US elite figures threaten pro-Palestine protesters with repercussions

Influential American figures from various sectors have taken a firm stance against the protesters threatening them with their future as demonstrations in support of Palestinians have spread across the United States and beyond.

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods said the oil company would not be interested in hiring students taking part in pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the US.

"Harassment and intimidation, there's no place for that, frankly, at those universities and certainly no place for that in a company like ExxonMobil," Woods said in an interview with CNBC this week.

"We wouldn't look to bring folks like that into our company and if that action or those protests reflect the values of the campuses where they're doing it, we wouldn't be interested in recruiting students from those campuses," he added.

Student demonstrations began on April 17 at Columbia University to protest Israel's offensive in Gaza, where more than 34,600 Palestinians have been killed and 77,700 injured since an October 7 attack by Hamas.

The protests have served as a flashpoint for the wider movement to protest Israel’s war on Gaza.

'Will bring your picture in background check'

Shark Tank host and businessman Kevin O'Leary had a much more blunt take on the consequences student demonstrators may face after graduating.

"These people are screwed," O'Leary said during a Fox News interview earlier this week, describing how artificial intelligence (AI) can identify each and every protester from video footage being taken at campus demonstrations.

"Everything being shot now is 1080p or 4K, even the surveillance cameras. Every single image, even at night now, goes into an AI generator and will tell you who that individual is," he explained.

"I have a lot of companies. I hire thousands of people. Within weeks, I'm gonna be able on, when we're doing your background check, I'm going to find this cause it's going to be in there on the dark web," O'Leary continued, gesturing to two hypothetical stacks of resumes. "Here's your resume with a picture of you burning a flag. See that one? That goes in this pile over here cause I can get the same person's talent in this pile that's not burning anything," he said.

"I don't care what university or what you're burning or whose side you're on. You'll never know why you didn't get a mortgage ... you'll never know I didn't get the job because we see you now, and all you need is to have your eyes exposed with a new 4K image, and for the rest of your life, you're in this pile."

'We'll bankrupt them'

Meanwhile, Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer known with his pro-Israeli views, vowed that he would take every legal step necessary to punish student protesters engaging in any allegedly antisemitic actions, referring to them as "bigots, antisemites and potentially violent terrorists."

"We will sue them and we will get their dorm rooms taken away. We will take their cars and their boomboxes and we'll bankrupt them," Dershowitz said in an interview with Newsmax.

"We will do whatever is necessary, under the law, in order to bring these lawsuits, bring them successfully and deter Oct. 7," he said, referring to a cross-border attack last year by Palestinian groups from Gaza into Israel.

Israel has pounded Gaza since a cross-border attack by Hamas, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85 percent of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60 percent of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.

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Source: TRT