Ohio: Hamas Supporters Cower Before Alec Popivker

Supporters of the Palestinians’ illegal, and dangerous provocations have included shutting down Christmas celebrations, blocking bridges and freeways, and occupying university campuses, making it clear their presence will not be denied.

But not surprisingly, the “Palestinians” and their supporters do not like it when they are the ones that are provoked; that makes them feel threatened.

This recent TV newscast announcing the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)’s latest legal filing on behalf of Palestinian students against Case Western Reserve University shows that they are bewildered at why anyone could treat the poor Palestinians with anything but deference.

Here one can see CAIR’s Ohio Executive Director Faten Odeh pleading with wide-eyed innocence that they tried to talk to the university, but were just ignored, and so they felt compelled to file a Title VI complaint against Case Western with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

In the complaint, under the section “CWRU Deliberately Remains Indifferent When Palestinian and Palestinian-Affiliated Students Endure Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying,” we get an example of the terrible treatment Palestinian students are facing in the form of one Alec Popivker.

A simple search of the Internet for the term “Popivker” shows there is a lot of information about Alec Popivker. For example, here he is carrying the flag of Israel into a small group of students waving their Palestine flags.

“How can he be stopped?” asked one commenter.

And this is what he does; he goes on campuses and provokes the Hamasniks.

In another example, Popivker videoed two nasty girls who were insulting him, making obscene gestures, and pouring soda near a group of signs Popivker made about the hostages taken by Hamas.

“We support genocide,” they taunted. And “We can film you too, weirdo.”

But when Popivker uploaded the video to social media, the girls complained that they were receiving lots of hateful comments. This is when Popivker’s legal troubles began.

Popivker was arrested by the Cleveland State University Police Department on felony charges of aggravated menacing and ethnic intimidation on Feb. 13. The arrest stemmed from a complaint filed by CSU students on Feb. 5, the Cleveland Jewish News previously reported.

However, ten days later, the charges against Popivker were dropped.

Still, the one-man rampage continued. “Popivker sentenced to 10 days in jail for stealing Palestinian banner,” by Courtney Byrnes, Cleveland Jewish News, July 27, 2023:

Alexander Popivker of Cleveland Heights was sentenced to 10 days suspended jail time and 18 months probation for stealing a pro-Palestinian student group’s banner at Cleveland State University.

In a statement, Popivker said:

As an act of civil disobedience I have removed the terrorist banner that erases the Jewish state that was displayed at the Cleveland State University Student Center. This incitement to annihilation of Israel should never have been permitted at CSU. Pan Arab Nazi flag is designated as a terrorist symbol by Israel. Is the CSU really in solidarity with this?

As CAIR notes in its complaint against Case Western, Popivker has now been declared persona non grata at Cleveland State. But that also included a message for the students. “President Bloomberg on Popivker: ‘I can’t guarantee any one of us 100% safety,’” by Mays Turabi, The Cauldron, April 17, 2024:

Cleveland State University President Laura Bloomberg, Ph.D., discussed campus safety following Alec Popivker’s now-dismissed felony charges that stemmed from an extensive police report filed by two CSU students, stating that it’s not her job to “guarantee any one of us 100% safety on a university campus.”…

“I struggle with the word ‘safe,’” said Bloomberg. “It’s not a safe world. It’s just not. There’s a lot of things that make it not safe. We can try to maximize the level of safety on campus, but people also have their rights and I cannot control that.”…

What the University can’t do, according to Wilson, is monitor Popivker’s presence 24/7.

“We don’t have the resources to have someone sitting in front of a camera, watching every camera that we have,” Wilson added.

Bloomberg suggested that students should ignore Popivker’s speech altogether by giving him “a collective deaf ear” as a means of seeing an end to this issue. She also encouraged student groups to host events and conversations to alleviate tension and facilitate dialogue.

She also suggested the community not be overly concerned about Popivker, “when we are in a city that’s the 10th highest crime rate in the country.”

“I am a little perplexed when I think about all of the things that happen around campuses—not this campus, but in general—how this one individual could take up so much real estate in our heads,” said Bloomberg….

So Alec Popivker is CAIR’s example of the unfair treatment of Palestinians on Case Western campus.

The story of CAIR’s announced complaint against the university was filed by Nadeen Abusada, who has moderated events for CAIR in the past. She is giving CAIR a legitimacy and importance it does not deserve.

Nadeen Abusada might have waited for the Office of Civil Rights to decide if CAIR’s complaint had merit before filing this report, but if the OCR decided that it wouldn’t investigate CAIR’s claims, then there wouldn’t be any story. And the public would not have the impression that CAIR is fighting injustice at Case Western.

CAIR’s complaint is full of statements about “illegal occupation,” and claims that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is not hateful, “intifada” just means a protest, and the keffiyeh is just a scarf. All the SJP wanted to do was form illegal encampments on university property, and so on.

Who knows what the Office of Civil Rights will ultimately decide, but to try to portray Alec Popivker as a dangerous bully while telling us that Students for Justice in Palestine is just protesting the “illegal occupation” is pathetic.