USA - Columbia University - Arrests, Suspensions, Expulsions don't stop protests

 

On Saturday night, March 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICD) agents entered Columbia University student housing and detained Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil, an Algerian citizen of Palestinian origin and recent Columbia graduate, is now being held at an ICE detention center (perhaps as far away as Louisiana), despite having a green card and being a lawful permanent U.S. resident.¹

This outrageous detention is the latest in an escalating series of Trump fascist assaults on opposition to Israel and support for Palestine and on academic freedom and freedom of speech on colleges and universities nationwide. 

Under the guise of combatting “anti-Semitism”—which the MAGA fascists and leading Democrats define as most any criticism of Israel—their aim is to basically outlaw any opposition to Israel or support for the Palestinian people. 

This past week, on March 4, Trump posted this threat:

All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.

On March 7, Trump’s Department of Education announced it was cancelling $400 million in federal grants and contracts for Columbia because of the University’s supposed failure to combat anti-Semitism and protect Jewish students from harassment. Among other things, withholding these funds could have a very damaging impact on various research projects, including medical research. At least four different government departments are also threatening further cuts in the future, cuts which could seriously damage Columbia.² 

Columbia is also the target of three different federal investigations into trumped-up charges of rampant anti-Semitism on its campus which have been announced in recent weeks.

Protests Met with Arrests, Suspensions, Expulsions 

Columbia University brings NYPD onto campus to brutally arrest Barnard protestors

In the past several weeks there have been important protests at Columbia and nearby Barnard College. They’ve included a class disruption, sit-ins, demonstrations and marches to protest Israel’s ongoing crimes in Gaza, support the Palestinian people, and demand the reinstatement of three students expelled by Barnard for disrupting a class on the history of Israel. Nine students were also arrested for non-violently sitting in at Barnard, and four who were Columbia students were suspended by the University.

Barnard’s February 24 expulsions were met by a wave of support from the highest levels of government, and the students’ February 26 sit-in protesting them were met by a wave of vitriolic slanders and condemnations.