Columbia University is under fire for a Thursday night update on the anti-Israel protest that has dominated the New York City campus.
“The talks have shown progress and are continuing as planned,” the college said in a statement on its website.
“For several days, a small group of faculty, administrators, and University Senators have been in dialogue with student organizers to discuss the basis for dismantling the encampment, dispersing, and following University policies going forward. We have our demands; they have theirs. A formal process is underway and continues,” the statement said.
“There is a rumor that the NYPD has been invited to campus this evening. This rumor is false,” the update said.
The update ignited anger on social media
There should be NO negotiation, parents of the students should request REFUND of TUITION from Columbia University.
This is disrupting an academic year that these students will never get back.
Deport every Foreign student who is not in class and supporting Hamas Terrorist.
— Elliptical (@EllipticalLog) April 26, 2024
“There should be NO negotiation, parents of the students should request REFUND of TUITION from Columbia University. This is disrupting an academic year that these students will never get back,” one X user posted.
Another poster translated the update this way: “Breaking: Still no adults found to be in charge at Columbia.”
Breaking: Still no adults found to be in charge at Columbia.
— GenX Warfare (@GenX_Warfare) April 26, 2024
Pathetic
— Jack Daniels, Please (@JackDanielsPls) April 26, 2024
Another had only one word: “Pathetic.”
Fox News noted that a deadline the college gave protesters to disperse passed on Friday without any action being taken.
CNN reported on Friday that Columbia president Minouche Shafik received a letter from Jewish students outlining their persecution since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.
“We are afraid to attend classes, feel threatened on campus and fear that some faculty and staff may subject us to discriminatory treatment,” the students wrote to Columbia officials. “Since October 7th, our campus has transformed into a hostile place; over the past few days, it has become an environment we dread,” the letter said, according to CNN.
Early Friday, Columbia junior Khymani James offered what he said was regret for suggesting “Zionists” should die, according to Fox News.
James had previously equated “Zionists” with “White supremacists” and “Nazis.”
James expressed “regret” for some things he said in a post on X.
“Zionism is an ideology that necessitates the genocide of the Palestinian people. I oppose that in the strongest terms,” he wrote.
“All people deserve to be safe from physical harm. Palestinians have been subjected to decades of brutal violence and now genocide by Israel. The Israeli government and military should be held accountable for their actions,” he wrote.
Has Columbia handled these protests poorly?
His earlier remarks had said that “if we can agree as a society, as a collective, that people, that people, that persons, some persons, need to die if they have an ideology that results in the death of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, if there are people like that who exist, shouldn’t they die?”
“Why would we want people who are supporters of genocide to live? I’m confused!” James said.
“Zionists, along with all White supremacists, need to not exist, because they actively kill and harm vulnerable people,” James said. “They stop the world from progressing.”
