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NYPD investigating alleged chemical attack on pro-Palestine Columbia University students (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 9 months ago by Dreamer@lemmy.ml to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[–] Dreamer@lemmy.ml 43 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

NYPD is investigating claims that the chemical unleashed on these students is “skunk”, an agent developed in Israel and used as a crowd control weapon, most commonly in the occupied West Bank. SJP said the chemicals were sprayed by two students who are former Israeli soldiers, who mixed in with the crowd by wearing Palestinian keffiyehs. The Guardian could not verify this claim, and the NYPD and Columbia did not directly respond to questions about the identity of the perpetrators. According to a statement from Columbia, “the alleged perpetrators of the attack have been identified and immediately banned from campus while law enforcement’s investigation proceeds”.

If it ends up being true that the perpetrators were IDF veterans. . . were they so used to doing this bullshit with impunity back in Palestine that they thought they could just get away with this scot free?

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 35 points 9 months ago (1 children)

To be clear:

Virtually everyone born in Israel is an IDF veteran before theyre out of their 20s, they have mandatory military service.

I've known a couple that moved to America for college after, and they were very anti-Israel and didn't like talking about their time in. The few times it did come up, we were usually drunk and their remorse was very apparent. Pretty sure the only reason they'd talk about it, was because I'm a US veteran. And there's lots of shit America's military has done that I'm ashamed of too.

But since everyone has to serve in the IDF, lots of shitty people are also veterans of the IDF.

The real question is how they got Israeli munitions into America to use in the first place.

Did they smuggle it over "just in case" when they came to America?

Or did it get smuggled in after explicitly for this purpose?

And if so, was it with the knowledge and support of the Israeli government?

Or are they just irresponsible with all the military equipment American taxpayers are forced to pay for?

[–] Dreamer@lemmy.ml 3 points 9 months ago

But since everyone has to serve in the IDF, lots of shitty people are also veterans of the IDF.

I understand where you're coming from, but I think this ignores the fact that Israel's dehumanization and brutalization of Palestinians is a systematic one. It's not just that there are good and bad humans in the IDF as much as it is that negative behavior is encouraged, often unpunished, and rewarded even, whereas positive behavior is disparaged. This has been the case for a long time where soldiers who would try to stop or hold their peers accountable for murders, tortures, and rapes were often turned into pariahs and be given death threats and the like.

With that said, I do wholeheartedly agree with everything else that you have said. You raise some really good questions.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 2 points 9 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The New York police department announced on Tuesday it was investigating an alleged chemical attack on students protesting in support of Palestine on Columbia University’s campus last week.

Students protesting Israel’s bombardment of Gaza – which has killed more than 25,000 people, according to Palestinian health officials – reported being sprayed with a chemical that left many with symptoms such as nausea, abdominal pain, headaches and irritated eyes.

NYPD is investigating claims that the chemical unleashed on these students is “skunk”, an agent developed in Israel and used as a crowd control weapon, most commonly in the occupied West Bank.

A police spokesperson said that the first victim who filed a report said she “smelled an unknown odor and began to feel nauseated and experienced a burning sensation in her eyes”.

In a letter to students and facultysent on Monday, Columbia’s interim provost, Dennis Mitchell, wrote: “A deeply troubling incident occurred on the steps of Low Library on Friday.

In November, the college banned two pro-Palestinian organizations, SJP and Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), for allegedly violating campus procedures by holding “unauthorized” events.

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