Columbia University had its class reunion this weekend. And along with alumni like me trying to relive their college years, pro-Palestinian protesters came back to campus. While some students picketed outside, urging alumni not to donate to the university, another group inside the campus gates set up an “encampment-style installation” titled “Revolt for Rafah: Installation I.”
Protesters unfurled a banner that stated “we’re back, bitches.” Later, they erected a scale model of a Mark 84 bomb, an American-made 2,000-pound weapon used by the Israeli military, next to a map of upper Manhattan showing the bomb’s blast radius. A sign invited people to “ask us anything” but only a few alumni engaged with the protesters. Others snickered from a distance. After I left, one of them was filmed shouting rape threats against the protesters.
That was the strange, discordant vibe of the day. On one hand, there was the irreverent, almost…
