Peter Myers Digest: Gen Z wakes up to Zionism

(1) Zionists wearing wearing black outfits and white masks attack UCLA Protestor Camp
(2) Zionist Mob Attacks Pro-Palestine Protesters at UCLA while Screaming ‘Second Nakba’
(3) Gen Z wakes up to Zionism and its Lobby
(4) The nationwide university protests against Israel’s action in Gaza are a defining moment for Gen Z
(5) Students are Anti-Murder
(6) Gen Z men wake up to Feminism’s attack on Men
(7) NHS Declares Sex a Biological Fact; ban Trans women from women-only wards

(1) Zionists wearing wearing black outfits and white masks attack UCLA Protestor Camp

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-30/ucla-moves-to-shut-down-pro-palestinian-encampment-as-unlawful

After violent protests at UCLA, UC president launches investigation into response
A person wields a baton during clashes between demonstrators at UCLA.

By Safi Nazzal, Teresa Watanabe, Ashley Ahn, Hannah Fry and Richard Winton
Published April 30, 2024 Updated May 1, 2024 1:52 PM PT

Hours of violence that unfolded overnight at a pro-Palestinian encampment set up on UCLA’s campus prompted administrators to cancel classes Wednesday and has triggered questions about authorities’ response.

In a letter to the University of California Board of Regents obtained by The Times, UC President Michael V. Drake wrote that there is “sufficient confusion” surrounding the violence and that he was ordering an independent review of the university’s planning, its actions and the response by law enforcement.

“I believe such a review can address many of my immediate questions but also help guide us for possible future events,” he wrote.

Just before midnight Wednesday, a large group of counterdemonstrators, wearing black outfits and white masks, arrived on campus and tried to tear down the barricades surrounding the encampment, which had been erected days earlier in a demand for divestment from Israel and an end to the country’s military actions in Gaza.

The unrest prompted L.A. Mayor Karen Bass — who was in Washington meeting with federal officials in her capacity as chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Homelessness — to return home early. She condemned the violence, saying on the social platform X that it was “absolutely abhorrent and inexcusable.”

Campers, some holding lumber and wearing goggles and helmets, rallied to defend the site’s perimeter. Earlier in the evening, UCLA had declared the camp “unlawful” and in violation of university policy.

Videos showed pyrotechnics being set off with at least one firework thrown into the camp. Over several hours, counterdemonstrators hurled objects, including wood and a metal barrier, at the camp and those inside. Fights repeatedly broke out. Some tried to force their way into the camp, and the pro-Palestinian side used pepper spray to defend themselves.

A group of security guards observed the clashes but did not move in to stop them. Police eventually cleared the area around 3 a.m.

Students, professors and the broader community have criticized UCLA administrators and law enforcement for not intervening faster.

“What we’ve just witnessed was the darkest day in my 32 years at UCLA,” said David Myers, a professor of Jewish history at UCLA who is working on initiatives to bridge differences on campus. He called the situation a “complete and total systems failure at the university, city and state levels.”

“Those in the encampment were defenseless in the face of a violent band of thugs. And no one, wherever they stand politically, is safer today,” Myers said.

At least 15 people were injured, officials said. A 26-year-old man suffering from a head injury was taken to the hospital by paramedics, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. Inside the camp, students were tending to one another, treating eye irritation and other wounds.

UCLA officials decried the violence and said they had requested help from the Los Angeles Police Department. It is unclear whether police made any arrests. UCLA police did not respond to a request for comment, and a spokesperson for LAPD declined to comment Wednesday.

“Horrific acts of violence occurred at the encampment tonight and we immediately called law enforcement for mutual aid support. The fire department and medical personnel are on the scene. We are sickened by this senseless violence and it must end,” Mary Osako, vice chancellor for UCLA strategic communications, said in a statement early Wednesday.

A law enforcement source told The Times that the LAPD reached out to campus police shortly after the violence broke out. They were told to not bring in anti-riot police, but eventually UCLA agreed to accept help from the larger police force. The discussion unfolded over several hours until officers with the LAPD and California Highway Patrol were given the green light to intervene around 1 a.m., the source said.

Around 1:40 a.m., police officers in riot gear arrived, and some counterprotesters began to leave. But the police did not immediately break up the clashes at the camp, which continued despite the law enforcement presence.

“The limited and delayed campus law enforcement response at UCLA last night was unacceptable — and it demands answers,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said in a statement.

