Columbia U. Settles for $395k With Jewish Student for Role in ‘Fart Spray’ Incident

The Left has no sense of humor, or, more accurately, that it cannot bear being laughed at and may fall on anyone who dares make it look dumb. We bring you Display# 47, 863 today. &nbsp,

In today’s season, we take you to the Communist hellscape that is Columbia University. ( Full publication: I am a student of the school. And yes, it was a left-wing s**t-show when I was there, too. ) &nbsp,

As we all know, the horrible October 7, 2023, extremist attack on Israeli civilians strangely brought out waves of antisemitic/anti-Israel rallies across the United States and around the world. These barbarians found a home on one of our most prominent campuses, where they set out to imitate the threatening behavior of Israeli students and faculty.

Democrats on the House Committee on Education & the Workforce conducted a study of the issue because the situation got so sour. Their report, which was released on Thursday, contained details about Columbia’s persecution of two Israeli students who had pulled a safe and humorous prank, which was deeply underreported.

The record,” Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed”, looked into the Jan. 19, 2024, event. It found that anti-Israel protest were hosting still another unauthorised march on the actions of Columbia’s Low Library “in infraction of the University’s guidelines”. The Ivy League leaders of the future were occupied chanting their support for Yemeni Houthi terrorist-pirate problems on commercial ships:” Oman, Yemen make us proud, move another ship about”. Two Jewish students unleashed a can of laugh spray on the hostiles in what any sensible person would characterize as a specially pertinent prank in what they would later identify as a particularly pertinent prank. ( Full disclosure: I have even pranked people with spit mist. It’s hilarious. )

Hysteria quickly ensued:

Anti-Israel activists who were present at the march accused two pupils they called “former IOF soldiers” of carrying out a claimed” chemical attack” with a” chemical weapon.” The students claimed that the material was “Skunk spray,” which they thought was a military-grade pesticide used by the Israeli government.

” IOF” stands for” Israel Offensive Forces”, a distortion of The Israeli military’s actual name, the IDF ( Israel Defense Forces ).

And “Skunk”, as the defense substance is called for small, takes a liquid form, like water, which is good for spraying over large areas with a liquid weapon. Odortec, an Israeli company, created it as a form of group manage.

The filthy scent can last for weeks and lead to nausea and vomiting after Skunk makes call with a person or object. The odor is overpowering, similar to a frog’s mist but worse, smelling as if it has been mixed with fresh sewage, carbon and rotting pet corpses”, says Al Jazeera America. Additionally, it’s said to be difficult to clean off, and it even smells worse after a few wants.

The fed-up students did n’t spray any such thing on the obnoxious protestors as it was obvious right away.

According to the review, “at least four older Columbia administrators who were present at the location where the incident occurred reported that they saw no indication of the alleged incident.” Soon, more evidence that this was not a significant event was expected:

Brian McPherson, the FBI’s Assistant Vice President of Operations and Investigations at Columbia Public Safety, sent an email on January 21 with the University’s findings from the incident, which cast doubt on the anti-Israel activists ‘ says. Despite the anti-Israel activists ‘ claim that several students needed medical attention following the incident, a skilled investigation conducted by Columbia Public Safety determined that no pupils had sought medical attention at Mount Sinai. No reports of individuals claiming to have been sprayed at the opposition were made to the NYPD, according to Sinai Hospital with matching signs, and no complaints were made by Columbia University EMS. One student plaintiff reported the incident to Columbia Public Safety, who initially claimed that the mist had been sprayed directly by the perpetrators when she reported it. However, she later changed her account to claim that the mist had been in the atmosphere around her. The NYPD’s assessment of the claimant’s coat raises the report in dispute because it “did never reveal any odors which would be suggestive of a’skunk spray.”

However, the very next day, Columbia’s Interim Provost Dennis Mitchell sent a community-wide concept that characterized the issue as a “deeply disturbing event” in which” students reported being sprayed with a foul-smelling substance that required students to seek health treatment”. Additionally, he added that the” New York City Police Department is taking the lead role in investigating what appear to have been serious crimes, possibly hate crimes.”

The report continues:

By late February, the University had learned that the incident was not a” chemical attack” but rather a non-toxic spray. According to Amazon.com receipts, the two students who were in charge of the incident merely sprayed what the University described as a “prank fart spray” in what one of the students claimed was an attempt to make a “harmless gag and prank” during a disciplinary hearing on February 23. Although this behavior was inappropriate and a violation of University regulations that merited discipline, it was also a far less serious incident than those that anti-Israel activists or the general public had characterized. &nbsp,

Whatever. The university suspended the pranksters for a year and a half on March 13 for what the university described as” substantially longer than any suspension for antisemitic conduct violations.” In addition, its promotion of the false narrative increased the campus ‘ hostility and antisemitism:

Using the “skunk spray” narrative as a pretext, on January 24, CUAD held a” No Safety Without Divestment” protest, where many of the chants focused on calling for” IOF off campus now”, including shouting,” Say it loud, say it clear, we do n’t want no IOF here”. Given that all Israeli citizens are required to serve in the military, these chants effectively targeted all Israelis at Columbia. Faculty participated in the calls for exclusion. In a media interview about the alleged “skunk spray” incident, Columbia Law Professor Katherine Franke claimed that Israeli students who had served in the IDF had “been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus.” And it’s something the university has n’t taken very seriously in the past.

A dehumanizing tactic “reminiscent of Nazi propaganda,” the favored protestors posted flyers around campus that equated Jews with skunks.

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Officials in the Columbia community contacted numerous Jewish leaders and students to release a statement and provide more information about the incident. The university refused. Even during her infamous testimony to Congress in April 2024, then-president Minouche Shafik, when asked to clear up the facts, said only that it was” an odorous substance that was sprayed on demonstrators”. In her closing statement, Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx called out Shafik for her “misleading” testimony. She noted that Columbia failed to correct the record and that” for months Jewish students have been demonized with false accusations of a” chemical attack.” She also made note that the Jewish pranksters were the only two students still suspended at the time.

Also in April, one of the persecuted students filed a lawsuit against Columbia. In the resulting settlement, the university agreed to pay the student$ 395, 000 and reduce the year-and-a-half suspension to probation. &nbsp,

Additionally, Columbia was required to release a statement that finally clarified that” the substance sprayed was a non-toxic, legal, novelty item that can be purchased online and in stores throughout the country” rather than” not any bio-chemical weapon, illicit substance, or personal protective spray.” On Friday night before Labor Day weekend, Columbia posted this statement sleazy and lustful. &nbsp,

This significant story might not have received the coverage it deserves without House Republicans ‘ diligent investigation of campus antisemitism. And despite the university’s obscene persecution of Jewish students and its facilitation of antisemitism on its campus, it was still a funny prank. Even more hilarious is the fact that at least one of the students received compensation for his trouble. Good for them.

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