Category Archives: Palestine

Sue Altman Is No Progressive

Posted on by under cancel culture, Electoral Ethics and Politics, Guest Post, moralism, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

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

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

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:

  1. Housing: he’ll expand affordable housing and protect working families from rising housing costs. 
  2. Healthcare: he’ll protect access to affordable, quality healthcare for families, seniors, and those most in need.
  3. Education: he’ll open doors to opportunity through education, job training, and relief from crushing debt.
  4. Immigration: he’ll support fair, humane, immigration reform rooted in dignity, security, and common sense.
  5. Taxes: he’ll fight for tax fairness and relief for New Jersey homeowners and middle-class families.

Continue reading →

Delivering the Goods

Posted on by under Art/Literature, Palestine

A friend handed me a hard copy of The New York Times he found on the train this afternoon, something I hadn’t seen or read in awhile. The reporting in the Times is unbelievable crap, but every now and then they’ll throw in an off-beat human interest story worth reading. Like: “The Cult Music Documentary ‘Heavy Metal Parking Lot’ Turns Middle Age.” It’s about a cult film depiction of Judas Priest’s 1986 tour with Dokken, memorable to me because my friends went but I couldn’t, something I resent to this day. Continue reading →

Graffiti, Hate Speech, and Free Speech

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Palestine, princeton

Statement to Princeton Town Council
400 Witherspoon St
Princeton, New Jersey
April 27, 2026

I’ve twice previously mentioned the Princeton Police Department’s decision to investigate anti-Israel graffiti as bias intimidation, mostly while discussing other things. In this comment, I want to focus specifically on the bias intimidation issue.

As you know, the issue arises from graffiti discovered in various places around town last August. The Princeton Jewish Center brought the issue to the attention of the Council, and the Police Department decided to investigate the graffiti as bias intimidation. Given the Council’s positive response to the Jewish Center’s input on the matter, I think it’s fair to conclude that the Council accepts the Police Department’s approach. Continue reading →

A Question for the CPUC

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

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?

Free Speech in Princeton?

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, princeton, Princeton University

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 →

JROTC Out of West Orange

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Fatwas, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran, West Orange

I’ve mentioned a few times that I split my time between Princeton and West Orange, New Jersey, which is why some of my activism focuses on the one place, and some on the other. West Orange High School has a JROTC Air Force program which it never tires of advertising. The High School recently advertised its Student Life Expo for Incoming Freshmen, to take place April 22. High school freshmen are typically students entering ninth grade, i.e., 14 or 15 years old. Among the student groups advertised for such students, under the rubric of “Honor Societies,” is “Kitty Hawk Air Honor Society (JROTC).”* Continue reading →

A Wake Up Call for Hillsdale College

Posted on by under activism, Fatwas, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, pedagogy, War with Iran

From the Hillsdale Current, News and Happenings from Hillsdale College, April 11, 2026:

Pentagon to Send Officers to Hillsdale

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently announced that the military would begin sending officers to Hillsdale College for graduate studies as part of an effort to cut ties with universities that promote “woke” ideology. President Arnn joined Fox Business to discuss his conversation with Secretary Hegseth about this honor, Hillsdale’s principle of refusing taxpayer funding, and its history of educating military leaders.

Continue reading →

It All Adds Up

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

The minute I invoke the legacy of Mario Savio for a Princeton audience, I learn that just this past February, Christopher Eisgruber, the President of Princeton University, delivered two lectures in the Clark Kerr Lecture Series at Berkeley. “Kerr’s legacy,” Eisgruber tells us, “is extraordinary”; he led Berkeley through a “turbulent period” in its history. Meanwhile, Savio, the principal source of the turbulence, goes unmentioned. That figures.

There used to be a Mario Savio Memorial Lecture Series associated with a Mario Savio Young Activist Award. The organization involved was based in Guerneville, California, but is not (of course) formally connected with Berkeley. The last lecture was given in 2019; the organization itself now appears defunct. That figures, too.