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Rashid Khalidi Decides He Can No Longer Teach At Columbia
3 months ago
First, from the headlines of today's Democracy Now!:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8.....iated_hostages
-Some videos released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and meant to illustrate that by starving Gaza they were also starving the Israeli hostages have ironically been twisted by Netanyahu and the press into being illustrations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad abusing the hostages and used as an excuse for ramping up the war on Gaza, saying that it was Hamas who wasn't willing to engage honestly in cease fire talks, when It's Israel who pulled out of the talks and Hamas has always been consistent about their demands, which are for a permanent ceasefire and Israel pulling out of Gaza. Israel also claimed that one man depicted was digging his own grave, but does anybody really believe that they bury people in the tunnels? I have to at least doubt that.
Netanyahu isn't fooling the families of the hostages in Israel, though. Tens of thousands of people showed up to their most recent protest in support of their demand of Netanyahu to engage in a cease fire because they know it's the only way they'll be able to assure the rest of the hostages are returned safely.
Increasing numbers of other people and groups within Israel are also recently calling for an end to the war.
On Khalidi's decision to no longer teach at Columbia:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8.....ducation_trump
His Guardian article on this:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2.....id-khalidi-open-letter
More from Khalidi on Palestine:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8....._gaza_genocide
-Khalidi Mentions Ben-Gvir's leading of a large group to the Al Aqsa Mosque to prey there illegally, in a deeply disrespectful and provocative action. Khalidi didn't mention that while there, Ben-Gvir called for Israel to occupy Gaza.
Also, Today Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Christian Zionist, became the highest government official to ever visit a settlement in the West Bank amidst growing settler violence, where he said that "Those lands are the rightful property of the Jewish people. Even if the world thinks otherwise, we stand with you", referring to them as Judea and Samaria, as Zionists are wont to do. Never mind that the settlements are considered illegal under international law.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8.....iated_hostages
-Some videos released by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and meant to illustrate that by starving Gaza they were also starving the Israeli hostages have ironically been twisted by Netanyahu and the press into being illustrations of Hamas and Islamic Jihad abusing the hostages and used as an excuse for ramping up the war on Gaza, saying that it was Hamas who wasn't willing to engage honestly in cease fire talks, when It's Israel who pulled out of the talks and Hamas has always been consistent about their demands, which are for a permanent ceasefire and Israel pulling out of Gaza. Israel also claimed that one man depicted was digging his own grave, but does anybody really believe that they bury people in the tunnels? I have to at least doubt that.
Netanyahu isn't fooling the families of the hostages in Israel, though. Tens of thousands of people showed up to their most recent protest in support of their demand of Netanyahu to engage in a cease fire because they know it's the only way they'll be able to assure the rest of the hostages are returned safely.
Increasing numbers of other people and groups within Israel are also recently calling for an end to the war.
On Khalidi's decision to no longer teach at Columbia:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8.....ducation_trump
His Guardian article on this:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2.....id-khalidi-open-letter
More from Khalidi on Palestine:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/8....._gaza_genocide
-Khalidi Mentions Ben-Gvir's leading of a large group to the Al Aqsa Mosque to prey there illegally, in a deeply disrespectful and provocative action. Khalidi didn't mention that while there, Ben-Gvir called for Israel to occupy Gaza.
Also, Today Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a Christian Zionist, became the highest government official to ever visit a settlement in the West Bank amidst growing settler violence, where he said that "Those lands are the rightful property of the Jewish people. Even if the world thinks otherwise, we stand with you", referring to them as Judea and Samaria, as Zionists are wont to do. Never mind that the settlements are considered illegal under international law.
Other than, if there is a hell, there's non too hot for Netanyahu and anyone else standing by with that thing.
Not that I'm religious, that faith died years ago. If there is forgiveness, it's between them and God, and I'm not God, or whatever deity(s) one worships.
The most I can say besides that is how I keep thinking of a chat prior to the election where someone made an argument that there was little if Zero difference between Harris and Trump, saying it was just a Non-fascist warmonger and a Fascist warmonger.
Because clearly not being a fascist is the same as being one /s
I've been little else but enraged, sad and in despair, not to mention everything with this and also the country I've had the misfortune of being born into has only encouraged my cynical jaded nature and encouraging me to be a bit misanthropic, tempered ONLY by the fact there are legit good people in the world trying to unfuck things.
But there has an WILL be too many examples of those people being removed one way or another because they dare upset things.
I dont' know...I'm angry, pissed off...and maybe I will just keep screaming into the void...
and writing journals to those who watching me, that if they voted for trump, that I'll show them the door out...
I don't fucking know ...
Yeah, all this shit is discouraging and overwhelming, but don't lose hope, that's what they want. Don't give the bastards the satisfaction.
Now's the time to take care of each other, as well as to join together and hit the streets, whether it's against Drumpf, Bibi, or whatever. You'll find an awful lot of people who agree with you there.
Israel has never been so unpopular. They increasingly make themselves a pariah state.
I'll confess, I've pretty much had to tune out the news with few exceptions less I lose the sanity I don't have left. Sadly I'm not in a position much to hit the streets but for what it's worth, I do make some effort to call my representatives and failing anything else...
At least I vote, which is sadly more than what too many people have not done, for any kind of reason including 'Both sides'.
and yeah...Israel a very unpopular place right now...sadly the US is in a similar case...I hope things can change for the better, we'll see...
Do what you can to preserve your sanity. We're gonna need it.
The people who didn't vote decided the last election.
The only constant is change.
Thing with my sanity is though...it's like I loose some, and it never comes back. I just wonder if I'll have any left... IF we start to get out of clusterfuck things.
I'm still mad at people who decided to not vote, for some situations I can maybe excuse. For others, like single issue voters or those who felt dissapointed or betrayed by the Dems that they decided to other sit it out, or even vote for the Nazi party to punish Dems.
Those...unless they move heaven and earth to atone, I'm never going to show them any forgiveness.
And yeah, the only constant is change.
I just wish I Wasn't so cynical, but then again a cynic is sometimes a result of an idealist pushed past their limits for too long.
I fucking envy those who still are optimistic to some extent, sometimes I want to encourage them to hang onto that best they can.
As much as things may seem stacked against us right now, there are more of us than there are of them, and the future is not yet written.
Drumpf is also currently working against himself. His tariff and anti immigrant policies will increase food prices and inflation, which will be bound to tank the economy.
because they are really the heart of the Western self-reflection and progressivism,
the foundation of a rational and compassionate worldview amid the sea
of lionized self-interest and commercial cynicism.
The courts would seem to be more important, especially since the SCOTUS has already
been instrumental in rolling back some hard-won social progress milestones,
and some of the Ivy League campuses house the most ruthless
neoliberal thinktanks in the world, but the institutions of knowledge,
along with the artists, the progressive NGO's and the free media
are what holds the line against the might-makes-right pressure
in any country.
Very heartening to see those protests,
and I'm wishing Khalidi and his colleagues a swift and safe return
to his lifelong profession after the U.S. shakes off this dark, smothering mind fog.
Thank you as always for bringing us these developments!
But the kids, as well as good souls such as Khalidi, always lead the way, and will always be on the right side of history.