On April 30th of this year, a debate over Israel/Palestine took place at Cornell University, introduced and attended by Michael Kotlikoff, the President of the University. After the debate, Kotlikoff was followed from the venue to his car by students who asked him questions while filming him. Kotlikoff clearly didn’t want to talk to them, so he hurried to his car, and got in, closing the door. The students then surrounded the car on all three sides–the driver’s and passenger’s side as well as the rear of the vehicle–crowding fairly close to it, pressing their questions. Kotlikoff then backed up, hitting two students, and drove away. Neither student was seriously injured. Video of the event is widely available online, showing the event from various angles.
Continue readingCategory Archives: Notes on the Anti-War Movement
NJ-12: The Trance Is the Motion
I’ve so far received campaign literature or text messages from seven of the candidates in the NJ-12 congressional race: Sue Altman, Brad Cohen, Adam Hamawy, Adrian Mapp, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Shanel Robinson, and Squire Servance. Of these, Hamawy is the only one who’s mentioned ending the Iran War as an explicit part of his pitch. The other six either say nothing, or next to nothing.*
Try to get your mind around this evasion: six out of seven candidates in a Democratic primary don’t think that our being involved in the most irrational and ruinous war in decades is even worth mentioning. Aggression means nothing to them, even when committed by their supposed arch-enemy, Trump. Mass death means nothing to them. Regional war means nothing to them. The potential destruction of the entire oil infrastructure of the Persian Gulf means nothing to them. The potential for a ground invasion means nothing to them. The potential for nuclear war means nothing to them. The indefinite closure of the Strait of Hormuz means nothing to them. The blockade of the Persian Gulf means nothing to them. The recent increase in fuel prices means nothing, the prospect of inflation means nothing, and the expected downstream consequences of the closure and blockade mean nothing.
Charlie Kratovil for Mayor of New Brunswick
Though I don’t live in New Brunswick, and can’t vote in its municipal elections, I commute through the city ten times a week, and spend time there just about every week. I also have a strong interest, as do all of us in this area, in the workings of New Brunswick’s major institutions: Rutgers University, Johnson & Johnson, RWJ Barnabas Health, DEVCO, the Middlesex County Commission, and now HELIX. These institutions are among the main power brokers behind Jersey politics as such. The people who call the shots within them end up calling the shots for all of us. Continue reading
Calling All Palestine Activists
Converge on Princeton: Reunions, May 21-24
I’ve been making the case to pro-Palestine activists wherever I go: the experience of being shut down at LeMoyne, NYU, U of Texas at Dallas, and Rutgers (with the prospect of retaliation at Michigan) and elsewhere is certainly a dispiriting one, but the answer is not to keep demanding entry where entry has effectively been denied, but to find opportunities for visibility when and where they present themselves. Continue reading
The Unintended, the Foreseen, and the Defamatory
“We absolutely cannot and should not ever be cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children…”
–Sue Altman
Sue Altman and Adam Hamawy are both Democratic candidates for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. A controversy has recently erupted over Altman’s response to comments Hamawy made in an interview with Hasan Piker. The basics of the controversy are nicely captured in this short piece in Jewish Insider. I’ll quote the first few paragraphs, but urge readers to read the whole thing. Continue reading
Sue Altman Is No Progressive
Sue Altman’s Rejection of Reparations, Attack on Adam Hamawy, and Pro-War Politics Show She Is Out of Step With Progressive Values
by Dr Sadaf Jaffer and Minister Elorm Ocansey
On the eve of his death, Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr. stood in Memphis as a witness. The speech we remember as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” was a warning. Dr. King spoke of wages withheld, of labor exploited, of systems that consumed Black bodies and called it order. He spoke of a people who had been given a check marked “insufficient funds,” and he dared to say what too many still refuse to say: justice requires repayment. The Promised Land Dr. King saw was not symbolic. It was material. It was economic. It was reparative. New Jersey, for all its progressive language, is not innocent in this story. The New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, through the work of the New Jersey Reparations Council, has laid before us a document that reads less like a report and more like a reckoning. Page after page, it testifies: That slavery here was not distant, but deliberate. That segregation was not accidental, but engineered. That the racial wealth gap is not unfortunate, but designed. Continue reading
Mapp to Nowhere
I get home, look at my mail, and find a solicitation to vote for Adrian O. Mapp, Democratic candidate for Congress in the 12th Congressional District. Mapp is “proudly endorsed” by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a person I respect. What does Mapp stand for? He tells us:
- Housing: he’ll expand affordable housing and protect working families from rising housing costs.
- Healthcare: he’ll protect access to affordable, quality healthcare for families, seniors, and those most in need.
- Education: he’ll open doors to opportunity through education, job training, and relief from crushing debt.
- Immigration: he’ll support fair, humane, immigration reform rooted in dignity, security, and common sense.
- Taxes: he’ll fight for tax fairness and relief for New Jersey homeowners and middle-class families.
A Question for the CPUC
Here’s a question I’ve submitted to be asked at the next meeting of the Council for the Princeton University Community (CPUC), to take place Monday, May 4, 4:30-6 pm, in the Multipurpose Room of the Frist Campus Center.
My name is Irfan Khawaja, I’m an alum of the Class of 1991. The University has recently called on alumni like me to “stand up” for the University, but it’s also insisted that it has no intention of disclosing “details about the holdings of its endowment,” to quote Vice President Hilary Parker from the last time I was here (November 11, 2024). The endowment reflects the acted-upon values of the university. So my question is: on what basis does the University expect alumni to stand up for a university that refuses to disclose what it stands for?
Postscript, May 6, 2026: Unfortunately, I was delayed at work on the 4th, and unable to attend the CPUC meeting to ask this question. With that experience in mind, I’ve resolved to get a full day’s PTO for each CPUC meeting next academic year. I’ll post the questions on the blog in due course.
ICE-Free Zones in West Orange
Back in February, I wrote a post called “ICE Out of West Orange,” and sent it to the West Orange Town Council. I’m gratified to see that West Orange Councilwoman Joyce Rudin has endorsed a version of the proposal I made, and done so for the right reasons. I don’t know if my post had any influence on her or not; my point is that what she’s endorsing is exactly consistent with what I said. Continue reading
Free Speech in Princeton?
Statement to Princeton Municipal Council
400 Witherspoon St
Princeton, New Jersey
April 13, 2026
Hi, my name is Irfan Khawaja; I live in Princeton.
Given the dearth of information we’ve gotten regarding this draft ordinance about public demonstrations, I, too, would like to put this issue into a wider context.
In May 2024, the University shut down Gaza Solidarity Encampment, had some people arrested, and shut Cannon Green down to “organized activity” for the first time in 250 years. It’s been closed for two years now, and there’s no indication of when, if ever, it will open. Continue reading
Policy of Truth 