The pusillanimity of college and university administrators in dealing with pro-Hamas encampments is being increasingly exposed.
Campuses are private property. University administrators have every right to call the police to dismantle obstructive pro-Hamas encampments, which are threatening and intimidating students and others who disagree. They also involve health and safety risks, while turning campuses into propaganda centers. Yet in all too many cases, administrators appease and negotiate with them. Recently, Robert Spencer was blocked from speaking at UCLA. See also HERE. All too many campuses only allow one view, i.e., Palestinian propaganda.
McGill University in Montreal recently sought an injunction to have pro-Hamas encampments removed by police, citing health and safety concerns, but the presiding judge dismissed the request:
In the request, the university’s lawyers argued that the encampment was unsafe, posing a risk of escalating tensions on campus and preventing McGill from holding its convocation ceremonies at its usual outdoor location.
Yet McGill was found to be not only appeasing pro-Hamas protesters; university administrators had been negotiating with them:
the university has offered to examine divestment from companies whose revenues largely come from weapons, in ways that are “geographically neutral” and align with their values.
The university also offered to strengthen McGill’s connections with scholars and institutions in Gaza and the West Bank, while also offering urgent help to students and scholars displaced by the conflict.
Many university administrators have been quietly kowtowing to pro-Hamas occupiers, even negotiating with them. Following the rejection of the injunction, McGill University’s president and vice-chancellor called the encampment “an illegal occupation,” but the university should never have sought to negotiate with the occupiers in the first place. Confusion and division is rife across the continent. Some campuses have called in police, while others encourage the pro-Hamas encampments. For example: “Police break up University of Michigan encampment; New School to hold divestment vote,” Times of Israel, May 21, 2024:
US police broke up a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel encampment Tuesday at the University of Michigan, less than a week after demonstrators showed up at the home of a school official and placed fake body bags on her lawn.
Officers wearing helmets with face shields moved in before sunrise to clear the Diag, known for decades as a site for campus protests.
Video footage posted online showed police at times using what appeared to be an irritant to spray people, who were forced to retreat….
Posters taunting president Santa Ono and other officials were also displayed……
Ono said in a statement that the encampment had become a threat to safety, with overloaded power sources and open flames. Organizers, he added, had refused to comply with requests to make changes following an inspection by a fire marshal.
“The disregard for safety directives was only the latest in a series of troubling events centered on an encampment that has always violated the rules that govern the Diag — especially the rules that ensure the space is available to everyone,” Ono said.
Protesters have demanded that the school’s endowment stop investing in companies with ties to Israel. But the university insists it has no direct investments and less than $15 million placed with funds that might include companies in Israel. That’s less than 0.1 percent of the total endowment…..
Meanwhile, the New School in New York said it had reached a deal with anti-Israel protesters to hold a vote on divestment, in exchange for a Gaza solidarity encampment being dismantled.
According to a statement from the school, an investment board will hold a vote on June 14 to end any investments in certain companies in line with calls made by anti-Israel student protesters and a slew of faculty members who launched their own demonstrations following a police crackdown.
The contrast between the University of Michigan and New School is stark, and the same two approaches are playing out elsewhere. In Canada, police in riot gear broke up a pro-Hamas encampment at the University of Calgary. And in Edmonton, the University of Alberta defended its decision to do the same. Yet there are still far too many in the West who have adopted — in the name of diversity and inclusion — a policy of appeasement, to the detriment of peaceful students and citizens everywhere. Recently, California State Senator Scott Weiner exposed the fact that some California universities were negotiating with pro-Hamas encampment leaders. This followed the resignation of Sonoma State University President Michael Lee, after he took it upon himself to meet the demands of pro-Hamas protesters.
Yesterday the President of Sonoma State University aligned the campus with BDS, a movement whose goal is the destruction of Israel, home to 7M Jews.
Several other UC & CSU campuses are doing this more subtly. Sonoma State simply said the quiet part out loud.
The mask is off. ? pic.twitter.com/DDUiIzKcTG
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) May 15, 2024
The West cannot afford to appease leftists and Islamic supremacists. The Palestinians don’t want “liberation,” they want conquest. October 7 allowed the Palestinian “resistance,” supported by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Arab League, to springboard globally.
Anonymous says
How I see it:
Islam’s definition N°1: to establish world caliphate by the sword mandatory for all Muslims under death penalty (ex-Muslims are to be killed).
Calculation by Hamas: have its people crushed to provoke global jihad by surfing on indignation.
Israel reacts to the 1st°.
Stop war = ban Islam.
If all the population of Gaza were ex-Muslims, Gaza would be prosperous and friendly. Islam wants especially to kill ex-Muslims. Islam is made of Muslims. Jihad for a world caliphate by the sword starts at home. The rest of the planet are the next target starting with the Jews apparently.
OLD GUY says
We really need to divest from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and China in our schools endowment funds. Every public or private institution receiving tax payer funds should have to make public their private and foreign funding sources. Foreign governments should NOT be allowed to contribute huge amounts of money, so as to buy influence on what is taught at our schools.