A camp representative said the counterdemonstrators repeatedly pushed over barricades that mark the boundaries of the encampment, and some campers said they were hit by a substance they thought was pepper spray. As counterprotesters attempted to pull down the wood boards surrounding the encampment, at least one person could be heard yelling, “Second nakba!” referring to the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Daily Bruin News Editor Catherine Hamilton said she was sprayed with some type of irritant and repeatedly punched in the chest and upper abdomen as she was reporting on the unrest. Another student journalist was pushed to the ground by counterprotesters and was beaten and kicked for nearly a minute, she said. Hamilton was treated at a hospital and released.

“I truly did not expect to be directly assaulted. I know that these individuals — at least the individual who initiated the mobilization against us — knew that we were journalists,” she said. “And while I did not think that protected us from harassment, I thought that might have [prevented us from being] assaulted. I was mistaken.”

Around 3 a.m., a line of officers arrived at the camp and pushed the remaining counterprotesters out of the quad area. The police told people to leave or face arrest.

1A Pro-Palestinian protester bleeds from his head after clashing with pro-Israeli
2A pro-Palestinian protestor gets his eyes washed after getting maced by pro-Israeli
3A pro-Palestinian protester washes his eyes from mace

Ananya Roy, a professor of urban planning, social welfare and geography, echoed concerns about the university’s lack of response when faced with a violent counterprotest.

“It gives people impunity to come to our campus as a rampaging mob,” she said. “The word is out they can do this repeatedly and get away with it. I am ashamed of my university.”

Hours after the violent episode, students on campus were still shaken. Campus security and the CHP were working to fortify all entrances into the encampment area.

Hannah Appel, assistant professor of anthropology at UCLA, stood at a staircase adjacent to Royce Hall where she allowed people bringing medical supplies, clothing and water into the encampment area.

“Because of the escalated violence last night, we have to be very vigilant and careful about who can come in and out,” Appel said behind a makeshift barricade.

Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes the UCLA campus, criticized university administration in a statement Wednesday, saying they had failed to protect their students.

“The horrific acts of violence against UCLA students and demonstrators that occurred on campus last night are abhorrent and have no place in Los Angeles or in our democracy,” Zbur said. “No matter how strongly one may disagree with or be offended by the anti-Israel demonstrators’ messages, tactics, or goals, violence is never acceptable and those responsible must be held accountable.”

The Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, condemned the violence, which it said was carried out by a “mob of pro-Israel extremists.” CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush called on law enforcement to identify and hold accountable those who participated and for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to investigate the police response.

“Last night’s attack on UCLA students supporting Palestine was only the latest incident of violence against them. In recent days, pro-Israel extremists directed racial slurs and sexual threats at students, spat on a student and released a pack of mice into the encampment,” Ayloush said in a statement. […]

(2) Zionist Mob Attacks Pro-Palestine Protesters at UCLA while Screaming ‘Second Nakba’

https://www.informationliberation.com/?id=64427

Chris Menahan

InformationLiberation

May. 01, 2024

Zionist thugs were filmed violently attacking pro-Palestine protesters while screaming “Second Nakba!” at UCLA late Tuesday night.

“200+ pro-Israel counterprotestors are attacking the @UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment,” the Los Angeles Times’ Teresa Watanabe reported. “They started beating on one student and stomped another under a plywood board per @latimes @safinazzal on the scene. Where is UCLA security?”

“Pro-Israel counterprotestors started tearing down @UCLA encampment barriers and screamed ‘Second nakba!’ referring to the mass displacement & dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war,” she said in another tweet.

A pro-Palestine protester was smashed in the head with a metal baton, according to a witness.

[The video is being blocked from being embedded directly by Elon Musk’s Twitter for “graphic content.”]

Police eventually arrived on the scene early Wednesday morning but let the Zionists continue to attack the pro-Palestine protesters:

No doubt these Zionist thugs’ actions will get the same hysterical coverage as the Zionist student activist who laughably claimed a week ago that she was “stabbed in the eye” by a pro-Palestine protester.

(3) Gen Z wake up to Zionism and its Lobby

I’m proud of them – Peter M.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/04/08/biden-israel-funding-gen-z-voters-election/73149323007/

Gen Z wants no part of Biden’s unceasing support of Israel as civilian deaths in Gaza mount

A whole generation is coming of age, and some of us are questioning the years of funding the U.S. has sent to Israel.

