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Israeli student confronts pro-Palestine gathering at Columbia University, 'don't act like surrogates of others' pain'
Columbia University's Israeli student confronts pro-Palestine at the campus.
Video of an Israeli student's confrontation with a pro-Palestine gathering at the Columbia University is going viral. In the widely circulated clip the woman is seen calling out the Columbia School of Social Work students' assumed hypocrisy during their protest rally in the university campus.
Reportedly the meeting was organised in solidarity with Gaza citizens amid the ongoing Israel offensive in the area post the October 7 terrorist attacks carried out by Hamas.
The four-minute video shows a young woman standing alongside a campus doorway and responding to speakers who criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for referring to Hamas terrorists as "human animals."
In a very respectful manner the woman gatecrashes the event and starts by contesting the members' views, "People in this school, from this group, have referred to my people as Zionist dogs. Dogs, as far as I'm concerned, are animals. So, I think it's a little bit hypocritical for you to talk about a leader of another country while you are participating in the same form of dehumanization," the woman said as some in the room finger-snapped in approval.
She then goes on to say to call out her college students for ‘justifying’ recent terror attacks on Israeli citizens and labeling them anything other than a massacre are "unacceptable."
"I have two kids. When you write messages saying 'by any means necessary'—is my life a means that is necessary? Are my children's lives a means that is necessary for liberation? I do not believe that what is happening in Gaza right now is a means of security for my people. I don't believe in that. I think that violence leads to more violence. If anything, growing up in Israel and Palestine has taught me that violence is the absolute wrong solution for anything," she said.
The woman then suggested that those assembled are currently operating as "surrogates of other people's pain" and are adding "flames" to a fire that is metaphorically burning down her home.
"Do better. Do better. I am here to do better. My activism for Palestinians in Israel and Palestine has come from a place of love of a place that I want Palestine to be a better country," she added.
Suggesting she is open to a respectful debate over the Israel issue she claims to be scared for her life as antisemitic slogans are chanted on the campus premises.
