Columbia University president Minouche Shafik cancelled in-person classes for the rest of the semester for 37,000 students on April 22. Remote learning will remain in place at Columbia until at least April 29. Parents were urged to demand refunds for $66,139-a-year tuition fees.
Columbia is one of the Ivy League schools, an intellectual breeding ground for upper class kids. The students protesting are not from the poor working class—these are future leaders and influencers—the establishment cannot allow future movers and shakers to upset the established order.
At a congressional hearing in Washington, that amounted to an inquisition, Shafik was forced to answer questions about the “anti-Semitism” on campus. Minouche Shafik, incidentally sold her soul to the company store: She serves on the board of directors of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, VP at the World Bank, Director-General, UK Department for International Development. Since 2008 she is a Deputy Managing Director of the IMF and Deputy Governor, Bank of England.
Shafik testified that a professor who allegedly expressed support for Hamas on social media following the October 7 terror attack on Israel was terminated because he commented on social media, “Yes, I'm with the muqawamah (the resistance), be it Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.”
Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik repeated the debunked claim that Hamas soldiers beheaded 40 babies on the October 7th attack. Shafik was forced to repent of her sins of allowing a heretic to teach at Columbia and promised, “He will never work at Columbia again.”
The professor, Mohamed Abdou, can hardly be called a conformist. He is a Muslim anarchist and his bio states “he is an interdisciplinary scholar of Indigenous, Black, critical race, and Islamic studies.” He has defied termination orders and is still seen on campus at the protests:
Meanwhile, an outspoken critic of the protests, Israel-born Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia Business School had his ID deactivated—administrators claim they banned him from campus because they could not ensure his safety.
Seen here, arguing with security, while a small crowd of his supporters chant, “Let him in! Let him in!”
Shai Davidai is a former IDF soldier and his father, Eli Davidai, is an Israeli businessman who served as General Manager of the company ARC, which provides components for weapons used by the Israeli military, including polymer magazine for NATO Compatible weapons, triggers and hammers, precision guided munitions components. In 2016, ARC won an award for an AR-15 component and, in 2010, scored a prize for an explosive device made for a Department of Defence application.
Another highly-connected Israeli, Robert Kraft, who owns the Patriots football team, vowed to cut funding to the university for daring to permit students the right to exercise their freedom of speech. In 2000, Kraft donated $11.5 million to construct the Columbia Hillel International, a Jewish campus organization with 850 locations around the world. In 2007, Kraft made a $5 million payment to Columbia's intercollegiate athletics program.
Kraft self-donated $100 million to his own Foundation to Combat Antisemitism—matching a donation by the Norman R. Rales and Ruth Rales Foundation, giving the project $200 million in new funding that he says will “sustain the cause for decades to come.”
For some back story, the protests began on April 17, 2024, when pro-Palestinian students established an encampment of approximately 50 tents, calling it the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, on the university's campus, demanding the university abandon financial investment in Israel.
The New York Police forcibly dismantled the camp the next day when university president Minouche Shafik authorized the police to storm campus and conduct mass arrests. Over 100 protesters were detained. One of them was US Congress representative Ilhan Omar's daughter, Isra Hirsi. She said she had been suspended from Barnard College, as well as 80 other students, for “standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide.”
When interviewed, Hirsi stated that, “The language isn't “banned,” the language is I don't “have swipe access.” For the Columbia students that were suspended, their language says that if you are found on campus you will receive more disciplinary action, but ours doesn't say that. And also, in my email, it doesn't explicitly say what else I have violated.
I don't know when I can go home, and I don't know if I ever will be able to. I haven't formally been evicted. I haven't been sent a “move out” email, but they've just said that I can't get in, whatever that means. I have like four shirts, two pairs of pants. Only Barnard students are evicted, and I think it's pretty crazy.”
Isra Hisri claimed she was hit by chemical weapons in January. According to a report by the Intercept, “The campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine publicized the incident on Saturday morning, identifying the substance as “skunk,” a chemical weapon used by the Israel Defence Forces against Palestinians, and one that U.S. police departments have reportedly acquired in the past. SJP also alleged that the assailants have ties to the Israel Defence Forces, a claim that The Intercept could not independently confirm.”
