages from the late 70s. Other than that, in a perfect world, I'd like America to stay out of Middle East conflicts, as no good ever comes from our getting involved (ranging from the Marine barracks in Beirut to the Iraq War).

Campus protest has a long history of students making ill-considered comments and not knowing when to back off. If a student engages in violence - sOK, I agree with suspensions and arrests. If they are just camping on the quad and yelling? Personally, I don't see the problem, but I went to Berkeley and someone was always yelling and burning flags about some damn thing and I just tuned it out.

[LeftInTX]

18. If people are prolonged camping on campus, then they can be arrested if they don't stop after they have been ordered.

Pretty much the same as camping on private property. I believe most of the students were arrested for camping after they had been told numerous times that it was over.

There are health issues when you have that many kids camping like that. You also have academic issues because classes can't be held.

I don't know about suspensions. (It depends on how long etc)
Most arrests result in either no charge, citation or misdemeanor. Most misdemeanors can be expunged with community service.

I did see some protesters get really out of hand. They were spitting on the cops. They were at Columbia, but they weren't students. They were in their 30's and were acting like they were "hot shit". They were arrested and charged with resisting arrest. One of them was charged with assaulting a cop. They start screaming, "Why are we being arrested. You have no right to arrest us".... They caused a big old scene and were acting like total brats and howling like monkeys. Super-entitled acting.

The students that I saw arrested, weren't violent. They were cuffed and pretty much following directions.

Not a student


Students

[Algernon Moncrieff]

25. Failure to move is pretty low level on the rule/law breaking scale

Usually it's arrest & release. Usually the academic consequence is fairly minimal.

What you said about the non-students is entirely consistent with what I've seen in the past. It's what Robert Gibbs meant when he talked about "the professional left." People who show up around protests like this to agitate. They are almost never the students.

[iemanja]

29. They don't like their political views

So they want to see them locked up and shut up. That's all these posts amount to. None of them provide any evidence about Hirsi.

[LeftInTX]

31. That's because there isn't much to say about Hirsi. This a discussion board.

She's Ilhan's daughter and usually we don't discuss politician's kids on here.
She was likely arrested for illegal camping like most of the others. Minimal if any charges. Photos show that she was compliant when she was arrested.

However, Algernon Moncrieff added the following commentary to his OP

I am told that the Barnard protesters who were evicted were given 15 minutes to remove their possessions from their dorms. For a wealthy student whose family resides in the area, this is a surmountable problem. For a student on financial aid, or with no support system in the area, the move is a de facto expulsion. Columbia and Barnard represent themselves to students and parents as centers of debate and free thought. But a non-violent camp set up to protest policies was met with arrests and evictions.

Instead the discussion switches to consequences for the student protesters.

Suspension seems like a more harsher punishment than getting arrested. I can't figure out how many students were suspended or how long they're suspended.

When I went to college 50 years ago, no one was "suspended" for protesting or a better analogy would be the numerous parties that got out of hand. (I went to a party school in Wisconsin when ETOH age was 18. Kegs were the norm)

A few students got kicked out of the dorms, but they had a history of repeat inappropriate and aggressive behavior.

This college "suspension" stuff is new to me. I never heard of it before.

We were also discussing how outside groups come in and make everything worse for the students. I showed a picture of an outside protester who spit on a cop. The cop was trying to prevent her from accessing the students on the Columbia campus.

[iemanja]

33. I read the thread

and you don't come close to summarizing the antipathy expressed toward student protestors.

[Richard D]

4. My niece and her partner . . .

. . . both left a very liberal UC university because they felt and were not safe there.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

16. If they don't feel safe, it was best that they left

If we are talking about Berkeley, I went there in the 80s - against the backdrop of the protests against the invasion of Grenada and later for divestment from South Africa. When I was a baby, my parents pushed my stroller through the anti Vietnam War "riots."

I never felt unsafe there, but I wouldn't have wanted my daughters to go there. I'm a dad. Dad's don't have to be logical about such things when it comes to their daughters.

