Friday, January 30, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/01/friday-january-30-2026/

From Campus to the Courts, the “#PalestineException” Rules #University #Crackdowns

by Akela Lacy, Yazan Mohammad
November 18 2024, 2:04 p.m.

"With #Israel’s war on #Gaza entering its second year, Khalaf is among thousands of students and faculty members still being targeted in universities’ battles over harsh #ProtestCrackdowns, #FreeSpeech, academic independence, and discrimination.

"The fights are playing out online, in campus quads, internal disciplinary proceedings, and in the courts. Organizers among the students and faculty say universities are retaliating against them for their #activism and restricting their #CiviLiberties and #FreedomOfExpression while claiming to uphold both.

"As campus protests reached their height in May, Dahlia Saba, a second-year Palestinian American graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote an op-ed supporting the demonstrators’ demands. She called on the school to address calls to #divest from industries that profit from Israel’s war. She and her co-author Vignesh Ramachandran, another graduate student, were met with student nonacademic disciplinary investigations that relied solely on the op-ed for evidence.

"'The university is threatening us with sanctions that could jeopardize our academic careers if we choose to speak out again,' Saba said. 'They’re low-level sanctions to begin with, but the university is pursuing sanctions against many people on very little evidence.'

"The issue is not so much the severity of the sanctions, Saba said, but using punishments to chill students’ speech. The disciplinary actions become a tool, she said, to help universities keep track of people involved in protests for #Palestine."

https://theintercept.com/2024/11/18/gaza-protest-campus-palestine-exception/

#FreePalestine #CeasefireNow #StopArmingIsrael #IsraeliWarCrimes