CEASEFIRE TALKS AS JABALIYA AND RAFAH RESIST | COLUMBIA'S DISTRACTION BY DESIGN | BARNARD’S RETALIATION HIGHLIGHTS THEIR WEAKNESS
Contents:
I. REMEMBERING PALESTINIAN RESILIENCE; CEASEFIRE TALKS AS JABALIYA AND RAFAH RESIST; SOLIDARITY AGAINST OPPRESSION AND IMPERIALISM
II. COLUMBIA'S TREE LIGHTING: DISTRACTION BY DESIGN, TURN YOUR EYES TO PALESTINE
III. BARNARD’S RETALIATION HIGHLIGHTS THEIR WEAKNESS
IV. CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
REMEMBERING PALESTINIAN RESILIENCE; CEASEFIRE TALKS AS JABALIYA AND RAFAH RESIST; SOLIDARITY AGAINST OPPRESSION AND IMPERIALISM
As we wrap up this year, we remember the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who have been martyred by the ongoing zionist genocide. The sheer brutality is clear. Israel has destroyed more than half of Gaza's homes, 80% of commercial buildings, 87% of school buildings, many being used as shelters to house displaced people, 68% of road network and cropland, and have left 17 of 36 hospitals functional. Israel has murdered more than 150 journalists, mostly Palestinian. Israel has forcibly displaced millions of people across the Middle East and has maintained its inhumane blockade of resources. Palestinians, however, remain resilient and those who support them do so with vigor. More than 13,500 officers and soldiers enacting the zionist entity's genocide have been injured or killed, their ammunitions and vehicles destroyed, and their bases occupying the land belonging to the Palestinians bombarded. The multitude of strategic operations, now in the thousands, conducted by the Axis of Resistance against the IOF showcase how strong and steadfast they are. As the IOF themselves have admitted, they are unable to defeat the resistance. During the past 14 months, the zionist entity has been dealt powerful blows from which it will never recover with the support of millions of masses throughout the Middle East and the world.
Over the past week, Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital was repeatedly bombarded by Israeli forces, though attacks began earlier this month when airstrikes killed staff. On December 17, the Kamal Adwan Hospital was hit with shrapnel after the IOF used exploding robots near the grounds, detonating them at night, wounding patients and killing 8 people in a nearby home. Israeli forces also hit an UNRWA school-turned-shelter in Khan Younis where hundreds of families were sheltered, killing at least 13 people. Several days later, the zionist army shelled the hospital. The IOF continued their attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital that began earlier in the week with zionist snipers targeting the hospital's intensive care unit and the maternity ward before hitting Al Awda Hospital a day later. On December 20, at least 10 people were killed in a zionist attack on Al-Shati refugee camp. Zionist forces targeted a group of Palestinian civilians waiting in line for water- a systemic act from the zionist entity who claim to be targeting Hamas strongholds while destroying residential buidings, schools, hosptials, and Mosques. These attacks followed days of heavy violence that killed hundreds, including zionist artillery shelling and bombardment of residential areas and camps in Jabaliya, Rafah, Beit Lahia, and the Gaza Strip. Over the past week, approximately 70% of homes and buildings have been destroyed by Israel in the Jabaliya refugee camp, while Israel claims to be close to collapsing Hamas in the camp. In the past two days, Kamal Adwan Hospital has come under total siege, with IOF weaponry trained to kill anyone who moves in the vicinity. On December 27, a director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, was arrested during a raid on the hospital. Abu Safiya defied orders to leave the hospital during this devastating blockade to help the wounded. In late October, Dr. Abu Safiya's son, Ibrahim, was killed in a targeted drone strike by the IOF, and he now remains behind bars in the Sde Teiman detention center. As of December 31, the Kamal Adwan Hospital is inoperative due to Israeli destruction. The hospital was the last major medical facility in northern Gaza and it now remains empty. This has destroyed the health care system in northern Gaza, putting the 75,000 Palestinians who remain in the area at risk, as Israel continues to target doctors, nurses, and medical staff.
Abu Obeida, military spokesperson for the Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, publicized that the IOF, at the behest of Netanyahu, intentionally struck locations where Israeli hostages were being held. Abu Obeida said that Al-Qassam Brigades fighters conducted a search and rescue operation for the captives, but found only one survivor. Last month, Al-Qassam Brigades made a similar announcement, confirming the death of a captive in northern Gaza, attributing the person's killing to Zionist bombardment. The Brigades warned the Zionist occupiers that their infliction of total destruction will lead to more deaths and the disappearance of any remains.