[Richard D]

19. It's a radically different world on campuses that durint the Vietnam War protests

I find it similar to the time in Germany before the rise of the Nazis. The protests of the 70's did not have as their goal the genocide of a people. What is happening now is ugly, and my niece left, understanding that what happened in Germany could happen here. It's only a matter of time, given the current trajectory, until the words turn into actions,

[Algernon Moncrieff]

26. If anything, that world was worse

Guardsmen killed a protester at Kent State. Tear gassing and beating wasn't unheard of. It wasn't super-common, to be sure. But it was violent. Differing views on the war tore families apart.

I am extremely familiar with the Holocaust and I understand the feeling many Jews have that there is a long record of people trying to kill them. And I also don't condone the actions taken (apparently by Hamas; possibly with the aid of Iran) that set this chain of events off and I also want to see the hostages released. That said, if I were of Arab descent - especially if I were Palestinian - I would also protest what appears from the outside to be the wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people by Israel.

Israel gets no immunity from protest in the United States. So if a Palestinian kid wants to set up a tent with a view of the statue of Hamilton, it doesn't bother me.

[ripcord]

20. Were you the target of their protests?

Because many of these protests are antisemitic, they were even blocking Jewish students from entering campus. If they can't stop being hateful just expell them.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

27. Do I have to be a target to have an opinion?

I think not.

Did Congresswoman Omar's daughter do anything violent or anti-Semitic? No proof has been shown that I've seen to this point.

[ripcord]

30. You keep saying you felt safe but I guess you never had someone tell you to go back to Poland

Or block you from entering the campus where you are student because of your religion, maybe some people have a reason not to feel safe.

[LeftInTX]

5. White House Thoroughly Denounces Columbia University Protests: 'Blatantly Antisemitic, Unconscionable, and Dangerous'

The White House on Sunday issued a statement condemning the protests after videos on social media captured demonstrators praising Hamas and denouncing the Israeli government.

“While every American has the right to peaceful protest, calls for violence and physical intimidation targeting Jewish students and the Jewish community are blatantly Antisemitic, unconscionable, and dangerous – they have absolutely no place on any college campus, or anywhere in the United States of America,” said White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates.

https://www.mediaite.com/biden/white-house-thoroughly-denounces-columbia-university-protests-blatantly-antisemitic-unconscionable-and-dangerous/

[JustAnotherGen]

11. I'm with Biden and Harris on this

[iemanja]

28. While there is no question, according to news accounts, that behavior took place during the protests

Not every protestor engaged in antisemetic behavior, and you nor anyone else has presented ANY evidence that Hirsi did. You all are using this as an opportunity to vent about Gaza protests in general. This article is about one person, whom you have decided is guilty because you don't like her politics.

[iemanja]

13. I'm not a huge fan of Omar

and she is my congresswoman, but no one has presented evidence that Hirsi engaged in any violence.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

17. That's pretty much how I feel

If Hirsi engaged in violence, then let the chips fall where they may. If not, she should enjoy the protections of the first amendment.

[ripcord]

21. She was suspended and arrested because they refused to leave the encampment

Correct me if I am wrong but illegally camping on private property isn't among the first amendment protections.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

22. It's pretty tame behavior for a college protest

Nothing was set on fire. No buildings were covered in graffiti.

Lots of things are illegal. In theory, the folks sitting in at the Woolworths lunch counter were supposed to move when they were told - fortunately they didn't.

[ripcord]

23. The college was tired of their hate speech

Jewish students were being intimidated and even stopped from entering campus, the encampment needed to go. I haven't heard of any civil rights protester using hate speech and that is a horrible comparison to the hate going on at US campuses. The right to free speech isn't absolute.

[iemanja]

24. Where does it say that in the article?

This is about one person, not your view of the illegitimacy of protests in support of Gaza in general.

[obamanut2012]

32. She didn't

Some of these posts on DU about all of these are just terrible, and quite shocking to me.