<https://www.nyclu.org/en/press-releases/nyclu-and-palestine-legal-sue-columbia-university-over-student-group-suspension> Cameron Jones is a sophomore at Columbia University. He has family in Israel and has visited more than once, but he’s also a member of the college’s chapter of <https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/> Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and a vocal opponent of Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

His family abroad doesn’t know about the organizing he’s done, nor do they know that he is one of the plaintiffs in a <https://www.nyclu.org/en/cases/columbia-students-justice-palestine-jewish-voice-peace-v-columbia-university> lawsuit against Columbia after the <https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/11/10/columbia-suspends-sjp-and-jvp-following-unauthorized-thursday-walkout/> JVP chapter was suspended in November.

Since Hamas strikes prompted Israel to begin attacking Gaza on Oct. 7, Jones and other students – mostly queer people, people of color and women – have been organizing to demand Columbia divest from companies and institutions that support Israel.

“I feel as though I have more of a duty to stand up against what is wrong,” Jones told me.

<https://www.barrons.com/news/health-ministry-in-hamas-run-gaza-says-war-death-toll-at-32-916-cfdbe184> Almost 33,000 Palestinians have died in the past six months. The images and information coming out of the Gaza Strip, like the <https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/chef-jose-andres-says-israel-targeted-his-aid-workers-systematically-car-by-car-2024-04-03/> Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers last week, have been difficult to see.

Calling for an end to the conflict is important to the nation’s youngest voters, and President Joe Biden needs to take a firm stance on the issue ahead of the election. He is one of the most powerful men in the world; what he says can impact how Israel is seen by its peers. If the president called for a cease-fire, even a short-term one, it would likely be taken seriously by Israel. Biden has <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/04/biden-israel-gaza-civilians/73205771007/> come out against the dangers that civilians in the region are facing, but it’s not enough.

Polls show Gen Z supports Palestine

If your social media feed is anything like mine, you’ve seen documentation of the catastrophe – of buildings after bombings, families in refugee camps and glimpses into the lives of people who have died.

The cause has even reached dating apps, where users are specifying their stances on Gaza or simply including the Palestinian flag in their bios.

<https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/world/2024/04/01/shifa-hospital-in-gaza-left-in-ruins-after-israel-ends-2-week-siege/73168501007/> This social media campaign is probably why so many young voters are supporting Palestinians compared with previous flare-ups in the region.

In a <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/opinion/netanyahu-biden-israel-gaza.html> New York Times/Siena poll from December, 55% of respondents ages 18-29 oppose the United States sending more aid to Israel. Another poll from <https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3884> Quinnipiac University in November found that 52% of voters under 35 are more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

However, not everyone in this demographic is on the same page. An <https://www.kqed.org/news/11964499/new-poll-shows-strong-american-support-for-israel-amid-generational-racial-divides> NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll conducted in October shows that 48% of millennials and Generation Z think the country should publicly support Israel, while 12% of this group think that the United States should publicly criticize Israel.

A whole generation is coming of age, and some of us are questioning the years of funding our government has sent to Israel. The United States has given <https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-israel/#:~:text=Since%20its%20founding%20in%201948,joint%20exercises%2C%20and%20helping%20Israel> $130 billion worth of aid since Israel’s founding after World War II.

Last year, we sent Israel <https://theintercept.com/2023/12/28/israel-us-taxes-gaza-war/> $3.8 billion in military assistance. After the Hamas attacks, Biden requested <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2023/10/19/biden-congress-funding-israel-ukraine-border-security/71240318007/> an additional $14 billion for Israel.

We want to know why we are still sending money despite the horrific scenes playing out in front of us. We don’t want to be complicit in the human rights violations we are seeing on social media every day.

For some, the conflict is personal

<https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024/02/19/columbia-doesnt-just-not-care-about-its-studentsit-puts-them-in-harms-way-to-advance-its-own-interests/> Layla Saliba is a graduate student at Columbia University and a Palestinian American. Multiple family members of hers have died in Gaza since Oct. 7.

She and Jones said they have been the targets of harassment because of their activism on behalf of Palestinians. Both told me they’ve appeared on <https://www.thenation.com/article/world/canary-mission-israel-covert-operations/> Canary Mission, a website that exposes personal information of Gaza supporters. Saliba said she had to block one Columbia professor who harassed her on X, formerly Twitter.

Saliba, who grew up wary of talking about her Palestinian background, noted that she has seen more pro-Palestinian conversation in recent months than ever before.

“It’s the first time we’re seeing something like this on social media, on our phones, every day,” Saliba told me. “And I think the level of death and destruction we’re witnessing – I don’t think the human brain is designed to deal with that. And this is something that is being funded by our tax dollars.”

