Photo by the author.
Thanks to Donald Trump, the 45th AND the 47th President of the Greatest Democracy on Earth (NOT!)—liberal white Euro-America now knows what the two-thirds world (also referred to as the Third World or the Global South)-has always known in its gut– albeit those of us from the ( so-called) global south who immigrated to the bastion of (so-called) free speech did (despite knowing better)—“have the conviction” as Omar El Akkad puts it in a must-read book of our times , One Day Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (Knopf, 2025), “that despite political opportunism, corruption, and duplicity there [was] a solid foundation” that was “worth preserving”; we did have faith that despite all of its problems, a western liberal democratic society like the US were based on “a rules-based order.”
Well—since his inauguration, Trump and his clown car of cronies have disabused us all of such fantasies. However, the fantasy of a liberal “rules-based order” that citizens of all faiths, ethnicities, genders and sexualities believed would protect them, had been punctured long before Trump took the reins of power for a second time.
As Mustafa Bayoumi argued persuasively in an essay published in The Guardian in May 2024, Islamophobia which has been rampant since 9/11 and is now making a big resurgence in the USA in the wake of anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian protests, inflamed by the fascistic policies and daily pronouncements of Donald Trump, is a sub-set of decades-old anti-Palestinian racism—not the other way around as most folk think.
In US history, anti-Palestinian bigotry, expressed primarily through repressive practices of the US government, almost always came first. This anti-Palestinianism then manifested into a generalized anti-Arab racism, which only later – especially after 9/11 – morphed into the more widespread Islamophobia that we recognize today.
While any student of history knows that the Palestine/Israel “conflict” is NOT a religious one, that it quite clearly and unambiguously was and remains a land grab by a colonial settler state and its imported white European and American Jewish citizens into a multireligious Arab Palestine, Zionists and their defenders would have you think otherwise. Hence the reality as CAIR (the Council on American-Islamic Relations) has pointed out in a recent report, is that the uptick in Islamophobic attacks on Muslim and Arab students at US universities and schools (K-12) has skyrocketed after Oct 7th 2023—“the highest number of such incidents recorded in 30 years” with a total of a total of 8,061 complaints reported in 2023, most after Oct 7th.
It is hardly a surprise then, that while the ADL (a leading pro-Israel advocacy organization founded in 1913)—claims that there has been a “a 360%” increase in reported anti-semitic incidents across the US, what folks generally don’t know is that they equate any criticism of Zionist ideology and the state of Israel as “anti-semitic.” This means that on college campuses, Zionist students can claim to be victims of antisemitic hatred and harassment simply because they can see/hear masses of students (including a large number of anti-Zionist Jewish students) chanting in protest of Israeli genocide and in favor of a free Palestine. This, these Jewish Zionist students claim, makes them feel “unsafe”—hence= uptick in antisemitism! Anti-semitism, in other words, gets weaponized in service of suppression of the 1st amendment rights of pro-Palestinian supporters, and has led countless number of anti-Zionist Jews to take to the streets and social media to chant against such an abuse of their religion: “Not in Our Name!”
Meanwhile, as we have seen in recent weeks, students who have been kidnapped and arrested simply for exercising their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression have been Muslim: Mahmud Khalil, Badar Khan Suri and Rumeysa Ozturk.
The role of Columbia University’s administration has been dastardly, in turning over student records to Law Enforcement, especially to the much-maligned ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Dept of Homeland Security), whose treatment of detainees has been labelled “barbaric” and “negligent” by the government’s own experts, as reported by NPR. Handing over student records is itself an illegal act, since student records are protected under FERPA-The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (the bar for exceptions to the rule is very high). This shameful compliance with Trump govt’s orders to oust any and all students who have/continue to protest the genocide in Gaza, dates back to last year when Zionist donors demanded the university expel such students, and then- President Minouche Shafik was ordered to do the same by the US Congress. In a bid to show how tough (and willingly compliant) she could be in executing the demands of Congress, Shafik called in the notoriously racist and violent NYPD against her own university students, permitting the latter to be shamefully manhandled and arrested for peacefully exercising their constitutionally-protected right to free speech. Despite caving in to unprincipled actors like Elise Stefanik, Shafik resigned (or was forced to)—a few short months later. As her nemesis in Congress stated gleefully on X—“THREE DOWN, so many to go.” The other two she was referring to were ofcourse Liz Magill and Claudine Gay—former presidents of UPenn and Harvard respectively, who were also forced to resign following their pathetic performances in Congressional hearings when grilled by Stefanik, about why they were permitting “antisemitic” students to protest against the Israeli genocide of Palestinian civilians on their campuses.
But what Stefanik and her ilk don’t understand—is that the downfall of these presidents –especially Shafik whose behavior that endangered her students’ wellbeing and safety was the most egregious—wasn’t engineered by Stefanik and other rightwing politicos alone, but rather, was also a result of the resistance of those very same students that Shafik was hellbent on punishing to please her Congressional masters and mistresses. Uh-oh, wrong number! For as the Students for Justice Columbia chapter posted on X the day of her resignation, “After months of chanting ‘Minouche Shafik, you cant hide,’ she finally got the memo” and they further underscored their message of resistance by claiming, “any future president who does not pay heed to the Columbia student body’s overwhelming demand for divestment will end up exactly as President Shafik did.”
Yet, clearly, the (Interim) President who succeeded Shafik, Katerin Armstrong, paid no such heed, and out of fear of losing more federal funding from the Trump administration (which had previously announced a 400 million $$ cut), Columbia University agreed to implement a host of policy changes last Friday, including an immediate review of its Middle Eastern studies department. According to a PBS report,
In an effort to expand “intellectual diversity” within the university, Columbia will also appoint new faculty members to its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies department. It will also adopt a new definition of antisemitism and expand programming in its Tel Aviv Center, a research hub based in Israel.
