Some people simply never seem to learn their lessons. That appears to be the case with the administration at Columbia University which has already been the site of some hugely offensive anti-Israel protests since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks in Israel. Despite receiving significant pushback from former donors and facing investigations by the Department of Education, the university still seems to have its doors flung wide open for the pro-Hamas crowd. Their next bite at the apple was scheduled to be a demonstration on Wednesday where student groups would “discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on Oct. 7 and the centrality of revolutionary violence.” You all know where this was heading and it wasn’t toward anything good.

A student group at Columbia University will host an event on the “significance of the Oct. 7 Palestinian counteroffensive” in the latest instance of college students endorsing Hamas’s violent attacks.

“We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on Oct. 7 and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism,” Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine advertised Sunday on X, formerly Twitter. “See y’all there!” …

“In advocating for Palestinian liberation, Palestinians have engaged in nonviolent resistance tactics for years,” the group said in a reply to its original post. “These peaceful actions have been met with tear gas and armed opposition by the Israeli government.”

Here is the “advertisement” originally posted by Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine.

We will be having our second teach-in this Wednesday the 6th at 12pm, in room C-03 of the Social Work building! We will discuss the significance of the Palestinian counteroffensive on October 7th and the centrality of revolutionary violence to anti-imperialism. See y’all there! pic.twitter.com/PnAwMQwIx2

— Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine (@CSSW4Palestine) December 3, 2023

I’m really starting to warm up to the “user comments” feature that Elon Musk added to tweets recently. You can see that as soon as the group posted their statement, someone jumped in and pointed out that the October 7 attacks were not a “counteroffensive.” Enough people liked the contextual comment that it was quickly pushed up in the rankings.

I referred to the event above in the past tense because the plans were short-lived. The group had planned to stage the event at the Columbia School of Social Work (CSSW) but on Monday the CSSW declared that the event was cancelled. Clearly someone at that part of the school could smell trouble coming from a mile away and decided to pull the plug. That doesn’t mean that the student group can’t simply take their protest elsewhere on Wednesday, but it may wind up having to be somewhere off campus.

So who is this group Columbia Social Workers 4 Palestine? They have a Twitter account (“X” if you must) obviously, but I don’t see much more of an online presence for them. And what kind of “social work” are you engaged in if you’re promoting terrorism and hatred? It appears that they only formed in early November and they have all of 200 followers on social media. We can probably infer that this isn’t some longstanding student union dedicated to “Justice for Palestine” or whatever. It’s a group of kids who were following the news of the war, seeing the other protests breaking out, and they decided to get in on the action. They are likely just repeating the same tropes and lies they’ve been hearing from other antisemites and looking for attention.

So what should Columbia do now? The students have formed a student organization, as loosely organized as it may be. And they are endorsing terrorism. The school could kick the group off campus as has been done with other, larger groups. Will Columbia have the brass cojones to do that and stand up for something worthwhile? Perhaps. But I won’t be holding my breath.