On October 8th, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), the group that had organized the student encampment for Palestine last spring, posted a statement on their Instagram account apologizing for compromising their message to “[pander] to liberal media and make the movement for liberation palatable and digestible,” and affirming their commitment to liberation “by any means necessary, including armed resistance.” Almost two weeks later, a collective of Palestinian student organizers calling themselves the Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition (CPSC) published an article in the Columbia Spectator disaffiliating from CUAD and arguing for “recentering” the movement on its core demand of divestment—a goal which, at its peak, mobilized thousands on campuses across the country, and which went entirely unmentioned in CUAD’s statement. “Palestinians deserve a movement focused on Palestine, with clear goals and demands from a University with extensive ties to the occupying state,” they wrote. While strongly affirming the right of occupied Palestinians to resist their occupiers within the bounds of international law, the CPSC students maintained that they “equally and firmly . . . disavow any violence outside of this context.” ….more