Clashes between the Palestinian Authority and resistance factions in Jenin have persisted for days following the PA's campaign of "pursuing criminals." Acting wholly at the behest of the Zionist entity, the PA security forces work against Palestinian liberation to squash the uprisings in the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority raided Jenin, killing Rabhi al-Shalabi, an unarmed 19-year-old civilian, a 13-year-old child, and a commander in the Jenin Brigades, Yazid Ja'ayseh. These killings were condemned by the Popular Resistance Committees and Hamas, and have been described as a violation in line with the Zionist agenda that aims to eliminate the resistance and fuel internal disputes. As of December 31, clashes between the Palestinian Authority and resistance fighters in Jenin have persisted for 25 days, with confrontations escalating. For many Palestinians, this escalation in Jenin by the PA is a betrayal, and the actions of the PA show their willingness to uphold Israel's settler-colonial occupation and genocide.
Despite reaching a ceasefire and the withdrawal of the Israeli army, Lebanon has counted more than 262 violations since November 27. Israeli forces demolished several homes in the neighborhood of Naqoura in southern Lebanon using explosives and opened fire towards the valleys between the Qabrikha area and the town of Al-Ghandourieh using gun machines. There were multiple explosive operations in Yaroun town in the Bint Jbeil district that demolished more homes and properties in southern Lebanon. On December 17, Israel conducted a drone attack in the town of Majdal Zun. 31 people have been killed and at least 37 injured during these incidents. Israeli forces bulldozed citrus orchards in Naqoura in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese Minister of Agriculture. More than 4,000 people have been killed by Israeli forces in Lebanon and at least 1 million displaced.
On December 19, Israeli forces conducted at least 13 attacks on Hodeidah and Sanaa, targeting power plants, a port, and an oil facility, killing at least nine people. This followed a Houthi military operation that targeted two military targets in Tel Aviv. A member of the Houthi's political bureau, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, said the US bears responsibillty in part for the recent Israeli attacks on Yemen. Mohammed al-Bukhaiti said Houthi "military operations will continue until the genocide crimes in Gaza stop and food, medicine and fuel are allowed to enter its residents". The same day, the United States imposed new sanctions targeting the Houthis, and for months has been bombing Yemen in response to resistance operations conducted in the Red Sea that have crippled the Zionist state's economy. The United States military conducted airstrikes on Sanaa on Saturday night and Sunday morning on a Houthi "command and control facility ", according to CENTCOM. 16 people were injured. A US fighter jet was shot down over the Red Sea, with the Houthis claiming responsibility.
Even before the latest escalation of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Palestinian resistance has sustained a long fight against the Zionist entity. After nearly 450 days of endless fighting for their people, the resistance remains strong, and the superior skills of the fighters have developed significantly. For a little over a week, many resistance operations were conducted, particularly in Jabaliya and Rafah, resulting in heavy losses for the Israeli forces and damages to their command and control centers, despite claims by the Zionist entity that the resistance is collapsing in these areas. On December 16, a number of resistance operations took place including the targeting of an Israeli Merkava tank approaching Abu Hussein schools in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Al-Quds Brigades conducted artillery shelling against an Israeli occupation command and control headquarters in this area, and the forces of Omar al-Qasim targeted gatherings of Israeli forces occupying the Al-Jeneina neighborhood east of Rafah. Al-Quds also conducted an artillery operation against Israeli soldiers and vehicles penetrating the neighborhood. The Saika Forces of the Fatah Al-Intifada movement used mortar shells to target Israeli occupation soldiers and vehicles near a mosque in northern Gaza. On Tuesday, December 17, the Al-Qassam Brigades destroyed an Israeli armed personal carrier using a Shawath explosive device in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Brigades clashed with Israeli ground forces in the refugee camp, killing three soldiers, and detonated a booby-trapped house, targeting 11 Israeli soldiers who were killed and wounded. Military helicopters were seen evacuating the dead and injured. On December 18, the Al-Qassam Brigades eliminated five Israeli soldiers near the Al-Khulafaa Mosque in the center of the Jabaliya refugee camp. The Brigades also managed to detonate an Israeli carrier in Jabaliya and continued to target the occupation’s command centers, bombarding the site in Netzarim with 107 rockets. A single Al-Qassam fighter managed to kill an Israeli soldier next to a Merkava tank, take his weapon, and throw two hand grenades into the tank. Al-Quds brigades also managed to take control of a Zionist drone carrying out an intelligence operation in Rafah. On Saturday, a missile launch by Ansar Allah struck Tel Aviv, wounding 30 people. Ansar Allah has launched over 200 ballistic missiles and 170 drones at Israeli targets. Israeli defense systems, like the Iron Dome, have struggled to keep up with this resilience and evolving threat and were unable to intercept the projectiles. This same day, Al-Qassam fighters managed to kill 3 zionist soldiers using daggers, stabbing them and seizing their weapons in Jabaliya. Reports say a fighter single-handedly killed three or more officers and soldiers. Israel’s evil plans in Gaza continue to fail due to the steadfast resistance.
