Activist Interviews: Emanuelle Sippy

Posted on by under activism, Activist Interviews, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

This is the first in an ongoing series of interviews I’ll be doing with a variety of activists and practitioners I’ve worked with or met over the years. Emanuelle Sippy was the head of Princeton University’s Alliance of Jewish Progressives during the Gaza Solidarity Encampment of the spring 2024, and both a forceful and articulate presence throughout. My interview with her was conducted May 4, 2025 at Terrace Club, Princeton University.

Q: You were brought up Jewish, the daughter of a Reform rabbi in Kentucky. What was that like? How would you describe the Jewish part of your upbringing, including your education? Continue reading →

An Open Question for Middlesex County

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity

Third Statement to Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners
75 Bayard St
New Brunswick, New Jersey
January 15, 2026

My name is Irfan Khawaja. I live in Princeton but work in Iselin. This is my third statement here on the matter of what was previously called the Immigrant Trust Act. As everyone knows, we’re in the home stretch toward passage of a version of the Act, but not there yet. To that end, I want to address some issues raised by the last meeting on that topic back on December 18. Continue reading →

Grand Slam in the Jersey Legislature

Posted on by under activism, General announcements, migrant defense, moralism, Palestine

All three bills of the Immigrant Protection Package (previously the Immigrant Trust Act) have passed both houses of the New Jersey State Legislature, and now await the signature of the governor, which it’s presumed he’ll give (here’s Politico, New Jersey Monitor). In addition, adoption of the so-called IHRA definition of anti-Semitism has been thwarted, meaning that the bill to codify the definition did not advance to a vote. Continue reading →

Don’t Replace the Kiosks

Posted on by under activism, Fatwas

A Statement to Princeton Council
400 Witherspoon St
Princeton, New Jersey
January 12, 2025

(Unfortunately, I was stuck longer at work than expected, and never managed to give this statement at public comments on the 12th. I’ll have to wait two weeks until the 26th.)

My name is Irfan Khawaja; I live in Princeton. I’m here to speak about an issue that in some sense has already been decided, except that the decision is so wrongheaded that even belated criticism seems better than silence. I’m referring to the replacement (or even partial replacement) of the kiosks on Nassau St with electronic versions whose messaging is controlled by the municipality. 

Let me go through some of the things members of this Council have said, from least to most objectionable, and respond to them.  Continue reading →

Eminent Domain and the Resort to Force

Posted on by under cancel culture, Fatwas, Memorials and Obituaries, slices of life

I was pleased to see that my letter on Princeton’s use of eminent domain to acquire Westminster Choir College was printed in the January 7 issue of Princeton’s Town Topics, with a note from the editor (p. 13): “Thank you for your letter. We stand corrected.” Good to hear it.

Whether the topic is genocide or eminent domain, mainstream American journalists have an addiction to euphemism about the use of force that should be corrected at every turn. If journalists described the use of force more vividly and accurately, people would grasp its ubiquity in public life, and stop being surprised when it took egregious forms, as in the killing of Renee Good. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: The Finale

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Since I last wrote on the subject, New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) has been divided into three separate bills, has gotten through a series of committee hearings, and is up for vote in the state legislature on Monday. It’s been sixteen solid months of efforts by a cohort of smart, tough, and dedicated activists. Win or lose, I’m proud to have played a bit part in this effort, and at this point can only urge New Jersey residents to call or text their legislators for the final push (see contact information below). Continue reading →

The Lessons of Renee Good

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, migrant defense

Having spent time under the Israeli occupation, where killings of the sort we saw in Minneapolis are a commonplace, I have just a few simple observations to offer about the killing of Renee Good. The first is that we should re-assert the obvious: that all human beings have an inalienable right of self-defense, including lethal self-defense, against initiatory assaults on their person that threaten life or limb. This entails that every person in the United States, regardless of citizenship status, has the inalienable and indeed legal right to use lethal force against ICE agents who engage in initiatory assaults that threaten life or limb.

Continue reading →

Aggression and Evasion

Posted on by under Fatwas, Notes on the Anti-War Movement

It’s sad and telling that with respect to both the US attack on Iran in June 2025 and the current attack on Venezuela, few if any commentators, whether supportive of the United States or opposed, have described what happened in essential terms. In both cases, the United States committed an unprovoked act of aggression against a country that had not initiated aggression against it. Put another way, the United States deliberately breached what had previously been a condition of peace between the two countries on the unargued premise that it had the moral right to attack its perceived enemies at will, regardless of anything they may or may not have done to warrant an attack. There are other things worth saying about both cases, but nothing more fundamental than that.

Continue reading →

Stirring the POT (5)

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, book review, cancel culture, liberty and the left, migrant defense, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, political philosophy, slices of life

Politics and the Problematics of Fun

I started my “Stirring the POT” series earlier this year as a vehicle for announcements, but it gradually morphed into a series of ruminations on conferences I attended. The latter turned out to be the more interesting enterprise, so I’ll close out the year with a belated conference rumination. This past April, I went to San Francisco, at the invitation of Roderick Long and the Molinari Society, to be on an Author-Meets-Critics panel on Gary Chartier’s Christianity and the Nation State. It promised to be a good time, and it was. Continue reading →

No, Eminent Domain is Not Purchase

Posted on by under Fatwas

Another letter to the editor of Princeton’s Town Topics, a newspaper that seems to have a pronounced allergy to fact-based reporting.

To the Editor:

A summary of the year’s events in the December 31 issue of Town Topics asserts: “The former Westminster Choir College campus is now under the aegis of the municipality, which purchased the Walnut Lane site in April, and is currently exploring design alternatives.” The same article later asserts: “In February, the municipality took another step toward purchasing the Westminster campus by hiring the Newark-based consultants Topology….The $42 million acquisition was finalized in April.” Continue reading →