For the better part of two academic years, many colleges and universities have reacted rather than responded to organized study and struggle against Israeli genocide in Palestine. Most notably, this has included administrative decisions that encouraged and directed the criminalization and brutalization of involved students, staff and faculty members by campus and municipal police.
In so doing, these institutions have all but abandoned their positions of moral authority in exchange for proximity to profits and political power, creating the conditions that led to the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian and recent graduate of Columbia University, by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on 8 March.
Consistent with even selective First Amendment advocates and constitutional law experts, what happened to Khalil should be deeply concerning to all of us, especially those in the university. ….more