With no cease-fire in Gaza,<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/03/10/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestinians-displaced-ramadan/72899137007/> Muslims like me struggle with guilt and rage this Ramadan

Jones, on the other hand, is one of many <https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/hundreds-jewish-organization-staffers-call-white-house-back-gaza-cease-rcna128465> young Jewish Americans who have been organizing to support the Palestinian people and bring attention to the cause through <https://time.com/6335528/jewish-american-ceasefire-progressive-jews/> acts of civil disobedience that have disrupted travel routes and daily routines.

Hundreds of young employees at Jewish organizations have <https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQ1EFVMTDvaxvWXldzbZvr60BE5o3UQeU_WfiXX3ivcUVU1SAYU13wZsBhDVbmtbXmKejMNajY1xSQ1/pub> signed a letter addressed to Biden and Congress demanding a cease-fire.

For Jones, the claim that criticizing Israel is antisemitic is “disheartening.” He noted that it makes it difficult to call out “actual” antisemitism in the process.

“People are going about calling ‘anti-Zionism’ antisemitism, wearing a (traditional Palestinian scarf) kaffiyeh antisemitic,” Jones told me. “All these things that really aren’t antisemitism, but they’re painting it as that.”

Even as a person without direct ties to Israel or Gaza, conversations have been fraught. It’s frustrating that some people won’t engage in genuine conversation about the destruction we’re seeing on a regular basis. It’s draining to face the reality of war as it unfolds and upsetting to know that we have contributed to that suffering.

Biden should be paying attention to all of this

Biden and his campaign staff should be taking the call to action seriously. Voters in Michigan showed their disapproval of Biden’s inaction in the region by voting “<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/02/29/biden-election-campaign-michigan-uncommitted-vote/72777371007/> uncommitted” in the state’s Democratic primary. Since then, voters in <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/03/05/super-tuesday-uncommitted-vote-states/72858017007/> other states have used the protest vote as a means of voicing their feelings on Gaza.

Gen Z progressives are also trying to get Biden’s attention. In March, a <https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2024/03/06/biden-state-of-the-union-ignore-progressives-gen-z-voters/72858074007/> coalition of youth movements sent a letter to the president outlining the youth agenda. It included an ask of Biden to call for a cease-fire. <https://genzforchange.org/2023/02/06/youth-groups-issue-joint-statement-ahead-of-sotu-warn-biden-to-deliver-for-our-generation-or-risk-2024/> Gen Z for Change, one of the groups involved, has also been helping voters email their elected officials in support of a cease-fire.

Gaza is redefining the Christian vote.<https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2024/04/05/christian-voters-gaza-ceasefire-biden-trump-election/73180868007/> Biden and Trump better listen.

Recently, the president acknowledged some pro-Palestinian protesters at a rally in North Carolina, saying that they “<https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-reacts-palestinian-protesters-point-rcna145181> have a point” and that more care is needed in Gaza. Vice President Kamala Harris is on record supporting a <https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/kamala-harris-gaza-speech-watered-down-cease-fire-rcna141750> six-week cease-fire. Both are steps in the right direction.

On the other hand, Biden is the sitting president of a world power. When he speaks, other leaders listen. Because of this, he needs to take an active stance in support of a cease-fire in the region. It isn’t enough to have Harris deliver the message.

We just want to know why our tax dollars are supporting this and how we can do something about all of the tragedy we are seeing in real time, day in and day out, since Oct. 7. The president could ensure more votes in the fall if he takes our concerns seriously.

(4) The nationwide university protests against Israel’s action in Gaza are a defining moment for Gen Z

https://fortune.com/2024/04/24/gen-z-university-protests-israel-columbia-yale-gaza-defining-moment/

BY CHLOE BERGER

April 25, 2024 at 6:13 AM GMT+10

What makes a generation? It’s not their mercurial takes on jean length and rise; what corny emojis they choose; or even what they eat, drink, and watch—at least that’s not the main gist of it. Rather, it’s about how a cohort of like-aged people choose to respond to the sociopolitical events around them.

And Gen Z are in just such a defining moment, as thousands of college students protest against the institutional backing of Israel, which continues to strike Gaza, causing devastation and killing more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children. After decades of occupation, Israel launched its current campaign in Gaza after a Hamas-led militant group attacked several Israeli bases and civilian communities on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in over a thousand deaths and hundreds of people captured.

