US students, faculty fight silencing of anti-genocide protests

 

Students and faculty are returning to their universities after the summer break amidst accelerating repression by administrations that are trying to silence support for Palestinian rights and protect their political and financial interests.

Already, at New York University, the administration has essentially placed a gag order on anyone who wishes to criticize Zionism, a political ideology, by categorizing it as a protected identity class.

At Barnard College, which is part of Columbia University, the administration adopted its so-called institutional neutrality policy and identified the word “Zionist” as a potential “code word” that may constitute prohibited discrimination or harassment against Jewish and Israeli students, the Columbia Spectator reported.

Palestine Legal says that Columbia University’s school year began with New York City police violently arresting student picketers demanding divestment from genocide on the first day of classes.

At the University of Michigan, four people were arrested and two were hospitalized after police slammed students into the ground for engaging in a peaceful die-in demonstration.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a free speech watchdog group, “handed Columbia a score of zero in its 2025 College Free Speech Rankings, assessing the University as ‘abysmal’ for conditions of free speech and freedom of expression,” according to the Columbia Spectator.

Columbia tied with Harvard University for last place out of 251 evaluated colleges and universities.

And last month, the University of California and Cal State systems, which constitute more than 30 campuses across the state, prohibited both Gaza solidarity encampments and the use of masks to "conceal identity." 

Two return guests, Bryce Greene and Mohamed Abdou, joined us on The Electronic Intifada Podcast to assess the current climate for Palestine solidarity on US campuses and talk about the way forward.

Greene is a graduate student at Indiana University and is a freelance writer with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, and he’s also contributed to The Electronic Intifada.

He was part of the mass Gaza solidarity student encampment last spring, and faced extreme repression by the administration and the police. The university allowed a sniper to be positioned on the roof of a campus building, directly aiming at students, including Greene. 

Greene joined a complaint filed recently by the American Civil Liberties Union alleging that the university’s ban on expressive activity outside the hours of 11pm to 6am is overly broad and violates constitutional free speech rights.