#Harvard professors sue #Trump administration over funding cut threats

by Katie Cole, April 14, 2025, #WBUR

"The Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors sued the Trump administration Friday over what they call an 'unlawful and unprecedented' attempt to use federal funding cuts to restrict #FreeSpeech.

"The #DepartmentOfEducation announced in late March that it would review $8.7 billion in federal grants and contacts given to Harvard, alleging that the school failed to prevent #antisemitic discrimination on campus.

"The Trump administration then unveiled a broad set of demands on April 4 the university must agree to in order to keep getting federal funding, including cutting all diversity, equity and inclusion programming, and modifying any programming and departments that 'fuel antisemitic harassment.' The administration gave Columbia University a similar set of demands in March, which the school agreed to.

"The lawsuit by the professors' group, filed in #Massachusetts federal court, alleges that the administration's federal funding review violates the #TitleVI of the #CivilRightsAct, which prohibits discrimination in programs that receive federal funds. The court filing says the law requires specific procedures to cut federal funds and that the Trump administration has not taken any of those steps.

"The group said in a press release that the administration's actions are in effort to create a chilling effect among universities and faculty to stop speech that the president does not like.

" 'Eliminating discrimination and protecting all students is important,' said Nikolas Bowie, a Harvard law professor and the secretary-treasurer of the school's #AAUP chapter, in a statement. 'But Trump is defying the Civil Rights Act, terrifying students, and illegally holding hostage grants for hospitals and scientific research so he can accomplish his real goal of punishing academics for our politics.'

"The lawsuit says that the actions by the administration have 'already caused severe and irreparable harm by halting #academic #research and #inquiry at Harvard.'

"This is the second suit that the Harvard AAUP chapter has filed against the Trump administration this year. The first was a joint suit with other chapters, including one from Columbia, over federal efforts to deport #MahmoudKhalil and students that engaged in #ProPalestinian #activism."

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/04/14/harvard-aaup-trump-funding-cuts-lawsuit

#SilencingDissent #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism #Authoritarian #Authoritarianism #BibiIsAWarCriminal #FreeMahmoudKhalil #FreePalestine #AcademicFreedom #FreeSpeech #TrumpIsABully #DEI #Erasure #Censorship

#Germany seeks to #deport #protesters

Submitted by webadmin on 9 April, 2025

"The German state has issued deportation orders for three #EUCitizens and one #American who have attended #ProPalestinian protests.

"Berlin immigration authorities issued the orders on 31 March, demanding that the four individuals leave Germany within one month or else face deportation. Their orders cite a protest in October 2024 in which masked individuals caused 'significant property damage, including #graffiti', as well as resisting arrest and calling a #police officer a '#fascist'.

"Unusually, three of the four orders also invoke the German principle of #Staatsräson, (“#StateReason”). This term originates from a speech #AngelaMerkel gave to the #IsraeliKnesset in 2008, asserting that #Israeli security was fundamental to the purpose of the German state.

"Staatsräson is not an officially defined term or codified anywhere in the German constitution or by German courts. At least two of the protestors are appealing the decision, with their lawyer telling Al-Monitor that it is a 'political concept, not a legal concept, and therefore unlawful'.

"In any case, the #deportation of #activists for #protesting should be opposed.

#Khalil

"The activists’ lawyer has drawn parallels to the case of #MahmoudKhalil in the US. 'I see similarities… It is weaponization of #ImmigrationLaw as a tool to silence #PoliticalDissent'. Khalil’s case may also lead to a debate on interpretations of the US constitution’s #FirstAmendment.

"Back in February, #Berlin police broke up a protest, citing a ban on '#ArabicChanting', the playing of #ArabicMusic, or giving a speech in #Arabic. In October 2024, police raided the homes of five men, four of whom were being investigated over 'authorship of #antisemitic social media posts'.

Clapping

"And after the joint Israeli-Palestinian documentary #NoOtherLand won an Academy Award, German culture minister Claudia Roth insisted that she was only clapping for Israeli director Yuval Abraham, not Palestinian director #BaselAdra. Several politicians, including the mayor of Berlin, called for her resignation. A torrent of public criticism was aimed at #YuvalAbraham for his acceptance speech, to which he responded: 'To stand on German soil as the son of Holocaust survivors and call for a ceasefire — and to then be labelled as antisemitic is not only outrageous, it is also literally putting Jewish lives in danger.'