Recently, the pressure between U.S. school administrations and students has come to a head after Columbia University president Minouche Shafik authorized the NYPD to clear out the campus’s encampment of students protesting the war in Gaza. Last week, hundreds of students began to camp out on the university’s main lawn, calling for it to divest from Israel.

“I took this extraordinary step because these are extraordinary circumstances,” Shafik said in a statement. “The individuals who established the encampment violated a long list of rules and policies.” She claimed that the demonstration “severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students.”

HAPPENING NOW: Columbia students have formed a human chain around the Palestine solidarity encampment at Columbia University <http://pic.twitter.com/ZX6FXwqrR5> pic.twitter.com/ZX6FXwqrR5
— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) April 18, 2024

lmao Cal Poly Humboldt students don’t PLAY! <http://pic.twitter.com/2Ib5wqRSXT> pic.twitter.com/2Ib5wqRSXT
— Joni (@poetryc0mmunity) April 23, 2024

Known as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, the sit-in is still taking place despite Shafik’s recent involvement of the police, which led to the subsequent arrest of 100 people. As the semester winds down, protestors don’t seem to be going anywhere—and Columbia has since implemented a hybrid model for the remainder of the school year, so students can avoid the demonstrations if they so choose.

“Columbia has shown over and over again that they don’t care about student rights, they don’t care about student voices, they don’t care about student safety,” Aidan Parisi, a pro-Palestianian protesters, told CBS.

Columbia’s administration issued a deadline for protestors in the encampment to leave the premises and has since pushed it back by 48 hours to speak with campus representatives.

“I felt like I had to take a stand,” Isra Hirsi, daughter of Ilhan Omar and student at Barnard College who was arrested and barred from campus after protesting, told Time. “It’s a moment for everybody. It’s important for all of us as students at prestigious universities to really shed light on what is going on.”

Last session of my “Spatial Exclusion and Planning” class with amazing students and colleagues at the students’ “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” @Columbia ????? @ColumbiaGSAPP @gsapp_planning <http://pic.twitter.com/z646kalewF> pic.twitter.com/z646kalewF
— Hiba Bou Akar (@hibabouakar) April 23, 2024

Similar demonstrations have cropped up across the country in response to Shafik’s actions against what the NYPD itself called peaceful protests. While clashes might be centered at Columbia, the whole unfolding has caused a ripple effect. Students from Yale, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and other universities have set up similar encampments; some, like Harvard University and Miami University, are staging walkouts. Dozens of students have been arrested at Yale, and hundreds of protestors, both faculty and undergrads, were arrested at New York University.

Happening right now – Students for Palestine are starting an occupation of Sydney University. Acting as they can to try and stop a genocide, and acting at an institution that shamelessly benefits from weapons $$$ <http://pic.twitter.com/QSCWUhpTK3> pic.twitter.com/QSCWUhpTK3
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) April 23, 2024

BREAKING: USC STUDENTS START GAZA SOLIDARITY OCCUPATION THIS MORNING

Colleges around the country are rising up for justice in Palestine! USC Divest From Death Coalition has announced their occupation of USC’s Alumni Park.

LOS ANGELES GET HERE NOW! Students need your support! <http://pic.twitter.com/nMnZhdFDSS> pic.twitter.com/nMnZhdFDSS
— People’s City Council – Los Angeles (@PplsCityCouncil) April 24, 2024

The pot continues to boil as barricades that impede protestors from gathering crop up at NYU—and California State Polytechnic University students create their own barricade inside a campus building. It’s gone global, as Australian students at Sydney University join in calling on their institution to divest.

NYPD is arresting peaceful protesters at NYU campus (among them faculty member professor @sinanantoon) <http://pic.twitter.com/U17xOOHvCD> pic.twitter.com/U17xOOHvCD
— Jamil Dakwar (@jdakwar) April 23, 2024

…and the tents are up at UC Berkeley <http://pic.twitter.com/BIqvWvBFmg> pic.twitter.com/BIqvWvBFmg
— MIR (Everyone for Everyone) (@MarxNetwork) April 22, 2024

Some counterprotests have cropped up as well. Outside the gates of Columbia, alumni, people not related to the campus, and even Rudy Giuliani have made their opinions about the on-campus protests known. But as students note, what’s happening on the inside is a more peaceful representation of discourse than the cultural war that is forming over the Ivy League’s actions.