Hamas, this week, said that an agreement can be reached if the Israeli occupation stops setting new conditions and that talks aimed at a truce and hostage-prisoner exchange were "serious and positive" and were "closer than ever" to an agreement. During communications, the leaderships of Hamas, PIJ, and PFLP praised the Palestinian Resistance, noting the successes of the operations that continue to inflict significant material and human losses on the occupation.
As we remember and give updates about Palestine, it would be antithetical to our values to not discuss Syria. It has been the intention of Western imperialists, primarily Britain and France and then later the US, to redraw the maps of the eastern Mediterranean into arbitrary nation states borders since the Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916, and even before. We refuse to be divided in this struggle and understand that the fight for liberation extends to all those affected by the imperial and Zionist agenda of expansion and oppression.
The Syrian Revolution of Dignity, at times known as the Syrian Intifada, began in 2011 against Assad's Ba'ath government. Bashar's father and founder of the Ba'athis government in Syria, Hafez Al-Assad, is infamous for his brutal repression of Syrian revolutionary spirit. Whether it be the 1982 Hama Massacre orchestrated by Hafez or the recent 13 years of resistance, the response towards the Syrian people has always been brutal. Often measures of beating protestors, using tear gas and water cannons, "shoot to kill", and mass arrests were used to crackdown against the popular grassroots resistance against the oppressive government. The infamous Sednaya Prison known for detaining anti-government resistance fighters was a tool used by the Assad regime to inflict terror upon their population by enacting mass torture on the political prisoners held there. Nicknamed the Human Slaughterhouse, Syrian testimonies include, "[In prison] it felt like the purpose [of torture and beatings] was death, some form of natural selection – to get rid of the weak as soon as they arrive," with the techniques of torture dating back to former Nazi Captain Alois Brunner having advised the Assad regime on effective systems of repression that had been adapted by the Third Reich.
Assad's regime fell swiftly in the past weeks. In the aftermath, we saw photos of thousands of refugees returning to their homes, as Syrians celebrated their freedom from an oppressive regime lasting 50 years. As Syrians celebrated, the Zionist forces and imperial West capitalized on the instability to expand their capture of land and violate Syrian sovereignty. IOF forces advanced their locations in the illegally-occupied Golan Heights deeper into Syria. The Zionists, backed by the US, carried out hundreds of airstrikes decimating the Syrian people's military infrastructure and seized more than 170 square miles of Syrian land furthering their plan for "The New Middle East." According to the latest reports, the IOF are located approximately 25 kilometers outside of Damascus. Netanyahu claims that this occupation is "only temporary", all too reminiscent of the seemingly benign rhetoric surrounding Israel's initial capture of the Golan Heights in 1967.
It is important to note that the atmosphere of celebration is clouded by our recognition of imperial expansion. The rebel forces that took over Syria in the past weeks and which are currently overseeing the development of a new government are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). Notably, HTS and its leader Abu Mohammed al-Golani are offshoots of al-Qaeda, the US-created and funded organization that decimated communities across the eastern Mediterranean. His image is now rehabilitated by mainstream media like CNN, and despite American avowals of "never forgetting 9/11," Al-Golani is embraced as a public hero. Similarly, Turkey's President and top-level bureaucrats, such as Director of National Intelligence Ibrahim Kalin, have repeatedly emphasized Turkish political interests in Syria. As it stands, Turkey currently occupies parts of Northern Syria where it backs the Syrian National Army in its offensives against the Syrian Democratic Forces (itself aligned with Washington). The Kurdish people of Syria, who have been fighting for their right to live in freedom as long as Palestinians, are thus crushed between Turkey and the US, facing the brunt of violence that has brutalized their region for years.
