Columbia College activists are planning a protest of Veterans Day — which organizers need to “reclaim” from the “Israel-US wr machine” within the title of Palestinians killed in Gaza.
The unsanctioned scholar group Columbia College Apartheid Divest is circulating flyers for the occasion — set for Monday on the Ivy League faculty’s essential Morningside Heights campus.
“Veterans Day is an American vacation to honor the patriotism, love of nation, and sacrifice of veterans. We reject this vacation and refuse to have a good time it,” a flyer for the agitator group’s occasion mentioned.
“The American struggle machine shouldn’t be honored for the horrors unleashed on others,” the flyer added. “As an alternative, we’ll have a good time Martyrs Day in honor of these martyred by the Israel-US struggle machine. A day to honor the patriotism, love of nation, and sacrifice of these martyrs.”
Campus veterans outraged by the plans are planning a celebration of veterans on the similar time to counter the antagonists.
The protest was considered as a slap within the face after the on-campus vitriol sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on Israel — a lot of which wound up directed at student-veterans.
“That publish actually shook the hornet’s nest,” mentioned Sam Nahin, a 31-year-old Air Drive veteran and Columbia graduate scholar who accomplished his undergraduate on the faculty within the spring.
“They’ve by no means hid their disdain for veterans. However now it’s actually out within the open,” he added. “Final 12 months when college students and college members have been working round dressing up as jihadist and screaming loss of life to America, loss of life to western civilization, loss of life to all the pieces however their trigger, I had mates get referred to as infidels, and murderers and child killers.”
Most regarding to Nahil is the impact one thing like a “Martyrs Day” demonstration might need on the psychological well being of his fellow campus vets following such a tumultuous 12 months — particularly after considered one of his finest mates from faculty took his personal life simply months in the past.
That good friend was Brandon Christie, a US Marine Corps veteran who was engaged on a undergraduate diploma in mathematics-statistics when he stopped going to class within the weeks after Oct. 7 final 12 months.
Christie finally dropped out of college altogether, and after vanishing in September was discovered useless apparently by his personal hand in an upstate park days later.
“This has all been actually detrimental in the direction of the psychological well being of veterans, and simply nothing was actually being executed about it,” Nahil mentioned.
Nahil — who has acted as an unofficial liaison between the college’s giant veterans group of greater than 700 college students — raised such considerations to directors after discovering out concerning the “Martyrs Day” plans, and on Sunday had a “significant” name with Columbia’s interim-president Katrina Armstrong, he mentioned.
“After I informed President Armstrong that about what occurred final 12 months, she actually gave the impression to be very stunned by it,” he mentioned.
Armstrong was appointed interim-president in August after her predecessor Minouche Shafik stepped down over her dealing with of a collection of anti-Israel demonstrations, which escalated into violence and destruction till the NYPD was compelled to raid a barricaded campus constructing in April.
The varsity informed The Submit that it stands by its veterans group — the most important of all Ivy League faculties — and downplayed the attain of the “Martyrs Day” organizers.
“We’re conscious {that a} small group has referred to as for an illustration tomorrow, and our public security group is monitoring for any disruptions to campus exercise,” a campus spokesperson informed The Submit. “As all the time, we’re dedicated to preserving our core mission to show, create, and advance data.”
Columbia College Apartheid Divest didn’t reply to request for remark.
The group’s flyer has made its rounds outdoors of campus — together with to some New York lawmakers who reacted with disgust.
“Any effort to dishonor our veterans is disgraceful and have to be confronted head-on. Columbia College can not enable these un-American terrorist supporters to insult the courageous women and men who defended our freedoms,” mentioned Queens Councilman Robert Holden, who noticed the flyer.
“These lunatics won’t reclaim Veterans Day — not right now, not ever,” he added.
Further reporting by Carl Campanile
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