Many say administrations’ actions are encroaching on free speech, while others claim they’re enabling anti-Semitism. “What we are witnessing in and around campus is terrible and tragic,” said Elie Buechler, rabbi for Columbia and Barnard’s Hillel, who directed students to go home and claimed Columbia and the NYPD “cannot guarantee Jewish students’ safety in the face of extreme anti-Semitism and anarchy.”

Despite allegations to the contrary, many of the protestors have expressed that their desire to fight for divestment is not attached to anti-Semitism. Many protestors who are Jewish are pushing back against the conflation of Zionism and their religion. Demonstrators have distanced their cause from anti-Semitism, as Columbia University Apartheid Divest and Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine released a statement that non-student protestors at the campus door are “inflammatory individuals who do not represent us,” adding, “We firmly reject any form of hate or bigotry and stand vigilant against non-students attempting to disrupt the solidarity being forged among students.”

“What’s clear from spending time at these protests is that there isn’t one unified, monolithic Jewish voice,” said NPR reporter Jasmine Garsd after speaking to Columbia students.

It’s become an issue of free speech, as academics have become involved. More than 1,400 academics issued an open letter stating that they would boycott future Columbia events if top officials like Shafik did not resign and remove NYPD from campus. Some faculty walked out in support of protestors with signs that called for “hands off our students.”

“I think we all have to speak out because none of us are safe until all of us are safe,” Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, associate professor at the University of New Hampshire, told the Columbia Spectator. “And the tactics that are being used at Columbia University can very well be used at any of our institutions, so we need to defend academic freedom right now because it’s on the line at Columbia.”

Massive faculty walkout at @Columbia opposing the university’s decision to call in NYPD on Palestine solidarity protests: <http://pic.twitter.com/DcCSxObtx9> pic.twitter.com/DcCSxObtx9
— Bassam Khawaja (@Bassam_Khawaja) April 22, 2024

At an Earth Day event, President Biden touched on the concentric circles of protests. “I condemn the anti-Semitic protests,” he said. “I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.”

College students protesting against institutions is by no means a new story. But now it’s Gen Z’s turn to carry the torch, passed on by advocates from generations before them. Youth activism is baked into the nation’s democracy, especially in colleges. It has led to important, notable events like the Fisk University protests, wherein students pushed back against Jim Crow–era racial discrimination, or the Kent State University protests, where students rallying against the Vietnam War led to Ohio’s National Guard killing four students and wounding nine others.

Columbia itself has a history of student advocacy that stretches back decades, CBS News points out. Boomers mobilized as part of the 1968 Vietnam War protests, which police disbanded after a week. Gen Xers held antiapartheid protests in 1984 where students also called for divestment from South Africa. And millennials and older Gen Zers pushed back on the university’s policy on sexual assault in 2014 and climate change in 2019.

“Protests have a storied history at Columbia and are an essential component of free speech in America and on our campus,” said Shafik, who recently has received pressure regarding an Congressional investigation of anti-Semitism on campus. But she claimed that the campus protest policy was not being upheld by those in the encampment. “The current encampment violates all of the new policies, severely disrupts campus life, and creates a harassing and intimidating environment for many of our students.”

UT Austin right now. Protesters and DPS in a standoff on the main drag of campus <http://pic.twitter.com/OipxvXDbWC> pic.twitter.com/OipxvXDbWC
— Ryan Chandler (@RyanChandlerTV) April 24, 2024

Even so, the NYPD seems to offer a different account of said demonstrators. “To put this in perspective, the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a peaceful manner,” Chief John Chell told the Spectator.

Pro-Palestine Gen Zers seemingly remain resolute despite their institutions’ pushback. “It’s easy to look back at history and look back at the moral and political conflicts that have gripped the country and the world throughout history and discern what side you would have liked to have been on,” Elijah Bacal, a student and member of Yale Jews for Ceasefire, told ABC News. “But the hard thing is to, in the moment, seize on those opportunities to do the right thing and have the courage to stand up for what you think and know is right. I think we are on the right side of history here.”

(5) Students are Anti-Murder

From: papjimbob@suddenlink.net
Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2024 23:22:15 -0400 (EDT)

Letter to the Editor

April 29, 2024

Sir:

The American main-stream media (a.k.a. Tel Aviv TV) is bent on portraying the student protests going on these days as “anti-Semitic” behavior. In fact, the students are expressing anti-murder views. They are reminding the world of the thirty thousand innocent Palestinian civilians that have recently been murdered by the military of Israel that is commanded by one evil man. They are reminding the world that this same evil man is threatening to murder tens of thousands more innocent Palestinian civilians in the near future. This is terrorism, plain-and-simple.