We cannot let this moment of rejoice blind us from the enemy that we are fighting, Zionism and Imperialism. A free and united Syria, that is built by the Syrian people to be liberated from oppressive policies must confront Zionism and western imperialism. We stand with the Syrian masses in their fight for self-determination and liberation against the many exploitative and reactionary forces that seek to plunge their claws into the country. As we continue our work we must support the empowerment of the Syrian people regardless of religion or ethnicity in their fight for freedom and continue our own fight against Zionism, western imperialism, colonialism, and all normalizers of these greater evils.
COLUMBIA'S TREE LIGHTING: DISTRACTION BY DESIGN, TURN YOUR EYES TO PALESTINE
On December 5, Columbia hosted the Tree Lighting ceremony, its annual posturing of community and festivity. But this year, as the campus remains closed to surrounding Harlem residents, the illusion of community was all the more obvious. And as Palestinians endure unimaginable horrors funded by Columbia’s investments, any pretense of festivity rings hollow.
Columbia's Tree Lighting is a distraction from the university’s complicity in genocide.
Over 270,000 Palestinians have been martyred in the past year, and the entirety of Gaza faces the imminent threat of famine. With no functioning hospitals and nearly two million people experiencing acute food insecurity, Gaza continues being starved and bombed into devastation.
Columbia trustee Jeh Johnson, until last month, was a director at Lockheed Martin, the largest weapons manufacturer in the world. Lockheed Martin has supplied the Israeli military with F-16 fighter jets and precision-guided munitions used in attacks on Gaza. This year alone, the company has reaped $7.48 billion in profit, much of it funded by U.S. military aid to Israel.
The same administration that hosts tree lightings and builds wellness centers is entangled in war crimes. Barnard College boasts its new Francine A. LeFrak Center for Well-Being. Meanwhile, there are no more functioning hospitals left in Gaza and the LeFrak family continues to profit from the destruction of Gaza.
This is not a community celebration; it is a spectacle of distraction. The cocoa, lights, and cheer obscure the university's investments in genocide. While students are invited to take selfies and revel in faux unity, there are no more universities left in Gaza. Gaza’s children endure the highest rates of amputations in the world.
We refuse to be distracted.
During the pre-Tree Lighting activities, we raised awareness of Columbia’s investments by flyering and speaking with students. Historically, the lights are scheduled to turn on at 7 p.m., but this year, they were illuminated shortly after 6 p.m. in a vain attempt to prevent us from disrupting. We were undeterred.
We amassed a large crowd and began marching along College Walk, chanting and drumming. Several protesters unplugged the tree's lights one by one as we marched, leaving campus again shrouded in darkness.
Columbia tells us we have a voice. They say we have student control, but students are only permitted to organize what serves Columbia’s image. Student council can organize a tree lighting or anything only if it makes for a good photo op.
We must not be distracted. When the overwhelming majority of students and workers use their voices to demand divestment from genocidal Israel, Columbia silences and brutalizes us and tells us we have no power.
But we have the power to keep mobilizing. We have the power to show Columbia there will be no business as usual while a genocide unfolds.
We will not stop until Columbia discloses its investments and divests from genocide. Disruption will continue until divestment is won. Turn your eyes to Palestine. Open your eyes to genocide. Columbia, you can’t hide—you’re funding genocide.
BARNARD’S RETALIATION HIGHLIGHTS THEIR WEAKNESS
On the 37th anniversary of the first intifada, Columbia, Barnard students, and community members joined forces to strike Barnard College.
Three days before the protest, Students for Justice in Palestine and Columbia University Apartheid Divest announced their campaign targeting Barnard College as their strategic target. Hours before the protest, Barnard shed its coat of feminism, empowerment, and justice and leaned into their agenda of imperial feminism by instituting draconian policies. Total lockdown of campus, anti-masking, and stop-and-frisk measures were implemented, thus exposing students to racialized surveillance as well as violating fire safety measures. Even more, Barnard showed the world how much they have learned from the IOF as they installed new security cameras at the front of Barnard's main entrance even after claiming to be in “extreme debt.” It is clear that Barnard believes that trustee dollars are better spent on collaborating in genocide rather than supporting their community. The institutional response to our publicized protest, combined with META's immediate suspension of CUAD's instagram account, reveals the extent to which our ruling classes collaborate in the interest of suppressing our voices. This comes after a collection of suspensions by META including Columbia SJP, Within Our Lifetime, and NYU People's Solidarity Coalition, showing clear attempts to erase any trace of the Palestinian liberation movement from public discourse.
