The pro-Palestinian student protests at New York’s Columbia University have stolen the show in global news over the past week.
Rightly so, one would say. In the heart of the USA, Israel’s most traditional ally, in one of the most famous universities in the world, not only does the narrative about “Israel’s right to self-defense” pass, but the majority who demonstrate demands an immediate ceasefire and a halt to the university’s investments in industries that support Israel.
The Greek teacher Neni Panourgia has been teaching at Columbia for the past several years. She thus lives these historic, if nothing else, moments from the inside and is able to accurately and first-hand describe to us her experiences alongside the student rioters.
“Today (Wednesday morning EST) we learned that the students were granted a 48-hour extension to break up the sit-in and take their tents off campus. They should also make sure that there are no people in the area who are not related to the University and that they will comply with the instructions of the Fire Department” he emphasizes on NEWS 24/7 from New York.
Related Opinion
It is interesting to read her comment on the human geography of the insurgents: “I think we see people from every category. Undergraduate and postgraduate students. Graduates and graduates of the University. Jews, Arabs, Chinese. Blacks as well as whites. And of course Greeks” says the Greek teacher from the other end of the phone line while receives in her e-mail the new messages of the president of the University who has found herself in the eye of the cyclone.
Minous Shafiq was asked to lead an explanation to the Congress about the situation that has developed in the University and she received terrible pressures. Two Republican congresswomen demanded that she contribute so that the two students who are still under arrest and who are not American citizens are immediately deported from the US.
“Obviously the president of the University is in a very difficult position,” Ms. Panourgia tells us. “On the one hand there are the Republicans who are demanding the expulsion of students. On the other hand there are the most radical students who demand the president to resign. What she did one day after her testimony to Congress was to demand that the occupation end, allowing the police to intervene and arrest 108 students, which led to a vote of censure by a majority of the faculty. However, it is clear, and this should not be overlooked, that the president is at the same time preventing even more massive arrests in the University area. The arrests so far were made on the charge of trespassing on private property”.
Panicked establishment
Speaking of arrests, the moral panic that has gripped much of the New York establishment over the student protests is great. Repression tries and partially shows its teeth. The measures are draconian by the city’s security authorities. Kathy Hokul, governor of the State of New York and a member of the Democratic Party, requested a few days ago that the… national guard descend on the Metro stations as it seems that for her the… homeless people who find temporary accommodation there are a threat. This is how he believes crime can be crushed. In other words, there is a vigilance in repression in the city.
Related Article
At the same time, there are always extreme conservative Zionists within the University who try to create an atmosphere in the opposite direction. O Sai Davidai, a professor in the University’s Business Administration department, took extreme measures.
“He sent over 50 messages to male and female students whom he verbally abused. He even threatened with internment in concentration camps! On Monday night he wrote that he has every right to be next at the University and that is why he will appear with police and student supporters. He actually showed up, he also took out a complaint against the occupation, but the University took away his access to every area, his card now does not open any doors in the institution” says Neni Panourgia.
Today’s Columbia and its legacy
If one wonders why the mobilization came to this particular US university and not another, the answer will be found in the institution’s recent history. “In 1968, the year of the protests against the war in Vietnam, the sit-ins here were the largest in the country. The events here caused a huge impact on the US establishment. Since then, the police had to enter the university premises and they entered a few days ago.
Columbia, along with Berkeley, are the two Universities that have long taken positions on hot political and social issues. Our University thus has a very long tradition,” explains Ms. Panourgia, who adds that in Columbia, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, a movement against the war in Iraq was also created, but a movement that, as she says, “was considered a movement that was also against it Israel”.
“This year after October 11 when Israel started to respond with strikes in Gaza and while we were already frozen by the Hamas strike on October 7, demonstrations started at the University. Continuous and massive. But there was no concrete, tangible result. However, the recent escalation of the war has led to the students in the decision to change their way of fighting and prefer occupation. Meanwhile, the University avoided taking a position,” he continues.
“Within the University,” Ms. Panourgia concludes, “the students support the struggle of the Palestinians in Gaza, and we in turn, as teachers, most of us at least, support our students. But something else is worth noting: Columbia has a large number of Jewish faculty and students. Most Jewish professors stand with the students and oppose the war that cannot be waged in their name.
As you understand this element is very important. What we are trying to do on our part is to convince the Palestinian students not to put themselves in great danger in order to protect themselves from possible deportation. Inside the University, all these months there have been no shortage of attacks by Israeli students, who are also former members of the Israeli army, against Palestinians. The University did not take a position on these attacks”.
