WASHINGTON – The White House on Tuesday condemned the overnight occupation of a Columbia University building by anti-Israel protesters, calling it “not peaceful” and calling it “Intifada” with a two-story banner by President Biden. He said he was “condemning” the use of the word. This is what the site currently says:
Dozens of masked protesters stormed into Hamilton Hall under cover of darkness after at least one person used a hammer to smash a window in the building, named for founding father Alexander Hamilton. It was previously famously occupied by student demonstrators during the 1968 uprising.・The decisive battle of the Vietnam War.
“Throughout his life, President Biden has stood up against offensive anti-Semitic slurs and violent rhetoric,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement. “He condemns the use of the term ‘intifada’ because of other recent tragic and dangerous hate speech.
“President Biden respects the right to free expression, but protests must be peaceful and lawful. Forcibly occupying buildings is not peaceful and wrong. And Hate speech and hate symbols have no place in America,” Bates said.
The term “intifada” means uprising and has been applied to at least two bloody uprisings in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. More recently, during the “Second Intifada” from 2000 to 2005, Palestinian terrorists killed hundreds of civilians. Suicide bomber.
White House National Security Council Press Secretary John Kirby added of Colombia: [disrupt] The academic experience…for the rest of the students, these are students who want to pay to go to school and get an education, and who can do that without being destroyed.
“They should be able to do it, rest assured. And they certainly have the right to graduate and participate in graduation ceremonies… [What Columbia protesters are doing] It doesn’t fit the idea of a peaceful protest.
Follow The Post’s coverage of anti-terrorism protests at Columbia University.
“[We] Continue to believe in free speech and the right to protest the policies and ideas you want to protest. Just do it peacefully. No one should be hurt,” Kirby said. “And you cannot interfere with the educational activities of your fellow students.”
Anti-Israel demonstrators call on Ivy League schools to withdraw from the world’s only Jewish-majority nation in protest of Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip starting October 1. , entered the Columbia University building after setting up a tent and rebelling against university administrators. Seven massacres committed by Hamas terrorists.
Columbia University leaders on April 18 called on police to clear out the chaotic tent city, and the school announced that it would not be possible to remove Isra, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who was attending Barnard College at the time. Some student participants, including Hirsi (21), were suspended from school. . Bernard is a member of Columbia.
But university administrators are cracking down on other protesters in and around Columbia who have been accused of using pro-Hamas and anti-Semitic language against students who identify as Jewish. I couldn’t do that.
The day before the building occupation, a group of 21 House Democrats led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (New Jersey) and Rep. Dan Goldman (New York) sent a letter to the Columbia University Board of Regents, calling on the student movement’s camp. He demanded that he be put down or that he resign.
Biden, 81, has yet to comment personally on the Columbia deal. The conflict between Israel and Hamas threatens to doom Biden’s re-election campaign, reflecting President Lyndon Johnson’s inability to manage the divisions within his party over Vietnam.
He also said little on camera about the massive protests that are sweeping college campuses across the country after he found himself at the center of many rallies during the nearly seven-month conflict. There wasn’t.
He was frequently heckled as “Genocide Joe” during his public remarks, and thousands of protesters chanted “Damn Joe Biden!” He descended on the White House in November and defaced his front gate with that nickname and red paint.
Polls show young voters, Arab Americans and Muslim Americans oppose Biden’s pro-Israel stance, including massive U.S. aid to support the anti-Hamas movement.
Additional reporting by Caitlin Doornbos
