Grasping Reality Amidst Distractions: The Urgency of Palestine Beyond Columbia's Turmoil

Day 1 of Encampment 8:00 AM

To begin the story of the events that have transpired in New York, centering around the courageous anti-genocide activists encamped at Columbia University, is to grapple with half-truths and evasions. Yet, one must commence somewhere, as the onus is paramount and has the potential to shape the way readers view both what is happening in America’s beloved city and in Palestine. If given absolute autonomy in my expression, I'd spare no keystrokes on the convoluted mess blossoming in New York and instead redirect attention to the harrowing discovery of a mass grave of 180 beloved Palestinians across the courtyard of Al Nasser hospital.

When I speak of autonomy, even as I type the tally of Palestinians unearthed at Al Nasser, there's an impulse to underscore that the majority of martyrs buried in the mass grave were women and children. In an ideal realm where I wield unadulterated agency, I wouldn't feel compelled to pander to Western sensibilities by leveraging the perceived innocence society accords to women and children to convey the horror and magnitude of finding 180 dead Palestinians. In a perfect world, where Palestinians dictate the narrative, we wouldn't rely on the mass detainment of privileged students as a narrative hook to capture your attention, compelling you to heed our call to cease funding the entities perpetrating atrocities against our kin.

Yet, here we stand, hostage to circumstances requiring us to utilize the mass arrests of hundreds of students and faculty at elite liberal Ivy League institutions and the infringement of their "free speech" as a gateway to acknowledging that Palestine's screams deserve to be heard, let alone saved from generational, spatial, and scholastic -cides. So, in the stark absence of agency, here we go.

NEW YORK - Columbia University announced the cancellation of in-person classes on Monday, April 22nd, as student-led protests over the conflict in Gaza continue to intensify. The demonstrations gained momentum following the university administration's decision to involve law enforcement in dismantling a student encampment last week. Solidarity protests and encampments with Columbia students have sprouted up on campuses across the country, including at Yale, MIT, Tufts, NYU, The New School, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The facade of American exceptionalism is crumbling, revealing a nation grappling with its own demons. Columbia's turmoil, while significant, is but a microcosm of the broader societal decay we're witnessing. The recent actions of certain figures, such as Columbia Business professor Shai Davidai, epitomize this moral decline. Davidai, a known racist and bigot, was rightfully barred from entering campus by Columbia’s COO after threatening to breach the liberated zone established by anti-genocide protesters. Davidai knew that his actions would lead the administration to halt his entry to campus, so he sought to make a spectacle to lure in the media to fabricate the messaging surrounding the protests. His audacious antics prompted pundits and Zionist figures to go as far as drawing ahistorical parallels between the 1938 Jewish segregation in Germany and his current situation—a gross distortion that trivializes both historical truth and present-day suffering. Taking to Twitter, Davidai continued his reckless tirade, branding encampment students as terrorists who had supposedly seized control of the university. His spectacle underscores the ease with which the elite can manipulate public discourse, diverting attention from urgent crises. Meanwhile, the grim reality remains: over the past six days, more than 400 Palestinians have been massacred, with over 700 others maimed or severely injured—most of them women and children, and the men you might ask? How dare you think of these terrorists.

Palestinian health workers unearth a body buried by Israeli forces inside Nasser hospital compound in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on April 21, 2024. [AFP]

America’s moral decay is not confined to the halls of academia or the chambers of its Congress; it extends to our collective consciousness. Columbia's upheaval, and the nation generally, while noteworthy, pales in comparison to the harrowing humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. It's utterly appalling how we can be so easily ensnared by the spectacle of campus protests and bureaucratic squabbles, all while turning a blind eye to an ongoing genocide—yes, genocide—committed against the Palestinian people.

This isn't merely a matter of misplaced priorities; it's a damning indictment of our collective moral failure. While we're engrossed in debates about free speech and the nuances of campus politics, innocent families are being torn apart, children are left orphaned, and entire communities in Gaza are being obliterated.

The obsessive focus on Columbia is not just a symptom of skewed priorities; it's a deliberate tactic to divert our attention from the unspeakable atrocities being committed. This skewed narrative serves to sanitize and trivialize the immense human suffering taking place on a catastrophic scale.

Let's be unequivocal: the events at Columbia University should not distract us from the urgent need to address and condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza. It's a grievous error to allow ourselves to be sidetracked by these distractions. We must confront the harsh reality and commit ourselves wholeheartedly to ending this humanitarian crisis before more lives are needlessly lost.

To my comrades at Columbia, I salute you. Your steadfastness in redirecting the narrative towards Gaza is commendable. It's up to the rest of us to ensure the world isn't distracted by Western Zionist forces keen on giving the genocidal army room to prepare for their invasion of Rafah.