Gerrard Kaonga
An employee at Cornell University has been accused of ‘inciting hatred and promoting terror’ after a 'disturbing' post on Instagram this week.
The post came after the Islamist political and military organization Hamas launched an attack that saw festivalgoers fleeing in terror as paragliding militants descended on the Supernova Music Festival in southern Israel and opened fire.
In addition to this attack, following the escalation, there has been an increase in rocket strikes on cities in the country.
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Multiple countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, have publicly denounced these attacks and insisted they support Israel.
However, Derron Borders, a diversity and inclusion officer at the New York university, took to Instagram to voice his support of the Palestinian people on Monday.
Borders had suggested the killing of innocent civilians was part of the country’s 'resistance' against Israel after years of persecution.
“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,” Borders said on his Instagram story.
“[They are] against settle colonization, imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, which the United States is the model."
Borders also took issue with individuals who, in his opinion, have feigned outrage at the escalation of conflict between Palestine and Israel.
He said: “F*** your fake outrage at Palestine when you’ve literally been silent about the violence perpetuated by Israel against Palestine every day."
Borders did eventually post a message condemning the attack, but also attempted to shift the conversation to Israel’s behavior towards Palestine over the years.
“The atrocities and violence towards innocent people in Israel is absolutely horrifying and should be condemned,” he said.
“The state-sanctioned violence and denial of self-determination for the Palestinian people by the Israeli government is also terrible and should be condemned.”
Borders comments sparked outrage online and were labelled 'disturbing', 'vile' and 'despicable'.
The Jewish CEO of South-African based hedge fund RIMAR Capital, Itai Liptz, sent a letter to Cornell University in response to the Instagram posts.
Liptz called for the removal of Borders from his position and claimed that his social media posts ‘incite hatred and promote terror’.
“I was saddened to see [the] post on social media of Mr Derron Borders, the Director of the office Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell,” Liptz’s letter read.
“I have attached four [of] his posts. It is evident that these posts incite hatred and promote terror at a time like this. This is especially saddening given Mr Borders position, which is one of influence and on that is expected to promote inclusion and harmony.
“I hope that Cornell will act to remove him from his post. As a Jew and the head of a financial advisory, which manages funds for some of your donors, I will also be speaking to your donors personally and sharing his position and posts.
“I will also be sharing this with various organizations such as AIPAC, StandWith US, and the Anti-Defamation League.”
Cornell University has said in a statement that it has been made aware of Borders comment but said he was ‘an employee who has been on a leave of absence from the university for several months,’ according to a NY Post report.
Borders Instagram page is currently not available.
UNILAD has contacted Cornell University for a comment.