This university, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, is a private New York institution which was founded in 1859 by the philanthropist, Peter Cooper. I wonder what Cooper would have made of this kind of advanced mob thinking.
Even before the Israeli Defence Force lifted a weapon in response to the terrorist attack of October 7 a kind of moral fog descended on the world’s activist classes and media, as they shrieked that Israel had got what it deserved. When Israel did retaliate the howls of outrage became much louder, usefully obscuring the difference between intentional and unintentional killing and overlooking the fact that the IDF had warned Hamas to evacuate its citizens and the advice to evacuate sent by radio broadcasts, texts and pamphlet drops. Warnings that Hamas urged Gazans to ignore as the ‘militants’ continued their atrocious practice of using its people as human shields.
A NZ university student features in a British You Tuber’s video feed over the last few days. At a pro-Palestinian exhibition at one of our esteemed temples of higher learning which, as my week’s act of charity I will not name, a male international student asks the person on the booth to explain her pamphlets which claimed that Israel enacted ‘apartheid’ in Gaza and in Israel itself. He asked her if this was a fact she could speak to.
Sidebar: although this was on a university campus, amazingly they did not discuss preferred pronouns so I’m just going jump in and risk she/he, him/her because although the booth person sounded like an adult human female her face was pixilated out to avoid, I’m guessing, the embarrassment that occurs further on.
When he asks her for instances of Israeli apartheid, she mentions haltingly that Gazans are subjected to checkpoints when entering Israel and that their vehicles have different licence plates from Israeli ones. The man patiently points out that this is normal practice between different national jurisdictions.
At this point the booth operator waves her hands agitatedly and swivels her pixilated head from side to side clearly hoping for rescue by someone from her organisation with a better grip on outrage. But no help was forthcoming, and the conversation continued in a way that has been the least hostile of many I have seen on the subject. Indeed, the video so represented the trope of the inarticulate Kiwi meeting the voluble expressive foreigner that for a moment or two I thought I’d come across a Pythonesque skit.
But the camera work lacked finesse.
The man tells her that he is an Arab Israeli. One of the twenty percent of Arab citizens in that country. That he is guaranteed freedom of movement by virtue of his Israeli passport. He says that as a citizen of that state he can vote and be elected. He tells her that there was nothing to stop him from becoming the president. He goes on to say that Israel does not control Gaza. He mentions that Egypt other Arab states have closed their borders to Gaza because it does not want Hamas terrorists within their borders.
‘Ah Hamas. It’s rough,’ opines the student. I figure she must be studying Pol. Sci. to articulate that level of nuanced comment.
The Arab man says he recognises Israel has internal problems like New Zealand, but adds its main issues are the Hamas terrorists and the corrupt Palestinian Authority. He ends by saying, ‘Perhaps I cannot change your mind but at least ask some questions of the people who made you join this club.’
‘Club.’ Tee hee.
When he presses her for an explanation of how Israel has used apartheid she replies, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have that definition with me.’
The You Tuber has 319, 000 subscribers and this video of a pro-Palestinian NZ university student who left her definition of apartheid home that day has been viewed a quarter of a million times.
As an alumna of one of our nation’s universities I can say it was a proud moment.
Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives in NZ and France.
A NZ university student features in a British You Tuber’s video feed over the last few days. At a pro-Palestinian exhibition at one of our esteemed temples of higher learning which, as my week’s act of charity I will not name, a male international student asks the person on the booth to explain her pamphlets which claimed that Israel enacted ‘apartheid’ in Gaza and in Israel itself. He asked her if this was a fact she could speak to.
Sidebar: although this was on a university campus, amazingly they did not discuss preferred pronouns so I’m just going jump in and risk she/he, him/her because although the booth person sounded like an adult human female her face was pixilated out to avoid, I’m guessing, the embarrassment that occurs further on.
When he asks her for instances of Israeli apartheid, she mentions haltingly that Gazans are subjected to checkpoints when entering Israel and that their vehicles have different licence plates from Israeli ones. The man patiently points out that this is normal practice between different national jurisdictions.
At this point the booth operator waves her hands agitatedly and swivels her pixilated head from side to side clearly hoping for rescue by someone from her organisation with a better grip on outrage. But no help was forthcoming, and the conversation continued in a way that has been the least hostile of many I have seen on the subject. Indeed, the video so represented the trope of the inarticulate Kiwi meeting the voluble expressive foreigner that for a moment or two I thought I’d come across a Pythonesque skit.
But the camera work lacked finesse.
The man tells her that he is an Arab Israeli. One of the twenty percent of Arab citizens in that country. That he is guaranteed freedom of movement by virtue of his Israeli passport. He says that as a citizen of that state he can vote and be elected. He tells her that there was nothing to stop him from becoming the president. He goes on to say that Israel does not control Gaza. He mentions that Egypt other Arab states have closed their borders to Gaza because it does not want Hamas terrorists within their borders.
‘Ah Hamas. It’s rough,’ opines the student. I figure she must be studying Pol. Sci. to articulate that level of nuanced comment.
The Arab man says he recognises Israel has internal problems like New Zealand, but adds its main issues are the Hamas terrorists and the corrupt Palestinian Authority. He ends by saying, ‘Perhaps I cannot change your mind but at least ask some questions of the people who made you join this club.’
‘Club.’ Tee hee.
When he presses her for an explanation of how Israel has used apartheid she replies, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t have that definition with me.’
The You Tuber has 319, 000 subscribers and this video of a pro-Palestinian NZ university student who left her definition of apartheid home that day has been viewed a quarter of a million times.
As an alumna of one of our nation’s universities I can say it was a proud moment.
Penn Raine is an educator and writer who lives in NZ and France.
2 comments:
The clearly ignorant, naive and inarticulate NZ student (who doubtless attends Climate Protests in her spare time) is the perfect example of a woke acolyte.
When asked to logically explain their position on this or any issue, their standard reply is "Because!" It's the equivalent to "God said so" by a religious zealot, and there's not much difference between both groups when it comes to irrational responses and hypocrisy.
"Because" is a great answer for one so uninformed and bigoted. It's short, catchy, means nothing and perfectly encapsulates their dearth of knowledge.
Let's hope this student gets a real education while in the UK and learns something about the issue she is vehemently protesting about.
Not while she's at University though, that's for sure.
Israeli Army Forms 'Settler Militias' For Remote Communities;
The Israeli army is recruiting settlers who have not undergone military service in order to post them as "defense militiamen" in the settlements they reside in, Hebrew newspaper Haaretz reported on 2 November.
Haaretz states that since the start of the Gaza-Israel war on 7 October, the Israeli army has distributed around 8,000 weapons to "settlement defense squads."
"We will turn the world upside down so that towns are protected. I have given instructions for massively arming the civilian security teams to provide solutions for towns and cities," National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on October 10.
A UN report released on Wednesday says that hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the occupied West Bank. Just days ago, 141 Palestinians from the southern West Bank town of Khirbat Zanuta fled their homes after armed settlers threatened to kill them if they refused to leave.
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