America, in the past, has been a beacon of light and hope for freedom and peace throughout the world. We have sought to be a good model for the rest of the world to seek to emulate. I have always been proud to call myself a loyal American. In fact, I risked my life because of that loyalty when I volunteered for service in the U.S.Army during the Vietnam War. I did my bit in honor of my many uncles who fought and suffered in World War Two.

Now I am ashamed of our government’s participation, by proxy, in Israel’s mass-murder of innocent Palestinians. I am confident that the vast majority of our regular citizens are also aghast about what our government is allowing to be done. If I were in President Biden’s position, I would send our 82nd Airborne troops over to Gaza to protect the innocent civilians there. That would send a clear message to the evil man that he could not ignore. That would prevent further genocide over there.

James H. Dautremont
Greenville

(6) Gen Z men wake up to Feminism’s attack on Men

A Huge Gender Gap Is Emerging Among Young Voters

May 1, 2024

By Thomas B. Edsall

It has become clear that one constituency — young voters, 18 to 29 years old — will play a key, if not pivotal, role in determining who will win the Biden-Trump rematch.

Four years ago, according to exit polls, voters in this age group kept Trump from winning re-election. They cast ballots decisively supporting Biden, 60-36, helping to give him a 4.46-point victory among all voters, 51.31 percent to 46.85 percent.

This year, Biden cannot count on winning Gen Z by such a large margin. There is substantial variance in poll data reported for the youth vote, but to take one example, the NBC News national survey from April found Trump leading 43 to 42.

Young voters’ loyalty to the Democratic Party has been frayed by two distinct factors: opposition to the intensity of the Israeli attack on Hamas in Gaza and frustration with an economy many see as stacked against them.

Equally important, a large gender gap has emerged, with young men far less likely to support Biden than young women. […]

Richard Reeves, who wrote the book “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters and What to Do about It,” argued in a January essay posted on his Substack:

In the centrifugal dynamic of culture-war politics, the more the right goes to one extreme, the more the left must go to the other, and vice versa. The left dismisses biology; the right leans too heavily on it. The left see a war on girls and women; the right see a war on boys and men. The left pathologizes masculinity; the right pathologizes feminism.

In this context, Reeves wrote, “Young men see feminism as having metastasized from a movement for equality for women into a movement against men, or at least against masculinity.”

In an article published in January on the Business Insider website, “The War Within Gen Z,” Daniel A. Cox, the director of the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute, wrote:

Something strange is happening between Gen Z men and women. Over the past decade, poll after poll has found that young people are growing more and more divided by gender on a host of political issues. Since 2014, women between the ages of 18 and 29 have steadily become more liberal each year, while young men have not. Today, female Gen Zers are more likely than their male counterparts to vote, care more about political issues and participate in social movements and protests.

Cox noted that “at no time in the past quarter-century has there been such a rapid divergence between the views of young men and women,” suggesting that “something more significant is going on than just new demographic patterns, such as rising rates of education or declining adherence to a religion — the change points to some kind of cataclysmal event.”

After interviewing young voters, Cox and his colleagues at the A.E.I. survey center concluded:

Among women, no event was more influential to their political development than the #MeToo movement. In 2017, women around the world began speaking out about their experiences with sexual assault and harassment. Gen Zers were then in high school and college, and for them, the movement came at a formative moment.

But, Cox continued:

while women were rallying together, many Gen Z men began to feel like society was turning against them. As recently as 2019, less than one-third of young men said that they faced discrimination, according to Pew, but today, close to half of young men believe they face at least some discrimination. In a 2020 survey by the research organization P.R.R.I., half of men agreed with the statement: “These days society seems to punish men just for acting like men.”

For a growing percentage of young men, Cox wrote:

Feminism has less to do with promoting gender equality and more to do with simply attacking men. A 2022 survey by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that 46 percent of Democratic men under 50 agreed that feminism has done more harm than good, and even more Republican men agreed.

More young men, he added, “are adopting a zero-sum view of gender equality — if women gain, men will inevitably lose.”

How does this translate into politics?

According to Cox:

While women have turned to the left for answers to their problems, men are finding support on the right. Trump helped redefine conservatism as a distinctly masculine ideology, stoking grievances and directing young men’s frustration toward liberals and feminists. There are signs the message is resonating: Republican affiliation among white men aged 18 to 24 jumped from 28 percent in 2019 to 41 percent in 2023, according to a Harvard Youth Poll.

