#OccupiedPalestine #EmersonCollege #ACAB
"I spent years developing the Bright Lights program, and was given freedom to make decisions about which films to screen without input from the academic department I worked under or the Emerson College administration. That changed when I included the film 'Israelism' in my fall 2023 lineup. I had previously collaborated with filmmaker Sam Eilertsen on a project and followed this film while it was still in production, so I was eager to screen it as soon as it became available. I invited Sam and co-director Erin Axelman to join me for the post-screening discussion on November 9, the date initially scheduled for the screening.
However, shortly after announcing my program and just before the semester began, I began receiving texts from a member of the board of trustees. He expressed concerns about the film but didn’t appear to have watched it himself. I assured him I had taken great care in planning the screening, as I had with all the films I presented. I emphasized that the post-screening conversation would be led entirely by Jews—myself and both filmmakers. It became clear that the trustee opposed the film screening, marking an unprecedented break from the autonomy Emerson had previously given me in curating Bright Lights.
Before October 7, I had the support of the chair and the college president to proceed with screening my program as planned. However, after October 7, the college administration pressured me to postpone the screening. Despite complying with all the demands regarding the screening, including postponing it, on August 13, 2024, I was informed that the college would be laying me off and closing my program, citing a budgetary shortfall and focus on academic programs as the reason.
My termination was not entirely unexpected; I had been among the most vocal of my colleagues in support of our students. While I had never received any direct communication that my activism could cost me my job, the administration made it clear to me that they did not want me to screen 'Israelism' and were monitoring my actions on campus.
Despite Emerson’s aversion to screening 'Israelism,' I did not stop my advocacy for a free Palestine. I supported our students in ways that aligned with the college’s mission, which I had dedicated nearly two decades of my energy to uphold. Like many other institutions, Emerson has been proud of its history of student activism.I still remember my visit to the social justice center on the day the encampment began. On one of the tables was a recent copy of 'Expression,' our alumni magazine, featuring black student activists on the cover with their fists in the air.
When the students heard the call from the students at Columbia and set up the first encampment in Boston, I had the great honor of showing up in support. The encampment flourished for over 80 hours as a space for learning, art, collective grief, and community care, and I was present for half of that time. It was a space of solidarity, allowing us to exist outside the corporate structures of our institution. During those few days, I participated in an open mic event, attended a class that one of my colleagues moved to the alley, and explored the small library of revolutionary books set up by the students. My contributions involved organizing the overwhelming number of food and supply donations, ensuring that hot meals were distributed, and perishable items were monitored. I greeted community members who offered words of support and handed me cash, which I passed along to organizers for the bail fund. I was aware that, in all likelihood, the police would be allowed to destroy what had been built in that alley. I stayed awake until dawn on the first two nights, keeping watch over the sleeping students who were also working on their final projects and papers in addition to everything else. On the fourth night, that space was violently dismantled by over three hundred city and state police officers.
Students asked me to livestream the assault, which remains on the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine Boylston Alley Instagram account to this day. In truly Orwellian fashion, the breaking of our students’ bones, concussions caused by being slammed into the brick walls of the alley, and the resulting trauma were framed as necessary for student 'safety.' I am still haunted by images of police appearing as if they were prepared for war against a group of young people of conscience, who were simply calling on the institution they pay tuition to, to disclose and divest from the genocide in Gaza. I witnessed these armed agents of the state beat and arrest 118 students and community members. When it was over, and I was escorted through the alley to retrieve my belongings, which I had hastily left in a nearby building, I saw campus police and city and state police giving each other fist bumps, celebrating a job well done."
https://mondoweiss.net/2025/05/i-was-fired-from-emerson-college-for-speaking-out-about-palestine-but-i-refuse-to-be-silent/
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