"Israeli politicians cited German politicians when attacking the filmmakers themselves, and only weeks later, co-director #HamdanBallal was attacked by #IsraeliSettlers in the #WestBank, and removed from an ambulance by #IDF soldiers.

"German Staatsräson is less about assuring Israel’s right to exist, and more about giving a free hand to the #repressive policies of the Israeli right."

Source:
https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2025-04-09/germany-seeks-deport-protesters

#CriminalizingDissent #ProPalestineActivists #ProPalestine
#CriminalizingProtest #AntiProtestLaws
#GermanyPol #GermanAntiProtestLaws
#Authoritarianism #Fascism #RightWing #StudentProtesters #Zionism #BibiIsAWarCriminal #Enablers

Israel's army says it will fire air force reservists who condemned the war

By Sam Mednick

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-11-04-2025-f0d71ecc3b1c3d167a4cd1458f941728
#BibiIsAWarCriminal #SilencingDissent #Israel #Palestine #NoWar

THIS IS BULLSHIT! (AND ILLEGAL!!!)

Pressed for evidence against #MahmoudKhalil, government cites its power to deport people for beliefs

By Jake Offenhartz, April 10, 2025

NEW YORK (AP) — "Facing a deadline from an immigration judge to turn over evidence for its attempted deportation of Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil, the federal government has instead submitted a brief memo, signed by Secretary of State #MarcoRubio, citing the Trump administration’s authority to expel #noncitizens whose presence in the country damages U.S. foreign policy interests.

"The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Associated Press, does not allege any criminal conduct by Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident and graduate student who served as spokesperson for campus activists last year during large demonstrations against #Israel’s treatment of #Palestinians and the war in #Gaza.

"Rather, Rubio wrote Khalil could be expelled for his beliefs.

"He said that while Khalil’s activities were 'otherwise lawful,' letting him remain in the country would undermine 'U.S. policy to combat #AntiSemitism [sez the folks who do the #Nazi salute] around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.'

"'Condoning anti-Semitic conduct and disruptive protests in the United States would severely undermine that significant foreign policy objective,' Rubio wrote in the undated memo.

"The submission was filed Wednesday after Judge Jamee Comans ordered the government to produce its evidence against Khalil ahead of a hearing Friday on whether it can continue detaining him during immigration proceedings.

"Attorneys for Khalil said the memo proved the Trump administration was 'targeting Mahmoud’s #FreeSpeech rights about #Palestine.'

"'After a month of hiding the ball since Mahmoud’s late-night unjust arrest in New York and taking him away to a remote detention center in Louisiana, immigration authorities have finally admitted that they have no case whatsoever against him,' the attorneys, Marc Van Der Hout and Johnny Sinodis, said in a joint statement. "

https://apnews.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-columbia-university-trump-c60738368171289ae43177660def8d34
#TrumpIsABully #FreeMahmoudKhalil #IllegalDeportations #CharacteristicsOfFascism #Fascism #Authoritarianism #BibiIsAWarCriminal

Image via @witchofagnesionx.bsky.social‬ -- #TheTurdReich! From the #PortlandME #HandsOff rally!

#MaineResists #HandsOff2025 #April5th #BadDOGE #BibiIsAWarCriminal #Putin #ElonMusk #JDVance #Trump #USPol

Podcast: #MaineMural: #BowdoinCollege #Encampment

Posted by Maine Mural Podcast | Mar 11, 2025

"This month our podcast looks back at the Bowdoin College encampment in early February that took over a portion of Morrell Lounge demanding the institution publicly stand against #scholasticide in #Gaza and #divest from certain arms manufacturers who have been supplying Israel’s criminal acts there. This episode maps out the encampment day by day, adding context and clarity to the brave action taken by students."

https://pineandroses.org/podcast/maine-mural-bowdoin-college-encampment/
#MaineResists #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #BibiIsAWarCriminal #IsraeliWarCrimes #StudentProtests #MainePol #WorldPol #USPol

Israel releases Oscar-winning #Palestinian director after he was attacked by West Bank settlers

By JULIA FRANKEL
Updated 11:55 AM EDT, March 25, 2025

HEBRON, #WestBank (AP) — "#Israeli authorities released an Oscar-winning Palestinian director who was detained by the army after being attacked by #JewishSettlers in the occupied West Bank. He said they beat him in front of his home while they filmed the assault.

"#HamdanBallal and the other directors of '#NoOtherLand,' which looks at the struggles of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, had mounted the stage at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles earlier this month when it won the award for best documentary film.