In response, hundreds of students took to the gates of Barnard to show they will not cower from this repression. Chants in solidarity with Palestine, in both English and Arabic — passed down from students who led the first intifada — echoed alongside speeches declaring Barnard as the first pawn to fall. Two students spoke:
"Barnard College has time and time again cracked down the most brutally and viciously towards any sign of support for Palestinian liberation-with their evictions, suspensions, arbitrary disciplinary hearings, and free speech bans. Barnard cracks down this hard because they cannot afford to face our might. With their historically small endowment and hundreds of millions of dollars of debt, Barnard is a school-for-hire at the whim of their biggest donor of the moment. They cannot afford to lose their trustees, and the trustees refuse to see beyond fiscal profits. As the ongoing Nakba escalates in barbarity each day, trustees abuse their power to push their fascist agenda, further their portfolios, and train students to become cogs of the US, Zionist, Genocidal, Imperial Regime. We must refuse manufactured complicity and complacency in the face of blood: our charge is to break the machine. And to do that, we must target its power source. Trustees like Cheryl Milstein, who bought her way into the top spot on the board to ensure divestment didn't happen in 2018 and sends millions of dollars to genocide each year, Diana Vagelos, who dismisses the genocide and minimizes all forms of resistance to it while pushing the Vagelos imperial agenda in Harlem and Washington Heights, and Francine LeFrak, virulent Islamophobe and racist from a wealthy lineage of zionists and colonists MUST be held accountable. The real Barnard community, our barnard community, is one of the strongest pillars of our movement across all of Columbia University's campus.
If we are to call ourselves feminists, we must resist this imperialist framework. Barnard must reckon with its place as an elite institution in the metropole of empire. We must adopt anti-imperial feminism—a feminism that centers the voices of women from the Global South, uplifts their resistance, and refuses to sacrifice them on the altar of Western progress. To decolonize feminism is to challenge the structures that exploit women worldwide, whether they are Palestinian mothers under occupation, garment workers in Bangladesh, or displaced refugees in Sudan. It is to recognize that their fight is our fight, that their liberation is inevitably tied to ours."
As Barnard's lies were exposed, the administration resorted to their usual repressive tactics by calling the NYPD to further brutalize their students. WOL and the community answered the calls for solidarity against this repression. They brought their disruption of the UN's genocide prevention event—which failed to address Palestine even once—to Barnard. Together the community showed their strength as they encircled the campus. As we dispersed, the walls of Barnard, adorned with art celebrating Palestinian liberation, reminded us that power lies with the people, not the institutions complicit in the imperial agenda. Protestors and now you, reader, are left with the words of a student forcing us to reflect on what our definition of feminism is:
"Look around you. We stand here, boxed out of an institution that prides itself on feminist inclusion yet builds "wellness centers" in the name of genocidal donors, fostering a school that embodies and reinforces the imperialist feminist model within the very borders of empire. Yet, we must not let ourselves be fooled into accepting this model. As Leila Khaled says, 'We must depend upon the people struggling. We don’t depend upon governments, even if they declared that they are with us. We depend upon progressive forces in the communities you are living, and also to spread the facts of the struggle and how it is related to capitalism and imperialism. If you are with the Palestinian struggle, then you must take action.'"
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
We would love to hear your comments, critiques, and perspectives! If you would like to contribute to The Barricade, please email cuadthebarricade@proton.me. You can also follow us @ColumbiaBDS on Twitter/X and @CUApartheidDivest on Instagram. Get a legal or disciplinary notice related to alleged pro-Palestine activism? Contact CUAD's collective defense team at cuaddefense@proton.me and our legal support team at columbiapalsolidarity@proton.me for help!
DIVEST AND BOYCOTT THE GENOCIDAL APARTHEID STATE OF SO-CALLED ISRAEL
GRANT COMPLETE AMNESTY TO STUDENT PROTESTORS
LONG LIVE THE STUDENT INTIFADA
LONG LIVE THE PALESTINIAN NATIONAL RESISTANCE
FREE PALESTINE FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA WITHIN OUR LIFETIME
GLORY TO ALL OUR MARTYRS