Many American campuses during the last month have seen student demonstrations where Israel is denounced for being a colonial-settler and apartheid state, cruelly oppressing the Palestinians. Chants of support for Hamas and its “resistance” are screamed out, faculty members sign collective letters denouncing Israel, and university administrators offer weak or nonexistent condemnations of antisemitism and Hamas atrocities. Derron Borders is an example of antisemitism on campuses. More on Borders can be found here.
Derron Borders was a senior “Diversity and Inclusion” official at Cornell University (Cornell) when Borders wrote pro-Hamas and pro-terror Instagram posts in October 2023.
The incident occurred following a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were carried out on October 7, 2023.
On October 8, 2023, Borders reportedly posted on Instagram Stories: “When you hear about Israel this morning and the resistance being launched by Palestinians, remember against all odds Palestinians are fighting for life, dignity, and freedom – alongside others doing the same – against settler colonization, imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, which the United States is the model.”…
Yes, according to Derron Borders, nothing says we are “fighting for life, dignity, and freedom” like decapitating babies, burning children alive, gang-raping and murdering young girls, gouging out eyes, cutting off genitalia, and slicing off breasts,, killing children in front of their parents, and parents in front of the children. That is real “resistance” that Derron Borders wants people at Cornell and the world to support.
The post continued: “Let it be known the fight for Palestine against colonization, is a fight for the imagination that other worlds are possible, that genocide should not be accepted, and that people always have the choice of refusal and the right to resist. Free the land.”…
Are you aware, Mr. Borders, that in 1967, when Israel took possession of Gaza, its population was 400,00, and it rose to 1.3 million by 2005, when every last Israeli left the Strip? Do those numbers support the charge of “genocide”? Gaza’s population is now 2.2 million. And in the West Bank, the Arab population in 1967 was 810,000, when Israel took control of the area, and is now three million. Genocide, Mr. Borders? What genocide?
On October 28, 2023, Borders posted [slide 3] on Instagram Stories a video clip of terrorist Ghassan Kanafani explaining why Palestinians should not engage in peace talks with Israel.
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
Derron Borders apparently admires the late Ghassan Kanafani, a leader of the terror group PFLP that has been responsible for many terror attacks, including that at the Lod Airport in 1972.
As of October 2023, Borders was listed online as the director of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) at Cornell’s Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management in the SC Johnson College of Business in Ithaca, New York.
Also as of October 2023, Borders was listed online as “Chair of the Measurement and Accountability Committee as part of the SC Johnson College of Business Dean’s Leadership Council on Combatting Racism and Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.”…
Borders’ remit at Cornell is the promotion of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the S. C. Johnson Business School. I wonder if his squalid antisemitism — for only that could explain his embrace of Hamas — has now been sufficiently on display for those higher up in Cornell’s administration to reconsider his fitness for such a job.
On October 10, 2023, Cornell reportedly admitted to being “made aware of” Borders’s comments but that Borders “has been on a leave of absence from the university for several months.”
Borders has been on a “leave of absence” for several months. Why was that? Did he post antisemitic remarks on social media, or make antisemitic statements to colleagues? There must be some very good reason why he was put on leave.
And now, following Borders’ posts on Instagram, offering his wholehearted support to Hamas “resistance” one day after the October 7 massacre, Cornell has to do the right thing, especially since it has been getting quite a reputation for being a distinctly uncomfortable place for Jewish students. Do the right thing, Cornell. For his endorsing as legitimate “resistance” the atrocities of Hamas, a recognized terrorist group, Derron Borders needs to be dismissed.