Columbia University Shuts Down Event Justifying October 7th Hamas Attacks on Israel as a “Counteroffensive”
“We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on October 7th and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism. See y’all there!”
Students at Columbia University’s School of Social Work were planning an event on December 6th on the significance of the October 7th Palestinian “counteroffensive.”
October 7th was many things, but it certainly wasn’t a counteroffensive.
Shame on the @Columbia University School of Social Work.
There are a lot of ways to describe October 7 – a massacre, an atrocity, an act of barbaric savagery against civilians.
Calling the murder, rape and kidnapping of babies, children and the elderly a “counteroffensive” is… pic.twitter.com/NbTS8nzDyW
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 4, 2023
The university has shut down the event.
Update: @Columbia has cancelled this event ⬇️ https://t.co/3xUYyhaSG6 pic.twitter.com/qS3bsnHgj5
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) December 4, 2023
From FOX News:
Columbia shuts down planned discussion justifying Hamas’ October 7 massacre as ‘Palestinian counteroffensive’
Columbia University’s administration has shut down a pro-Palestinian student group’s planned discussion that aimed to justify Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre of Israeli civilians, Fox News Digital learned Monday.
A group that calls themselves the “Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine” was advertising an event to discuss the “Significance of the October 7th Palestinian Counteroffensive.”
What would have been the group’s second so-called “teach-in and discussion” had been advertised to be taking place in a room of the Columbia School of Social Work on Wednesday between 12-1:50 p.m., according to a flier that circulated on social media.
“We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on October 7th and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism. See y’all there!” Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine wrote on X, sharing the flier with imagery of a dove and a red Palestinian poppy placed in the barrel of a rifle aimed at broken chains. “In advocating for Palestinian liberation, Palestinians have engaged in nonviolent resistance tactics for years. These peaceful actions have been met with tear gas and armed opposition by the Israeli government.”
X’s community notes added context, writing, “October 7 was not a ‘counteroffensive.’ There was a ceasefire in place that Hamas broke on Oct. 7., when it launched thousands of rockets, invading Israel, and committing hundreds of war crimes. The term ‘counteroffensive’ applies to Israel’s response, not the Hamas attack.”
It’s insane that this was even a possibility.
We will be having our second teach-in this Wednesday the 6th at 12pm, in room C-03 of the Social Work building! We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on October 7th and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism. See y’all there! pic.twitter.com/PnAwMQwIx2
— Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine (@CSSW4Palestine) December 3, 2023
'We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on October 7th and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism.' The slaughter of innocents is not a 'counteroffensive' or a morally defensible action. Hamas is a terrorist group. https://t.co/UdFsbsX1LG
— Nick Gillespie (@nickgillespie) December 4, 2023
Imagine receiving services from a Columbia-educated social worker who believes burning families, killing babies, and gang-raping women is a "counteroffensive" and "revolutionary violence [central] to anti-imperialism".
Pro-Hamas posturing isn't uncommon in social work schools. https://t.co/6l8KUaRUo0
— Mijal Bitton (@mijalbitton) December 4, 2023
Just Columbia University painting a rosy face on the slaughter of 1200 innocent people. “See y’all there!” https://t.co/5zbFhwPiVv
— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) December 4, 2023
A rare moment of sanity: @ColumbiaSSW will not allow this event to occur. @Columbia – Will there be any repercussions for organizations that clearly refuse to follow school rules?
Thank you everyone for raising your voice! When we act together, we make a difference! https://t.co/SnlsUT4h3l pic.twitter.com/mFKeNCXOrR
— Shai Davidai (@ShaiDavidai) December 4, 2023
The reaction to October 7th has been dreadful at all of the Ivy League schools, but Columbia University is in a class of its own.
Donors are deserting them. Protesters overran the law school. Professors even signed a letter defending the pro-Hamas students.
An absolute disgrace.
Featured image via Twitter.
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Comments
The “counter-offensive” has been going on since 1948 and Israel didn’t start it.
