Opinion | Edgar Lee
On April 23, monopoly media NBC News reporter Matt Lavietes published an article claiming to leak Columbia Palestine solidarity encampment plans, conducting police work on behalf of the old State to intimidate students from protesting.
His attack against the Columbia movement is no coincidence. Imperialism has correctly identified Columbia as the vortex of the campus movement, where the encampment spark was lit and what the movement follows. Any attacks on the Columbia movement echo across the country.
His intentions of deterring protest at Columbia is clear in his articles. In a March 27 article he co-wrote, he incited pessimism in regards to the Columbia movement, stating that “the student revolt that captivated the world appears to be largely absent,” and exclusively quoted students that chose not to participate in protests out of fear of repression.
For years, Lavietes has written Democrat-aligned articles that are critical of the far right, and recently the Trump administration’s deportations of activists. Fitting his adherence to the Democratic mafia, Lavietes has attacked the Palestinian national resistance and their al-Aqsa Flood, denouncing it as a terrorist attack and a “deadly rampage,” all while attending pro-Palestine protests.
Since 2021, Lavietes has specialized in reporting on issues relating to homosexuality for NBC, using it to peddle the interests of imperialism. In June 2024, he wrote an article criticizing pro-Palestine demonstrators for “disrupting” pride marches. When politically-unified people participate in a march and do not interfere with it, it is a contingent, not a disruption. In the article, he criticizes pro-Palestine demonstrators by stating that “Israel is perhaps the most LGBTQ-friendly nation in the Middle East.” Here, he works for imperialism by putting secondary issues such as the legality of homosexuality above national self-determination. Even within the confines of his imperialist-aligned worldview, he deceptively omits that homosexual rights in Israel are lagging behind many countries, with domestic same-sex marriage being illegal in Israel. He further justified his argument by stating that “Consensual sex between gay men has been criminalized in Gaza since 1936,” neglecting to mention that such penal code was established by the British mandate and has no history of enforcement.
We must ask, who could be considered pro-Palestine when they attack the Palestinian nation’s only path for liberation and work hand-in-glove with the old State on cracking down on those who protest for it? Lavietes criticizes the far-right Trump administration when it is weightless, but works with them when it counts.
Lavietes is not just a liberal, he is a two-faced opportunist trying to slither into the Palestine solidarity movement and destroy it from within. He changes his appearance based on the circumstances, appearing to be a conservative element within the Palestine solidarity movement at best, and an outright reactionary in service of the old State at worst.
Image: Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, in front of which student demonstrators set up their Palestine solidarity encampments in 2024. George Hodan
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