On April 17, students at Columbia University in New York City set up a Gaza solidarity encampment on campus to call for divestment from Israel and a complete ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the US-backed Israeli military has now slaughtered some 35,000 Palestinians in less than seven months.
Columbia called the cops – since it apparently constitutes more of a disturbance of the peace these days to protest against genocide than to support it. More than 100 students were arrested, which has only spawned further protest as similar encampments have sprung up on college campuses nationwide.
Columbia’s president Nemat Minouche Shafik came under fire from numerous faculty members following the crackdown, although some professors have preferred to proudly advertise their disdain for anything approaching basic morality. Columbia linguist John McWhorter, for example, recently took to the opinion pages of The New York Times to complain about his music humanities class being interrupted by the sounds of a pro-Palestinian crowd with a penchant for “lusty chanting” and “drumbeats” – altogether a “relentless assault” by protesters that “is beyond what any people should be expected to bear up under”.
But if drumbeats propel your panties into such a massive bunch, imagine how annoying it would be if your house was blown up and your family along with it. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.