Columbia College’s anti-Israel protesters have a knack for making any second about them — even Veterans Day.
On Monday afternoon, a gaggle of keffiyeh-clad Ivy Leaguers congregated within the college’s quad to counter-demonstrate as the remainder of us acknowledged the women and men who’ve bravely served our nation. And a few college students are over it.
November 11 was not Veterans Day, in keeping with the scholar group Columbia College Apartheid Divest. No, really it was Martyrs Day.
“Veterans Day is an American holiday to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of veterans,” the group wrote in an Instagram publish selling the occasion. “We reject this vacation and refuse to have fun it. The American warfare machine shouldn’t be honored for the horrors unleashed on others.
“Instead we will celebrate Martyrs Day in honor of those martyred by the Israel-US war machine — a day to honor the patriotism, love of country, and sacrifice of those martyrs,” the group declared.
Apparently none of them checked Google, however Martyrs Day is already a vacation — each January 30 — in India, marking the 1948 assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.
Round 80 somber college students noticed their newly invented vacation on campus Monday.
They sat cross-legged on the identical garden the place pupil protesters derailed the college yr final spring, forming an encampment in assist of Palestine.
Sam Nahins, an Air Power veteran and graduate pupil learning inventive writing at Columbia, mentioned many members of the college’s group are dropping persistence with the protesters’ antics.
“Their numbers are falling. People are growing tired of them,” Nahins advised The Submit. “Most of us just like to go to class. We have jobs. We have lives.”
Demonstrators listened as college students with microphones learn off the names of their martyrs, Palestinians who’ve been killed within the warfare with Israel.
Promotional materials for the occasion was lined in imagery of poppies, lengthy acknowledged as an emblem of sacrifice in World Conflict I. However Columbia organizers offensively insisted that “the poppy represents the resilience of Palestinians, the blood of the martyrs, and the resistance against Israeli occupation.”
What ever occurred to cultural appropriation? Or does that rule not apply to progressive activists?
Nahins was a part of a bunch of counter-protesters who waved American flags jubilantly in one other quadrant of the garden.
“I paid no attention to them,” he mentioned of the protesters. “I wanted today to be about veterans.”
“Columbia is proud of our students, faculty, and staff who are veterans, and we are grateful for their service and sacrifice and the invaluable contributions they offer to our community,” Columbia advised The Submit. “We are aware that a small group has called for a demonstration[,] and our public safety team is monitoring for any disruptions to campus activity.”
Undoubtedly, there are tragic tales of civilian deaths out of Palestine which are deserving of acknowledgement. That is true in any warfare or battle. However doing so to detract from the day put aside to honor America’s personal service women and men, on the very soil they fought to guard, is disrespectful at greatest.
Youngsters attending Columbia have the luxurious of spending their teenage years studying, not preventing. That’s because of the hundreds of thousands of veterans who volunteered for service. Disgrace on these college students for not realizing — or not caring — that 700 of them are literally their fellow college students.
Whereas our veterans gave valuable years of their youth in service of their nation, these protesters are losing theirs blowing scorching air for a “campus intifada.”
Veterans know what warfare is as a result of they lived it; these children suppose they know what warfare is (and also can remedy battle within the Center East) as a result of they’ve seen a number of TikTok movies.
By colonizing Veterans Day for their very own trigger, Columbia’s protesters revealed themselves for what they are surely: not simply anti-Israel, however anti-America.
There are maybe no better beneficiaries of the fruits of Western civilization than Ivy League college students. They stand on the shoulders of giants who afforded them the proper to study, to query, to debate, to inquire, to discover — and, sure, to protest.
However, sadly, they’ve chosen to make use of their rights to denigrate the very individuals who battle to guard their rights.
