Student Protest Leader at Columbia: ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’
Student Protest Leader at Columbia: ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’
Columbia Bars Student Protester Who Said ‘Zionists Don’t Deserve to Live’
Video of incendiary comments by one of the leaders of the student protest encampment at Columbia University surfaced online Thursday evening, forcing the school to again confront an issue at the core of the conflict rippling across campuses nationwide: the tension between pro-Palestinian activism and antisemitism.
The student, Khymani James, said in the January video that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
Mr. James made the comments during and after a disciplinary hearing with Columbia administrators that he recorded and then posted on Instagram.
Not sure why this is getting down voted? Like, we can agree that genocide and antisemitism are both bad at the same time, right?
Like, just because Israel's actions against Palestine are evil, does that necessarily require someone to embrace the Holocaust? Clearly not, right?
And I realize that Zionist =/= Jewish, but it's dancing a fine line, no? At the very least it's a call to violence against a Jewish adjacent group that I think feels pretty deeply uncomfortable.
Maybe I'm alone in that though. :/
It's not a fine line at all. And I say that as a Jew.
Most Zionists are Christians because they need the temple rebuilt and all the Jews to return to Israel to fulfill prophecy and have Jesus return.
That said, what this person did say is entirely unacceptable. Especially the part where they say that we should be grateful they're not murdering people. Sorry, I'm not going to thank you for not committing murder.
Agreed. Generally speaking, extremists fuel anti-protest propaganda. They’re a cancer to any cause. Protest loud and clear, but violence is always discrediting.
There’s a narrative that calling out the antisemitism is just like how right wingers said everyone riots and engages in property destruction during BLM rallies. I think that’s a false equivalence thought.
I also think that sometimes “Zionism” is used as a euphemism by antisemites because they know it’s more palatable.
Right. There are many Jews that have no relation to, or interest in, Zionism. It’s racist and ignorant to assume otherwise.
Not sure about a fine line. What about if it was "KKK members don't deserve to live"?
Do you believe it’s ok to kill someone for their beliefs? I’m not talking about holding a KKK member responsible for criminal actions, but killing someone for being a member of a racist organization.
Bullcrap. Zionism wasn't invented by Jewish people.