What a joke. Columbia has long been a huge supporter of arab terrorism. Columbia was, for decades, the home base of fakestinian terrorist mouthpiece Edward Said. Columbia was especially proud of having that dirtbag terrorist on staff. For years and years and years …
Maybe Columbia needs to invite an Iranian tyrant to speak about Hamas and the “Little Devil”? They love that, too. Ahmadinejad has some time on his hands, these days … though he’s not in much demand among America-hating leftists, anymore.
I assume Columbia has one of the Saudi outreach centers, as most major universities do these days.
There is a reason Columbia is known as ‘Bir Zeit on the Hudson.’
The use of the term “counteroffensive” is just plain offensive to normal people (defined as anyone opposed to terrorists).
Reading between the lines just a little but they were using the Hamas massacre to argue in favor of leftist violence in a broader scope against all their perceived enemies.
Worth pointing out that Cornell’s Medical School – Weill Cornell Medicine – has two subordinate teaching hospitals. One is in NYC, Weill Cornell Medicine. The other is in Doha, Qatar and is named Weill Cornell College in Qatar. Qatari money flows to MANY universities. But, it really flows into Cornell.
I’m surprised they’re putting the kibosh to this. I suspect it will still be held, at a later date, probably under a different name.
Cornell is bad enough without insulting it by confusing it with Columbia.
Lol. My bad. I thought the medical schools had merged. Apparently not. My confusion comes from the fact that they both have a relationship with NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital…which is unusual One NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in NYC is Columbia’s medical school and the other is Cornell.
Columbia, insert name of woke progressive college, is hoping these “protestors” will tire themselves out eventually. Or that external events in the news will shift to something different. They are hoping this will all eventually disappear by itself with time. Its stupid strategy. The toxic elements will metastasize. They need to ban events to off campus, then trespass them when they come on campus, then expel them.
Yes, when I see the dove of peace, I think of murder, rape, torture, and kidnapping. These people are monsters, and should be treated as such.
I find it interesting that the group of students, from the Columbia School of Social Work, arguably the least informed about the Middle East history, American foreign policy, or the law have got their shorts all bunched up in knots about what essentially amounts to a police action in response to horrific criminal actions. This is nihilism on full display. Heaven help us if these individuals should ever find themselves in any position of authority.
It’s a zero sum game (what one side wins the other loses) so it’s going to require compromise, each side giving something up.
Understanding the Hamas position (every Jew is a soldier in a occupying army) is a good place to start, if you’re going to talk them out of it, which is going to be necessary.
What the university ought to be doing is moving the seminar to a forum where other voices are required. Listen then talk.
The right argument isn’t about barbarians and war crimes but about Israel’s underlying strategy, normal trade with Gaza with an inflow of new wealth for the population. You don’t have to like the people you trade with for it to work.
Hamas has been sabotaging every such opening that’s been tried, and that’s what to argue about.
“The right argument isn’t about barbarians and war crimes but about Israel’s underlying strategy …”
How magnanimous of you to come on the forum and instruct us on the “right” argument. Yet I cannot accept anything that you say after–
“Understanding the Hamas position (every Jew is a soldier in a occupying army) is a good place to start …”
A 30.06 bullet between the eyes of each and every terrorist is the position that I most want to understand.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., laced into Harvard University President Dr. Claudine Gay during a House committee hearing on the rise of antisemitism on college campuses on Tuesday, challenging that the Ivy League school’s leader answer “Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African-Americans is not protected free speech at Harvard, correct?”
Looks like support and a call for violence against Jews. Shouldn’t that qualify for suspension or expulsion for all who organized the event and put up the flyers?
That’s an interesting phrase to use in the context of Islam, a religion that celebrates, and indeed requires, imperialism conducted in its name.
Counter offensive to what?
There is in simple words NO JUSTIFICATION for what occurred on October 7th 2023 by any rational, caring, empathetic human being !
Defund, divest Columbia University!