Cornell’s ‘Charlottesville Moment’ – Chants for ‘Intifada’ Reflect Anti-Israel ‘Death Cult Ideology’
My interview on Fox News: “when we look at that video of the chants for an intifada as the only solution, I think in many ways that was Cornell’s Charlottesville moment. People need to recognize the hatred that is underneath the supposed peace movement.”
Cornell University, like a few dozen others, has had an anti-Israel tent encampment. The situation is somewhat in flux as of this writing. The University gave a deadline on Friday for the illegal occupiers to vacate their location in the main undergraduate Arts Quad, offering them another location. But since the purpose of this encampment was not really protest, but to create a victim narrative, the students refused.
Camping outdoors was deliberately chosen b/c they know it violates rules. They want to provoke confrontation so they can play victim, or get the rules ignored and claim victory. Win-win for them. Nothing is coincidence, these are highly strategized tactics. https://t.co/pRq23TwBi9
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) April 25, 2024
On Saturday, April 27, 2024, the university “temporarily suspended” four students, including two foreign grad students, one of whom has been the main instigator of the intimidation that has gone on for months on campus. There are conflicting claims as to whether the university will follow through, or back down as some others have by rescinding the suspensions. For the foreign students, it could mean they are in violation of their student visas, though the likelihood the Biden administration would actually deport them is close to zero.
Faculty also have joined, egging on the students and acting as if faculty are immune to punishment.
I am disgusted by a @Cornell Professor’s justification of antisemitic behavior by saying she doesn’t need to abide by any code of conduct. Tenure doesn’t make anyone invincible, and it definitely should not protect hate speech. pic.twitter.com/kPrzbIU4C8
— Sam Aberman (@samaberman) April 26, 2024
[If video disappears, watch here]
I’m not sure that’s true even for tenured faculty, who have academic freedom but not freedom to violate health and safety rules or to encourage students to do so. We’ll see if the university takes action against faculty and staff.
On Thursday, April 25, 2024, a student sent me this video of the anti-Israel protesters calling for an “Intifada.” The Intifada was the bloody suicide bombing campaign that killed over 1000 Israeli Jews, including on buses, in restaurants, and in the most infamous terror attack, a Passover Sedar.
On Friday, April 26, 2024, Fox News posted a video of me talking about this chant.
[If video does not load, click here]
On Saturday, April 27, the university announced the student suspensions and specifically called out the chant I talked about in my Fox News interview. Perhaps the timing was coincidence, perhaps they saw my video or were contacted by Fox News for comment.
We have issued immediate temporary suspensions for several student participants in the encampment, and are preparing to issue additional suspensions, as well as referrals to HR for employee participants. We have similarly suspended the student group that submitted an application for an event under false pretenses, stating that it would not include tents and would end at 8 p.m. None of these students have been denied housing or dining privileges, nor access to student health services.
We are also deeply distressed by chants made at some of the rallies near the encampment, particularly the phrase, “There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution.” The protesting group has repeatedly stated that their protest is political and not antisemitic, but these chants belie that claim. We implore all Cornellians to consider the impact of their words as well as their intentions as we navigate the immense pain and suffering that many are experiencing.
Fox News today ran an article about my assessment of the campus situation, Cornell professor reveals how anti-Israel ‘death cult ideology’ took root [archive]:
As anti-Israel agitators continue to take over college campuses across the nation, a professor at Cornell University told Fox News Digital that what is happening — at Cornell University in particular — is no surprise and something he says has been building for a long time now.
“This is not a peace movement. This is not ‘let everybody live,’ you know, let bygones be bygones. This is an uncompromising, rejectionist ideology that rejects the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. And that is their goal. Tear it down. Intifada, revolution. That is their only solution in their own words. And I think people need to listen to them when they tell you they want an intifada. Believe them,” Cornell professor William Jacobson said.
Jacobson said what is also concerning about these protests is that the administrations, especially at Cornell and Columbia, are doing nothing to ensure student and faculty safety.
“I’ve spoken out against it before, and I’ve called on the administration to stop the radicalization and their very aggressive anti-racism program, which demonizes people based on their ethnicity and their race and inevitably leads to Jews being targeted. So, this has been building, and the fact that students are now bold enough in the main quad of campus, large groups of students to chant, ‘There is only one solution. Intifada or revolution.’ It’s really creepy,” Jacobson said.
William A. Jacobson, a clinical professor at Cornell Law School who joined the faculty in 2007, called on the Cornell Board of Trustees to help Jewish students. (Getty/FOX)
He added it’s all a reflection of everything that’s gone wrong on the campus, how the administration has not been responsive to alumni calls, calls from him and calls from parents to stop the ideology he says is embedded in the campus.
Jacobson said what is happening is no accident, and it’s only gotten worse since Oct. 7.
“Their worst instincts, their demands for violence, their genocidal calls have been unleashed, and the administration has been very tepid in the way it has responded, not only at Cornell, but we see it at Columbia. And that tepid response has led to increased, vitriolic chants on campus. People march through buildings with bullhorns,” Jacobson said at Cornell.
“The administration tells them not to do it, and they do it anyway. So, there really is a problem on Cornell’s campus and other campuses with an emboldened, aggressive anti-Israel movement that seeks to intimidate people.”
Jacobson is concerned that, at some point, things could turn more severe.
“The only question is, when are they going to cross the line? When is the rhetoric, the cult-like chanting, going to turn into action? And that’s what I think we have to be concerned about,” he said.
Jacobson said one of the most chilling and disturbing actions to come out of this unrest at Cornell has been a professor active in these calls for an intifada.
