The university recently deposed tenured law professor Katherine Franke as part of an investigation stemming from an interview she gave to “Democracy Now!” in January. During that interview, Franke was asked about allegations that two students who had previously served in the Israeli army had sprayed a chemical at their classmates at an on-campus rally for Gaza.
Franke, who has worked at the school for decades, responded by linking the incident to a documented pattern of on-campus harassment that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students have alleged for years.
“Columbia has a program with older students from other countries, including Israel,” Franke said, referring to the school’s General Studies program. “It’s something that many of us were concerned about because so many of those Israeli students who then come to the campus are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus, and it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past.”
The remarks set off a firestorm, with commentators suggesting that Franke was calling to ban all Israeli students from campus. Within a few days of the interview, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an article titled “Columbia University Pushes Back Against Professor Who Vilified Israeli Students,” citing a statement from the university affirming its support for Israeli students.
In what possible way?
In that you’re trying to get people to ignore the impact of the words and what it’s doing to victims of it?
I am in no way doing that. Why are you making such a nonsensical accusation when I explained why I said whst I did in great detail?
Refusing to let them win the propaganda war by policing your language does not in any way do that.
You’re basically accusing me of being a bigot by saying that a word that should describe bigotry is being used to describe things that are not bigoted to support a genocide.
You are in every way doing that.
You are promoting that others downplay or outright ignore the importance of what is happening with the word today, because you’re more concerned with a lesser evil meaning of the word being lost.
In one thread you’re complaining about me not being civil and in this one you’re calling me a bigot. Who am I even being bigoted against? Antisemites?
In one thread I’m complaining about you making a personal attack on my character.
And in this one I’ve never called you a bigot, those are your own words you keep using to describe yourself here.
In here I’ve accused you of ignoring why calling out the usage of the word antisemitism is important to the victims of it amidst an ongoing genocide.
That is absolutely implying I am a bigot, so I have no idea why you’re trying to gaslight me.