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 readingCategory Archives: activism
Activist Interviews: Emanuelle Sippy
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
Stirring the POT (5)
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
The Immigrant Trust Tour: West Orange Yet Again
I’ve been pleased to see that my blog posts here have generated a bit of press coverage in favor of an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolution in West Orange. This piece, in the November 20 issue of TapInto West Orange, covered my initial statement to West Orange Town Council. This one, in the December 23 issue of The West Orange Dispatch, essentially brings things up to date. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: Middlesex County Again
Second Statement to the Middlesex County Board of County Commissioners
75 Bayard St
New Brunswick, New Jersey
December 18, 2025
My name is Irfan Khawaja. I live in Princeton and work in Iselin. I’m here to advocate for the county’s passing a resolution in favor of the Immigrant Trust Act (ITA). Last time I was here, I recounted a story of an unfortunate event in Edison back in 2024 in which the mayor of that town abused a bunch of migrants with impunity. The point of the story was to suggest that had the ITA been in place, the abuse wouldn’t have happened. Continue reading
The Contradictions of Institutional Neutrality
Coming Attractions in My Jihad Against Institutional Neutrality
Over the last year or so, I’ve written about two dozen posts here critiquing institutional neutrality, and given maybe a half dozen conference presentations on the subject. But in some ways, the criticisms I’ve made so far are peripheral to the fundamental problem with the doctrine. The fundamental problem is that it’s self-contradictory and self-subversive. This latter problem is so obvious, and so obviously fatal to the doctrine, that stating it threatens to trivialize the whole discussion about institutional neutrality: if the doctrine is self-contradictory, why discuss it? Good question. In any case, I might as well articulate the objection, if only to put it out there. Continue reading
Those “Drowned Out” Zionists
Joshua Leifer’s “Conflictedly Connected” Liberal Zionist Center
The well-regarded left Zionist writer Joshua Leifer has a much fawned-over piece in Ha’aretz that’s been adopted in some quarters as the expression of profound wisdom. In it he argues that there’s a “conflictedly connected” Zionist quasi-left “majority” that’s been “drowned out” by the extremist voices of the “ultra-hawkish right” and the “anti-Zionist left.” If only this “conflictedly connected” majority could be liberated from the shackles placed on it by these twin extremists, the Golden Mean would prevail, and virtue would flourish on the topic of Israel and Palestine. Continue reading
Questions for Princeton Council (1)
Public Comments and “Disruptions”
My name is Irfan Khawaja. I’m a resident of Princeton. I have a question for the Council, to which I request a forthright answer.
There’s a video now in the public domain which shows Councilwoman Fraga at the New Jersey League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City, disclosing that this Council made a decision to move public comments to the end of the meeting in order to forestall disruptions.
This is what she said, verbatim. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: Three Wins
A quick update from the Immigrant Trust Tour: we’ve just had three Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolutions passed here in New Jersey in the last few weeks. The first was at the Somerset County Board of County Commissioners in Somerville (Nov. 12, unanimous), the second, at the Mercer County Board of County Commissioners in Trenton (Nov. 24, unanimous), and the third passed tonight at Clifton City Council (Dec. 2, 4-3). Mercer County was friendly and receptive, but Clifton was a tough battle–contentious and occasionally hostile. I wasn’t privy to goings-on at Somerset. In any case, three wins. Continue reading
The Immigrant Trust Tour: Tensions in Clifton
Readers of this blog may remember my earlier posts on the campaign for an Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) resolution in Clifton, New Jersey (Nov 5 and Nov 18). As mentioned in the latter post, I attended the November 5 meeting, but had to miss the November 12 one due to a scheduling issue. This is a guest post by my friend Jeff Hoey of Clifton, describing the November 12 meeting. Here is a link to the (tendentious, editorializing) Clifton Times piece Jeff mentions. Continue reading
Policy of Truth 