“You had a professor infamously saying in front of a large crowd of people that he felt ‘exhilarated’ when he heard about Oct. 7. He then tried to walk it back and said, ‘Well, he’s never in support of killing civilians.’ But I think his first reaction and his first instinct was his true belief. I believe him. When he said he felt ‘exhilarated,’ I believe him. I think he was telling the truth about it,” Jacobson said.
Russell Rickford, a Cornell University professor who taught post-Civil War African American history at the prestigious university, came under fire in October after footage of him celebrating the Hamas surprise terror attack that left 1,400 dead, including women, children and elderly civilians, went viral.
The university reported that he took a leave of absence shortly after, and The Cornell Sun reported he was participating at the latest Cornell protest Friday.
When students are calling for an intifada, Jacobson says listen to them, adding he is happy they have finally taken off their masks and shown their true colors.
Pro-Palestinian supporters rally outside Columbia University
Anti-Israel supporters rally outside Columbia University April 23, 2024, in New York City. (Jeenah Moon/Getty Images)“So, I’m in favor of people telling us how they really feel. I don’t want to suppress that. I don’t want to drive that underground. I want the whole world to see what we are up against, not just the Jewish people. And not just Israel. And not just the Cornell campus. But really the United States. See what we are up against,” Jacobson said.
“This is a death cult ideology. It’s a destructive ideology. It is a dead end for society, and it is flourishing among a component of the campuses. Again, not the entirety of the campus, not the majority of the campus, but the very, very vocal minority on the campus.”
Jacobson said the schools need to be held accountable.
“I think when we look at that video of the chants for an end to intifada as the only solution, I think in many ways that was Cornell’s Charlottesville moment. People need to recognize the hatred that is underneath the supposed peace movement. And it’s something that we need to talk about, and the school needs to address, and the school needs to come to grips with,” Jacobson said.
Cornell University and Rickford did not respond to Fox News Digital for comment.
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The system has been persecuting devout Christians for the last half century. Christians are the most persecuted group in the world. I’d like to see a sustained, daily harangue about that.
That doesn’t fit the leftist narrative.
” But since the purpose of this encampment was not really protest, but to create a victim narrative, the students refused.”
Thye should be given a chance to be victims of their own stupidity. It is insane to allow this. also, identify nd prosecute those who are funding this. I bet that they re profiting from disrupting our economy, and that there is one hell of a racketeering case to be made here.
Hate speech is free speech. The problem is not allowing contrary views.
Yes and when the speech/expression becomes something else. You don’t get to illegally occupy buildings and parks, block entrances to airports, shut down traffic and claim those actions are ‘free speech’. While we need to be careful not to go too quickly to shut down violent rhetoric, that’s preventing free speech, we DO need to pay attention to exactly what is being said, who is saying it and what the background of the speaker is. Is it some little 85 year old widow lady at a counter protest or a military age male foreign Student in our Nation on our sufferance of allowing a Visa?
The problem is that allowing people to come to America who do not want to become Americans. Thye brought their petty hatreds here and infiltrated all of our educational institutions, from K to universities, our government and military.
Our problem is worse than just deep state.
We need one or more Joseph McCarthy clones to rip Marxists, Communists and other subversives out of America.
That “faculty” has been manipulating media presence to the point of using their bodies to protect and block tells me all I need to know. For many, this is the culmination of their years of teaching…….I mean activism. Some may even be experiencing moments of ecstacy.
Same at UT….faculty supporting students and chastising president for having cops clear the campus. Some universities limit “freedom of expression” to designated areas … but not for these protestors. Leftist professional courtesy.
Antisemitic and pro terrorist speech is simply unAmerican, and rife with hate.
It’s so progressive!!!
“There is only one solution …”
The insanity and historical illiteracy of using the word “solution” in this context.
These kids don’t even know modern history, they can’t tell you what the Oslo accords are or who Yasser Arafat was. https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/article-776987
In this survey, less than 25% knew who Arafat was, and among those who didn’t they guessed things like he was the prime minister of Israel. This is how stupid these kids are! Yet over 86% supported chanting from the “river to the sea Palestine will be free” a phrase that Arafat helped create in the first place. We are talking about an idiotic and arrogant group of college kids who enjoy the power of being violent and hateful without any consequences. They know nothing about what they are screaming and ranting and raving over and don’t seem to care about their total ignorance. They are so certain in their adoration of Hamas and Hezbollah that actually learning anything is unimportant to them.
Well I think it’s going to get out of hand sooner rather than later. I’m sure there are a few psycho protesters mixed in and all they need is a little egging on. The university admin knows exactly what’s going on: they want all of the Jews off campus. Personally, I’d take my Jew money and my Jew brain and go to Yeahiva University or maybe a nice Christian university, anywhere but the disgusting “ivy leagues”. May they burn to the ground!
Not about speech, which is allowed, but discrimination, which is not.
De-fund Cornell!!!
I assume Professor Jacobson is referring to the anti-American leftists that wanted to tear down our statues….. I’m very grateful to those that tried valiantly to preserve them and have had nothing but trouble for those efforts.
Let’s hope that the stupid party, aka Republicans, recognize that their campaign ads are being made for them.
Where’s Inigo Montoya when you need him? The response to these “peace” proclamations is: “I do not think that work means what you think it means.”
In fundamentalist Islam, “peace” means “submission” and the realm of peace is the realm of submission, to Islamic theology, which includes theocracy — government subordinate to the religion. There is no “you do you” in what we otherwise call peace. “Peace” means *you* stop resisting.
This is what happens when people fail to research a product prior to purchase. You spent 4 years and paid over $200.000, and all you got was stupid.
What ever happened to that democratic proposal for post birth abortions? That law and the abundance of wood chippers in this country could have this problem cleared up quick, fast and in a hurry.