Columbia partners with nonprofit that once said 'terrorist' is a 'racial slur' and defended Hamas
Columbia partnered with Slow Factory in 2020 for an education initiative that brought together 'scientific methodology' and 'fashion’s leading experts.'
In April, the group stated that the word 'terrorist' is a 'racial slur.'
Columbia University is partnered with a nonprofit that has openly supported what it calls Palestinians’ “resistance” against Israel and has defended the existence of the terrorist group, Hamas.
Columbia partnered with Slow Factory in 2020 for an education initiative that brought together “scientific methodology” and “fashion’s leading experts,” according to The Washington Free Beacon.
“Columbia licenses our intellectual property to hundreds of companies in an attempt to bring these life saving or life improving innovations from the lab to the market,” a Columbia spokesperson said. “To that end, Slow Factory Labs was one company that licensed Columbia’s intellectual property in 2022.”
In April, Slow Factory stated that the word “terrorist” is a “racial slur.” It also shared a letter from the Columbia Climate Alumni Coalition that expressed “full solidarity with the brave students of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment” at Columbia.
On its website, Slow Factory also has a page dedicated to its support for Palestinians and to justifying Hamas’s existence.
”The use of ‘But Hamas’ and its political and military goals to justify the oppression of Palestinian people as a whole, and the Israeli military occupation ignores the context of the 75-year occupation of Palestine. The root aggression, what our focus should be on, comes from the Israeli government itself, not the people it oppresses,” Slow Factory writes.
“Our advocacy for a Free Palestine is rooted in a desire to see the Palestinian people liberated from expulsion, occupation and oppression of all kinds, not antisemitism,” the website states.
Continuing its defense of Hamas, Slow Factory claims that “Hamas is a relatively recent response to the systemic violence the Palestinian people have experienced for three quarters of a century.”
“The military occupation of Palestine and the apartheid system it has created goes back generations before Hamas, therefore it is reasonable to believe that it will continue with or without Hamas unless we and other advocates for human rights around the world stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and actively work towards its liberation,” the group concludes.
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly
