Since Hamas terrorists slaughtered some 1,400 innocent Israeli men, women, and children on October 7, 2023, we have seen pro-Hamas demonstrators shut down American expressways, bridges, and college campuses while screaming “death to Israel” and “death to America.”
Why are we allowing this to happen?
Why are cities allowing themselves to be attacked and hamstrung by this terrorist-loving rabble?
And why are college campuses allowing anti-American Palestinian students to lead other students in physical and verbal attacks against Jewish students and faculty?
Most recently, we saw hundreds of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas students occupy a large part of New York’s Columbia University campus in a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” consisting of rows of green tents.
The protesters demanded that Columbia University divest from companies that operate in Israel. They also want a cease-fire in Gaza and the creation of a Palestinian state.
Several students were seen shouting, “We are Hamas, we are Hamas,” at police and Jewish students who dared challenge them.
After hours of protest and attacks on police and Jewish students, Columbia University’s leaders finally had enough. They called the New York City police, who rounded up and arrested about 100 of the pro-terrorist students.
“With great regret, we request the NYPD’s help to remove these individuals, “Columbia’s President Minouche Shafik wrote in her request to the police.
Shafik said the encampment and related campus disruptions were “a clear and present danger” to the school.
What a disappointment those arrests were.
No sooner had the protestors been booked for a range of misdemeanor criminal offenses than they were released to return to the streets to continue their riotous ways.
Whatever happened to “crime and punishment?”
The answer is there is no punishment for wrongdoers in pro-criminal Democrat-run cities like New York.
Students arrested Thursday were back on campus Friday, occupying the same place they had occupied when they were arrested.
“Despite the University’s threats, the Gaza Solidarity Encampment will remain until Columbia University divests all finances, including the endowment, from corporations that profit from Israeli apartheid,” declared a group calling itself the Institute for Middle East Understanding.
So much for Columbia University’s flaccid policy of getting tough on illicit demonstrations.
On April 15, a few days before, we watched the pro-Palestinian protests play out simultaneously in San Francisco, Oakland, Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and many other cities. According to the organizers’ website, coordinators ordered protestors to “identify and blockade major choke points” that would have the most economic impact.
The organizers called the regimented protests a “Mutual Solidarity Agreement for April 15”. They urged protestors to “act in solidarity with each other in the face of attacks from the media, politicians, the police, and the Zionist project.”
Clearly, there are millions of dollars of support for these demonstrators—some of whom are paid participants. In fact, many protestors on college campuses are Muslim students from the Middle East, including Palestine.
My question is, why are they allowed to remain in the United States when they are clearly violating the terms of their F-1 or M-1 student visas?
According to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) “any activity, a purpose of which is the opposition to, or the control or overthrow of, the Government of the United States by force, violence, or other unlawful means,” is a violation of the terms of their visa.
You don’t have to listen to student protestors very long before you hear the chant “Death to America.” I would argue that kind of rhetoric is pretty specific when it comes to how these pro-Hamas foreign students feel about the United States.
Another violation of the INA is engaging in “terrorist activity.”
Specifically, INA policies say it is illegal for foreign students or immigrants, in an individual capacity or as a member of an organization, to (1) “commit or to incite to commit, under circumstances indicating an intention to cause death or serious bodily injury, a terrorist activity;” (2) “to prepare or plan a terrorist activity;” (3) “to gather information on potential targets for terrorist activity;” and (4) “to solicit funds or other things of value for a terrorist activity.”
When pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas demonstrators delay and obstruct ambulances, police, and firemen from protecting lives and property, they are treading damned close to acting as terrorists.
Ditto when Muslim students on American campuses shout, “Death to America.”
I wonder why foreign students and academics who hate this country with such vehemence are allowed to remain at American universities.
These people are not non-violent protestors. When they call for the destruction of America and its people, as far as I am concerned, they are no different from the terrorists who flew planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon on 9/11.
Columbia University should not coddle these violent miscreants and anti-Semites.
They should be expelled and then rounded up and thrown out of our country.
I’ll gladly hold the door.
–30—
(Ronald E. Yates is a U.S. Army veteran, an author, a former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, and Professor and dean Emeritus of Journalism at the University of Illinois.)
His website: http://www.ronaldyatesbooks.com/
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Mr Yates wrote:
Well, that’s just it: “as far as (you are) concerned” is not the same thing as what is actually illegal. More, it’s the same kind of attitude, from the opposite direction, which has gotten the Capitol kerfufflers arrested and convicted, even though they harmed no one. We could use their attitudes and actions to deport the non-citizens, but we won’t, not under the dummkopf from Delaware.
Nonsense. There is NO comparison between the two. Apples and oranges. A four hour protest that turned violent for two hours and in which the only known fatality was a protester, 99% of injuries were of protesters, and the entire weight of the federal government has been thrown at not only the protesters but also supposed organizers for three years, with ZERO investigation of federal gov’t plants and instigators, doesn’t compare to the current situation.
Many J6 protesters are still languishing in fed confinement without court dates, just like a third world banana republic. There have been convictions for merely being legally present on Capitol grounds during the protest. The FBI has hounded folks for being present in Washington, DC during that day and hotels have been illegally forced to hand over names of those staying that day and phone companies have had to, once again, illegally hand over GPS data on folks in DC that day. All very Stasi like.
Yet you have the nerve to compare that to the author calling for the expulsion of illegal aliens, much like those who overstayed their fake student visas leading to 9-11? The average age of the college protesters in 27. These are instigators. Threats of violence are NOT free speech. It is illegal to threaten someone, much less an entire group of people and calling for genocide. Blocking streets and bridges is illegal. Blocking emergency vehicles is life threatening.
I remind you that these protests have been going on for months, not four hours. Once again, no comparison. Gimme a break!