Fox Jews, oops typo I meant to say Fox News, produced an infomercial to help the poor sheep navigate the difficult task of parking their morals in a dumpster, while nodding with approval while Israel continues the mass murder of Palestinians.
The organization Student Justice for Palestine is sponsored by WESPAC, who in turn serve as a funder and administrator of various anti-Israel and pro-Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) groups. WESPAC financials show gross revenues of $1,071,720 for 2021, but they donate to multiple organizations. Compared to the big players they are opposing, like Robert Kraft, these are not significant numbers.
In some epic irony, these arrests mark the first time the university has allowed police to suppress campus protests since the 1968 demonstrations at Columbia University against the Vietnam War. These protests, that were sparked by the American massacres in Vietnam, eventually led to the National Guard suppressing unarmed protesters at Kent State University in 1970. Four of the protesters were killed when the National Guard fired upon them and another ten were injured.
US Continues Funding Israeli War Machine
All of this is in the context of US President Joe Biden is giving $26 billion to Israel in new legislation, signed into effect April 24. This will be divided up:
$5.2 billion will go toward replenishing and expanding Israel’s missile and rocket defence system
$3.5 billion will go to purchasing advanced weapons systems
$1 billion to enhance weapons production
$4.4 billion for other defence supplies and services provided to Israel
$2.4 billion to US operations in the region amid the Gaza war
The remaining $9 billion will be split up into “humanitarian aid” for the region, with $2 billion allocated for aid to Gaza. This author is skeptical that any of it will be spent on aid for Gaza, but instead will be deposited into the bank accounts of Israeli politicians. Just a hunch. Prove me wrong.
The bill also prohibits funds going to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, (UNRWA), one of the agencies actually providing aid to Palestinians. According to reports, 178 UNRWA aid workers have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, with weapons supplied by the United States of Satan.
Jewish Billionaires Cut Funding
Other Jewish billionaires who fund Columbia University and other Ivy League schools are voicing their concerns. Leon Cooperman, Jewish-American billionaire and hedge fund manager, who graduated from Columbia and then went to work for Goldman Sachs, told Fox News, “The real shame is I've given to Columbia, probably about $50 million over many years, and I'm going to suspend my giving. I'll give my giving to other organizations.”
Another Columbia graduate, billionaire industrialist Len Blavatnik, who also has a history of significant donations, stated that Columbia University “leadership must take immediate steps to ensure that Jewish students are protected from threats and intimidation, and that those who violate their policies are held to account.”
Blavatnik has a net worth of over $31 billion, as tracked by Forbes, and has vowed to cut his funding to Harvard until they address their “anti-Semitism problem.” The Blavatnik family has donated $270 million to Harvard over the years.
Jewish billionaire investor Henry Swieca cut ties with Columbia University Business School’s board this week, citing “blatantly anti-Jewish student groups and professors,” according to a letter obtained by multiple outlets, as business leaders continue to criticize Ivy League universities over their response to pro-Palestinian protests.
Over 400 donors of elite universities took part in a Zoom call October 23, including Yale University and Harvard University. One of the things they discussed was pausing their financial support for the schools. Jewish billionaire Marc Rowan, a Penn State grad, wrote an oped in the Penn State newspaper, claiming “We are, at Penn, a bastion of preferred speech.”
University of Pennsylvania is ranked second last out of 248 universities for free speech.
What is at stake, is not only the survival of the citizens of Gaza, who are facing starvation as well as the threat of being bombed to death, but it is also the survival of freedom of speech. The separation of Billionaire and State needs to happen sooner rather than later, especially when entrenched private citizens are controlling public educational institutions, using financial blackmail to advocate “preferred” messaging that aligns with their minority group’s special interests.
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I think I’d rather have an AR-15 award over a Juno nomination- sounds more profitable 😂
UPenn and Penn State are not the same school