In response to the increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents at schools and on college campuses, the Biden administration has announced new initiatives and resources.
New York — A pro-Palestinian student organization at George Washington University faced suspension after projecting phrases such as "glory to our martyrs" and "divestment from Zionist genocide now" on the campus library.
Two comparable groups were suspended by Columbia University last week for persistently breaking college rules, such as hosting unapproved events, in the far north. Additionally, because the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine "openly supports Hamas," Brandeis University banned it.
The suspensions didn't accomplish what they were supposed to. Organizations sprang up fast.
Colleges are finding it difficult to draw a boundary between permitting demonstrations that call for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hamas and those that turn into hate speech due to the rise of new organizations to replace those that have been suspended.
One Palestinian student at Columbia, a part of the recently formed Columbia University Apartheid Divest coalition, claimed that "the suspension of those two groups is nothing more than a suppression of speech."
Students who expressed solidarity with Palestinians were also disciplined by universities such as Brown University and MIT. Meanwhile, in an effort to combat the rise in antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents at schools and on college campuses, the Biden administration this week unveiled new initiatives and resources.
As anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric poisoned campus environments for years, Kenneth Marcus, founder and chair of the nonprofit Brandeis Center—an organization that promotes Jewish civil and human rights—said. But in the aftermath of the atrocities they have committed, we have now witnessed student organizations going so far as to support a designated terrorist organization during the past month.He did not want to reveal his full name for fear of retaliation.
Concerns about attempts to silence pro-Palestinian groups are being raised by students, activists, and proponents of free speech. And establishments are realizing that more and more: Due to legal concerns, two of Florida's largest universities have refused to deactivate Students for Justice in Palestine groups, as requested by Governor Ron DeSantis.
One of those universities, the University of Florida, was sued on Thursday by the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, which claims that the university is violating its First Amendment rights. The chapter also sued the state. However, scholarship and grant recipients from Florida colleges who “promote” Hamas and other officially sanctioned terrorist groups may also face consequences from Republican lawmakers.
About 650 college administrators received an open letter from the American Civil Liberties Union urging them to reject "baseless calls to investigate or punish" pro-Palestinian groups staging demonstrations on campus. This was in reaction to a letter that the Brandeis Center and the American Defamation League had sent to almost 200 college presidents, asking them to look into the Student for Justice in Palestine chapters.
The largest Muslim civil rights organization in the country, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has an executive director in New York, Afaf Nasher. He described Columbia's decision as “the suppression and silencing of pro-Palestinian voices on campus.”
This week, there was more resistance.
And the demonstrations go on.
A group of students from more than 30 law schools, including Harvard, Columbia, New York University, and the City University of New York, called Law Students for a Free Palestine was organizing a day of action on Thursday to call on law schools to back a ceasefire and put an end to the violence in Gaza.
The George Washington University student body also founded the Student Coalition for Palestine.
The legality of colleges' ability to suppress protests, however, is ambiguous.
According to Lyrissa Lidsky, chair of the University of Florida's constitutional law program, the Supreme Court has ruled that free speech is protected unless it falls into an unprotected category, such
as inciting impending violence or providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Long before the current Middle East conflict, institutions had targeted Students for Justice in Palestine. Lafayette College in Pennsylvania declined to recognize a local chapter earlier this year due to worries that the group's activities might violate university regulations by going after other clubs on campus. The group had previously been banned by Fordham University.
Schools have been under pressure to take action due to an increase in threats, harassment, and assaults. One such incident involved a 21-year-old Cornell University student who was arrested for making online threats against Jewish students.
Additionally, he argued in a recent Boston Globe opinion piece that student groups advocating for the destruction of Israel or violence against Jews "should lose all privileges associated with affiliation at their schools."
George Washington claimed in a statement that Students for Justice in Palestine had broken rules regarding building use and non-compliance when it refused to stop projecting images on the library building, among other policies of the university.
Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace's Columbia chapters jointly released a statement last week labeling the announcement "an attack on free speech" meant to divert attention from and support "Israel's genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people."
In addition, colleges risk losing state funding if they don't take action against hate speech, similar to what Florida is doing.
Republican state senator Bill Weber of New York has proposed legislation that would forbid tuition assistance aid from being granted to college students in New York who knowingly participate in antisemitic activities.
"We have a responsibility to stop this polarizing behavior, and there is no place for hatred in New York," he declared.
Source : politico
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