On Thursday, Columbia announced it would be complying with a fiat from the White House by issuing "multi-year suspension, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions" in response to the Hamilton Hall protest.
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Columbia also expelled and fired Grant Miner, Student Workers of Columbia (SWC) union president, one day before contract negotiations with the university were supposed to begin.
SWC stated:
The shocking move is part of a wave of crackdowns on free speech against students and workers who have spoken out and protested for peace and against the war on Gaza. It is no accident that this comes days after the federal government froze Columbia's funding, and threatened to pull funding from 60 other universities across the country.
But not everyone is so pusillanimous.
Last week, over 300 Jewish Voice for Peace protesters poured into Trump Tower on NYC's 5th Ave. wearing red shirts reading "Not in Our Name," demanding Mahmoud Khalil's immediate release. About 100 protesters were arrested and face trespassing, obstruction, and resisting arrest charges.
On the other side, though, are the enablers.
Right-wing anti-Palestinian group Betar US, an extremist group the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has designated as such, claimed credit from Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and boasts a "deportation list" of individuals it claims "terrorize America" are in the country on US visas and have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
Make no mistake, Mahmoud Khalil will not be the last; he is merely a trial balloon.
If the fascism spewing out of the illegitimate felon's administration is dismissed and/or explained away, it will worsen. It will expand.
If they can detain and possibly deport peaceful activists exercising their/our right to free speech without government reprisal, they will find pretexts to detain and possibly deport others protesting the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.
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