'You Change Your Testimony?': Elise Stefanik Rapid-Fire Questions Columbia University's President At today's House Education Committee hearing, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) grilled Columbia University President Minouche ...
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As a life-long academic, I'm still smarting from watching Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, being bullied during her nearly four-hour testimony before the Republican-led Committee on Education and the Workforce.
The House committee was convened to uncover anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses in the context of students protesting the genocide taking place before our eyes in Gaza and on the West Bank.
It was embarrassing to see President Shafik grovel before congress-members who evidently know nothing about higher education. Adopting her best baby fundie voice and attitude, she squirmed, smiled, and assured her interrogators that student "mobs" protesting Zionist genocide would be duly restricted and professors exposing students to Palestinian history and viewpoints would be fired.
Previously, the committee exuding full redolence of the McCarthy era, had been successful in forcing the resignations of the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania. The resignations resulted from the women's alleged failures to restrict student demonstrations on their campuses against the slaughter taking place in Palestine over the past six months.
Evidently, the intention in grilling president Shafik was to add a third victim to their list of forced presidential resignations.
While my disappointment with the Colombia president was real, my heart went out to the poor woman. She seemed intimidated, anxious to please, fawning, and frankly fearful of losing her job.
Imagine having to answer questions like the one posed by Representative Lisa McClain (R Michigan). She demanded a "yes or no" answer to her question: "Are mobs shouting, 'From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,' or 'long live the infanttada (sic)' - are those antisemitic comments. Yes or no?
In response, poor Ms. Shafik was at a complete loss for words.
She shouldn't have been.
As an academic, she should have had the wherewithal to say, "Ms. McClain, that's not a yes or no question. It's like the old saw, "'Yes or no, are you still beating your wife?' Or like my asking you, 'Tell me, yes or no, are you still accepting bribes from the military-industrial complex.' I mean, it's either a trick gotcha question or (with all due respect) an ignorant one. The answer is complicated.
"For example, Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed the slogan 'From the river to the sea' to define Israel's ambitions in Palestine. Yes, he has. You can Google it. Was Netanyahu's (as you put it) an anti-Semitic comment? Remember the Palestinians are Semites too. Or perhaps you've forgotten that."
"Do you see the complications I'm talking about?'
And as for your questions about Intifada. . .. (And by the way, it's pronounced 'in-teh-fah-dah' not 'infant-tah-dah') Do you know what the word means? Yes or no, do you?
"In case you don't, let me tell you it refers to aggressive nonviolent resistance to illegal Zionist occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem by the apartheid Israeli government. You can Google that too.
"And even if such protests turned violent, are you familiar with Article 51 of the UN Charter? Yes or no.
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