Progressives, Columbia and the Anti-Israel Protesters The university finally calls in the cops to remove an anti-Israel mob on campus, in a lesson for Democratic mayors.
Protesters across the country these days claim they are fighting for the rights of Palestinians but show contempt for the rights of those whose lives they disrupt. On Thursday Columbia University President Minouche Shafik had enough. When the protesters who set up a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the university’s South Lawn ignored repeated warnings to leave, she called in the New York Police Department to have them removed.
Ms. Shafik waited too long to address the problems festering on her campus, and her move came only after she was grilled by Congress on antisemitism on Columbia’s campus. But give her credit for acting. In a statement she explains that the protesters ignored multiple warnings that they were violating university policies.
Other leaders should take heed—especially the Democrats and progressives who run America’s cities and most institutions. In recent weeks similar protests have shut down San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, blocked access to Chicago’s airport and interrupted Congressional hearings. They even crashed a fundraiser in New York to heckle President Biden, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
It is hardly surprising that the most progressive cities have seen the most protests. No surprise, either, that among those arrested at Columbia Thursday was Barnard student Isra Hirsi, daughter of anti-Israel Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.). An unbowed Ms. Hirsi tweeted that, in addition to Columbia’s divestment from Israel, she and her fellow protesters are demanding “FULL amnesty for all students facing repression.” Naturally.
Ms. Hirsi and the other protesters are fully entitled to express their view that Israel is pursuing genocide in its war with Hamas. But what the country saw Thursday at Columbia wasn’t about free expression. As President Shafik pointed out, the protest was about disrupting campus life for everyone else and creating “a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students.” It’s the same for protests designed to prevent others from commuting to work, catching a flight or getting to class.
Liberal and Democratic leaders have tolerated such behavior for too long. Their reward is that the protesters call the president “Genocide Joe” and are planning to march on the Democratic nominating convention in Chicago. Mr. Biden launched his campaign for President rightly condemning the tiki torch crowd who shouted “Jews will not replace us” in Charlottesville. But he’s been strangely silent about the protesters shouting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The test now is if liberal elites—especially Democratic mayors—have the courage to enforce norms to protect the public, their own cities, and their own nominating convention. Protesters are betting they don’t.
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