On April 8, McInturff published a report, “Key Data by Generation,” on his firm’s website:

“We are witnessing a profound generational break,” he wrote, “between Generation Z versus the baby boomers that is already reshaping our country, its values, media habits and its politics.”

At the outset, McInturff compared the values of Gen Z respondents ages 18 to 26 with those of the baby boomers, now 59 to 77.

Some 76 percent of baby boomers placed a high value on patriotism; for Gen Z, it was 32 percent. Nearly two-thirds of baby boomers, 65 percent, highly valued religion and their belief in God; Gen Z, 26 percent. Having kids: baby boomers, 52 percent; Gen Z, 23 percent. Asked if they agreed that “America is the best place to live,” 66 percent of boomers said yes, double the 33 percent of 18-to-26-year-olds.

In other words, the youngest voters are, at least for the moment, disaffected from traditional notions of family, country and religion.

Even so, young voters as a whole are decidedly more liberal on specific policies and issues than their elders.

On gay marriage, according to McInturff’s data, 84 percent of voters 18 to 34 were in favor, compared with 51 percent of voters 65 and over. Ending transgender discrimination: young, 55 percent; old, 24 percent. Climate change: 64 to 39. Cutting the defense budget, 48 to 24.

One particular issue is currently working against Biden and Democrats among young voters.

“The Israel/Hamas war in Gaza reflects one of the sharpest policy differences by age we have seen over a 40-year period,” McInturff wrote. “President Biden’s support for Israel has collapsed his standing with one of his key and previously most supportive subgroups, 18-to-29-year-old voters.”

McInturff compared data on voters 18 to 34 in two categories: surveys conducted from January to September 2023, before the war began, and surveys conducted after it started, from November 2023 to January 2024.

The shift among these young voters is terrible news for the Biden campaign. In the pre-Gaza polling, young voters backed Biden by 29 points, 61 to 32. In the post-Gaza surveys, Biden’s advantage over Trump fell to four points, 45 to 41.

If the decline in young people’s support for Democrats holds through Election Day, it will be a major setback for Democratic strategists who, before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, were banking on what appeared to be a secure partisan commitment by Gen Zers and millennials to the Democratic Party. […]

(7) NHS Declares Sex a Biological Fact; ban Trans women from women-only wards

NHS Declares Sex to Be Biological Fact in Landmark Shift Against Gender Ideology

NHS Declares Sex to Be Biological Fact in Landmark Shift Against Gender Ideology

BY WILL JONES

30 APRIL 2024 5:00 PM

The NHS is to declare that sex is a matter of biology in a landmark shift against gender ideology. The Telegraph <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/30/nhs-sex-biological-landmark-shift-against-gender-ideology/> has more.

Changes to the health service’s written constitution proposed by Ministers will for the first time <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/10/02/trans-women-to-be-banned-from-female-hospital-wards/> ban trans women from women-only wards, and give women the right to request a female doctor for intimate care.

The NHS constitution, a document that aims to set out the principles and values of the health service and legal rights for patients and staff, was last updated in 2015. It has to be updated at least every 10 years by the Secretary of State.

Campaigners for women’s rights welcomed the significant shift, which comes after years of wrangling and follows accusations that the health service had been captured by ‘gender ideology’.

In 2021, NHS guidance said <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/02/10/nurses-sacked-speaking-transgender-patients-single-sex-wards/> trans patients could be placed in single-sex wards based on the gender with which they identified.

The new constitution will state: “We are defining sex as biological sex.”

The clarification means that the right to a single-sex ward means patients would “not have to share sleeping accommodation <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/26/nhs-hospitals-mixed-sex-wards-treatment-increase/> with patients of the opposite biological sex”.

Until now, no commitment was made to biological sex, meaning some female patients complained that they were forced to share sleeping space with trans women – those who are born male but identify as female.

Women’s rights campaigners said the move was a “return to common sense and an overdue recognition that women’s wellbeing and safety matter.”

However, NHS leaders raised concerns that the health service was being “dragged into a pre-election culture wars debate”.

The changes to the constitution are a <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/16/rishi-sunak-amend-equality-act-single-sex-spaces-sport/> further indication of a change in attitudes after the Cass review into the NHS’s gender identity services found evidence that allowing children to change gender was built on weak foundations.

Worth <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/30/nhs-sex-biological-landmark-shift-against-gender-ideology/> reading in full.