by Cary Nelson

The following essay is part of a special series of responses to recent events centered, for now, at Columbia University, and extending beyond its confines to include the wider array of societal problems that the disorder there symptomatizes. For details, see Gabriel Noah Brahm, “From Palestine Avenue to Morningside Heights.”
—Gabriel Noah Brahm, Director of the Telos-Paul Piccone Institute’s Israel initiative

Every day, it seems, we advance into darkness we have not known before. It is not a journey we have sought out or chosen for ourselves. We are swept along by a current of malice that can only be avoided if we hide from the news. The spectacle of a mass antizionist and antisemitic “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on Columbia University’s central quad and elsewhere has structural predecessors, to be sure, like the Occupy Wall Street movement, but parallels with mass antisemitism require comparison with earlier historical moments. The Occupy Wall Street movement was notably accompanied by a substantial body of theoretical work, whereas the Columbia occupation is supported by little more than a Manichean view of a world divided between oppressor and oppressed peoples. The students promise to remain until Columbia meets their divestment demands—which presumably means they will be in their tents for a very long time indeed, since for governing boards to cede their investment authority to mob action means giving up their other responsibilities as well.

Meanwhile the chants continue, with new variations introduced to demonstrate the irrepressible creativity of the participants. On the Columbia campus they called out “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!,” “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest!,” “Oh Al-Qassam [Brigades], you make us proud, kill another soldier now!,” “Five Six Seven Eight, Israel is a terrorist state,” “Red, black, green, and white, we support Hamas’ fight!,” “Hamas we love you. We support your rockets too!,” “It is right to rebel, Al-Qassam, give them hell!,” and “From the water to the water, Palestine is Arab!” Students for Justice in Palestine gathered to lead chants wearing keffiyehs, displaying Hamas symbols, and teaching people to chant “Death to Israel,” “Death to America,” and “Death to the Jews” in Farsi and Arabic. In a New York subway car it was “Free our prisoners, Free them all. Zionism will fall! Free our prisoners, free them all! Israel will fall!” Just outside Columbia’s gates the cries included “Hamas, we love you. We support your rockets, too!,” “Is‑ra‑el go to Hell,” and “The 7th of October is going to be every day for you,” demanding repeated pogroms in New York City. Two Jewish Columbia students were cursed with the cry of “Nazi Bitches, Nazi Bitches.”

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