"On Tuesday, with bruises on his face and blood on his clothes, he was released from an Israeli police station in the West Bank settlement of #KiryatArba. He and two other Palestinians who had been attacked and detained were taken to a nearby hospital.

"Ballal said he was held at an army base, blindfolded for 24 hours and forced to sleep under a freezing air conditioner.

"'All my body is pain,' he told The Associated Press. “I heard the voices of the soldiers, they were laughing about me … I heard ‘Oscar’ but I didn’t speak Hebrew.'

"Lea Tsemel, the attorney representing the three men, said they received only minimal care for their injuries from the attack and that she had no access to them for several hours after their arrest."

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-violence-settlers-oscar-hamdan-ballal-beb96478a55f42a7058a60ac5be7bd05
#IDFTerrorism #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #FreePalestine #FreeGaza #IsraeliSettlers

#OscarWinning #Palestinian Film Co-Director Attacked by #IsraeliSettlers, Detained

March 25, 2025

"#HamdanBallal, the Palestinian co-director of the Oscar-winning documentary #NoOtherLand, was attacked by illegal #Israeli Jewish settlers in the occupied #WestBank, Al-Jazeera Arabic website, and other sources reported on Monday.

"His fellow co-director, #YuvalAbraham, shared the details of the assault on social media, stating, 'A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co-director of our film No Other Land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding.'

"Ballal was severely beaten by the settlers and called for an ambulance. However, the situation took a dire turn when Israeli soldiers intervened and forcibly took him away.

"Abraham further explained, 'Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.' As of now, there has been no information on Ballal’s whereabouts, leaving his colleagues and supporters increasingly concerned for his safety.

"No Other Land is a collaboration between Palestinian and #Israeli filmmakers that documents the destruction of #MasaferYatta, a village in the West Bank, by Israeli military forces.

"The documentary has won international acclaim, including the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. However, the film has also faced backlash and controversy, especially in Israel.

"A video released by the #CenterForJewishNonviolence shows masked settlers attacking Jewish activists with stones and sticks. The activists, including those filming the incident, were targeted and their car windows were smashed.

"One of the activists, Josh Kimelman, spoke to the Associated Press, stating, 'We don’t know where Hamdan is because he was taken away in a blindfold.' The Israeli military has claimed that it is investigating the incident but has not provided any additional information on the matter."

https://www.palestinechronicle.com/oscar-winning-palestinian-film-co-director-attacked-by-israeli-settlers-detained/
#IDFTerrorism #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #FreePalestine #FreeGaza

#Israel’s “Culture of Cruelty” Inspires the #FarRight Worldwide, Says #PankajMishra

“The World After Gaza” author on what Israel’s war reveals about power, violence, and who sets the rules on the world stage.

The Intercept Briefing
March 22 2025, 6:00 a.m.

"After breaking a two-month ceasefire, Israel launched an assault on #Gaza on Tuesday, killing more than 400 people in pre-dawn strikes. The death toll continues to climb as airstrikes persist, and Israel pushes forward with a ground invasion. At least 200 children have been killed in recent attacks, according to UNICEF.
The assault — the deadliest in over a year — came after Donald #Trump gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin #Netanyahu the green light to break the #ceasefire. Netanyahu has warned, 'This is only the beginning.'

"Author Pankaj Mishra argues Israel operates within a 'culture of impunity,' emboldened by global #FarRight movements that admire Israel’s 'brazen cruelty.'

"This week on The Intercept Briefing, reporter Jonah Valdez speaks to Mishra about his latest book, 'The World After Gaza,' which examines how the war on Gaza isn’t just another conflict — it’s a turning point reshaping global politics, exposing institutional failures, and forcing a reckoning over who sets the rules on the world stage.

"'Some of the worst people in the world today are drawn to Israel,' Mishra says.

"Not because they believe in Zionism, not because they are protective of Jewish population of Israel, but because Israel again represents to them — embodies this opportunity to take whatever you can and hold on to it using extreme violence if necessary.'"

Original article:
https://theintercept.com/2025/03/22/briefing-podcast-pankaj-mishra-gaza/

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/StP9q

Link to podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intercept-briefing/id1195206601
https://open.spotify.com/show/2js8lwDRiK1TB4rUgiYb24?si=e3ce772344ee4170&nd=1&dlsi=51695dbdc8454ade

#CeasefireNow #FreeGaza #FreePalestine #IsraeliWarCrimes #BibiIsAWarCriminal #TrumpIsAWarCriminal #TheWorldAfterGaza #IDFTerrorism