Just got a message from a legal observer on Columbia's main campus telling me that because the campus is on full lockdown, no other student legal observers are being allowed in. Columbia is ignoring requests from the NY chapter of NLG

This is not a good development.

The precedent being set by police brutality against peaceful protesters at a time when Trump is leading in the polls should have us all deeply concerned for what’s coming. Democrats need to stop playing into the hands of the far right like this.

Israelis know that Biden can end the bombing and the siege in one phone call but for some reason we’re supposed to believe American liberals when they tell us he can’t do anything.

If you are ever arrested, the two biggest things you can do to help yourself:

1. Be polite and reasonable with the officer. If he responds by acting like a jerk, that just helps you more when a jury looks at the video.

2. Politely decline to answer questions.

Had a really meaningful Seder with friends last night, using IfNotNow🔥✡️’s Freedom For All Haggadah. Chag Sameach 🪬

I asked Joseph E. Stiglitz, longtime Columbia University scholar and Nobel-winning economist, what the establishment doesn’t understand about what campus protesters are trying to say.

the.ink/p/joseph-stigl…

Hi Kirsten Gillibrand I’m a Jew who spent the day at the Columbia encamp yesterday. Here’s what I saw:
- a thoughtful Jewish led teach-in on antisemitism
- kosher for Passover food available for observant Jews
- Jews and non-Jews who told me how meaningful it was to participate in ->

I cannot overstate how dangerous this is. If you think that the US government should treat these students the way they are treating Hamas and Hezbollah, you are basically saying there is no level of violence that is off-limits.

I will write about this at greater length elsewhere but—and this does not excuse any antisemitism at protests—the idea that students are motivated by hatred of Jews as opposed to hatred of what they're reading in the news each day is pretty deliberately obtuse.

I attended NYU 20 years ago. We struggled at the time to put together a mock apartheid wall near Gould Plaza to draw attention to the wall being built in Palestine . 20 years later, NYU has done the work for activists. Thanks NYU 🤦🏻‍♂️

As a sheer tactical matter, mass arrests of the protesters seems to be having the opposite of its intended effect.

My marvelous colleague Prof Christopher Brown (CU History Department) brought the 🔥 at today's Columbia faculty action opposing the arrests of students, suppression of free speech and the congressional threat to independence in higher education. Here's the whole thing.
#NoCopsOnCampus

I genuinely don’t know how anyone who is seriously committed to the safety and well-being of Jews can see a single decision made by people in power this week as doing anything but deeply endangering Jewish people at Columbia and beyond🧵

Explaining the seder plate at the Columbia encampment. These students truly embody the meaning of Passover in their provisional seder and their commitment to liberation.

1/ I’m sure antisemitic things have been said by people in/near the encampment. There will always be those who try to inject their own hateful message into a public action—and they get disproportionately amplified as representative by ppl who oppose & want to smear the movement.

Here's the thing. I was trying to explain the difference last night between what the law allows and what justice is. The law allows powerful people to use it against less powerful people, usually. The law is not a neutral object. It's humans doing things to other humans.

I now go back to the district court and because of this, I’m limited in what I can say.

But the right to protest was not abolished in the 5th Circuit. The right to protest remains. Sotomayor’s note is important.

When this case is finally over, I’ll be able to say more.

As a Barnard College graduate I am shocked & ashamed that it & Columbia University are violently crushing the right of students to peacefully protest.

This is not who we are. Both schools must immediately reinstate these students & protect their right to fight for a free Palestine.

Wow, this was fully on Columbia:

“When asked to characterize the protests, [NYPD] Chief John Chell said the ‘clear and present danger’ was identified by Columbia, not the NYPD. The NYPD reported no violence or injuries associated with the [encampment].” columbiaspectator.com/city-news/2024…

In Manhattan criminal court arraignments today, where there are citywide administrative delays due to the number of NYPD officers involved in processing the hundreds of Columbia University students arrested on the direction of their own administration yesterday 👌🏼👍🏼