Shortly after this display of abject grovelling at the feet of Mammon (otherwise known as Trump)—that shows deep disregard for longstanding faculty governance over curricular and departmental independence, and with clear kowtowing to Israel-backers– President Armstrong resigned, with none of the 400 million $4 returned, and Columbia still under threat of more cuts (so much for caving to authoritarian bullies). She has been replaced by yet another minion of the powers-that-be, Claire Shipman, who has known ties to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and to pro-Israel politicians.
In this historically surreal moment for Higher Ed institutions in the US, which President Roth of Wesleyan aptly compared to the Vichy collaborationist regime in Nazi-occupied France, there are only a few voices at the top rungs of administration speaking even a small measure of truth to power. Among these are President Roth of Wesleyan himself, and President Eisegruber of Princeton. The following observation by the latter is quite mild in its wording but in today’s climate, feels like a veritable manifesto for resistance in its affect:
What concerns me so deeply about what’s happening at Columbia and elsewhere right now is that the government seems to be using [their] funding stream to force concessions that are violations of academic freedom.
Just yesterday, the President of Tufts university (where I was a graduate student in the 1980s and founder of the first-ever student group to concern itself with Palestine, called Committee on Information about Palestine ( even back then our group came under attack by members of the Zionist organization Hillel on our campus), made a statement in support of the Turkish graduate student abducted and arrested from campus by the dreaded ICE agents, in what may be a precedent-setting case against the Trump government’s fascistic edicts:
In court documents filed on Ozturk’s behalf, Tufts University President Sunil Kumar asked for the Turkish student’s release without delay so she can return to complete her studies and finish her degree.
While the resistance from Presidents of elite universities, worried about their donor-funded endowments, has been slow and tepid, it HAS started, and filing court cases to demand justice for illegally-detained students is just the beginning of what it feels might lead to a turning of the tide. Indeed, the resistance from faculty all across the USA who have formed chapters of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) at their respective institutions —in support of/with chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine—has been ongoing since the outbreak of Israel’s attacks on civilians in Gaza shortly after Oct 7th 2023.
Thus, for example, the horror show that continues to unfold on the Columbia University campus—the ground zero of protest, resistance, and repression—many of its faculty have joined together to write letters of protest against the administration’s draconian actions that threaten not only student protestors (especially those of Arab and Muslim background)—but faculty (including antizionist Jewish professors)—who dare speak out: witness the forced resignation of tenured Professor Katherine Franke.
Despite well-founded fears of administrative and governmental repercussions against themselves, not only have Columbia and Barnard faculty written, circulated, signed letters protesting their university’s shameful capitulation to unjust, racist, Islamophobic and anti-intellectual orders from on-high, but so have many many other faculty from a variety of universities and cohorts.
Thus, for example, a recent letter/statement termed “emergency national faculty statement” that originated in a consortium of New England professors, is being circulated widely and garnering signatures nationally, and can be accessed here.
This letter is for US faculty anywhere to sign and/or share widely. Any faculty, affiliated scholars, instructors, fellows, program directors, librarians, or PhD alumni of US universities and colleges can sign this statement.
The National chapter of FSJP (Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, of whose Montclair State University local chapter I am a co-founder), in a recent meeting which I attended, announced that April 17th has been designated as a new fight-back -day to form a national picket line.
There are actions big and small being planned at universities across the country on this date.
Here is a link for more information.
In preparation, student workers at the U of Maryland have been holding sessions alongside the Asian American Student Union on fascism, capitalism and imperialism and the ways these ideologies have intersected to create the moment of global catastrophe we are witnessing today, from Palestine to Pakistan, from the UK to the USA.
In the wake of the pathetic refusal by the Executive Committee of the Modern Language Association to honor the wishes of a majority of its members to hold a referendum to pass a resolution in support of Palestinian liberation and for BDS, the Red Caucus of MLA has become more radical than ever!
In the run up to April 17th Day of Action, there was a National Immigration Solidarity Rally Monday night March 31st. Hundreds of people across the country signed up for the meeting over Zoom, and 15 people spoke about next steps.
I will conclude this informational update by sharing a letter that many academics have signed to boycott Columbia University, which should be read as a gesture of resistance not just against the administrators and complicit faculty at Columbia, but to all who think, mistakenly, that capitulating to forces of repression will protect them.
It wont. If you think they wont come for you today, you can rest assured they will do so tomorrow.
The letter I post below—along with the signatories—shows clearly that the resistance to repression is strong, and growing day by day on our campuses. It is fueled by the realization that the Palestine Exception is NOT an exception—it is the motherlode of oppression—and connects all struggles for freedom and justice, everywhere.
Until Palestine is Free, None of Us are Free.
“Boycott Columbia Now”
Letter sent to Bwog [student-run news organization] on Thursday, March 27:We, the undersigned, commit to a boycott of Columbia University in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff targeted by the U.S. Government and university administration for their principled opposition to the genocide in Gaza and support for Palestinian liberation. By violating its ethical and professional duty towards its community and abdicating its responsibility to uphold and support free speech and academic freedom, Columbia has participated in an authoritarian assault on universities aimed at destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning, and activism essential to building a free and fair world.
We are appalled by Columbia’s repeated failure to defend and protect Mahmoud Khalil, and their handing over of his and other students’ disciplinary records. We are appalled that Columbia disenrolled Ranjani Srinivasan when her student visa was revoked, again simply for engaging in protected speech.
We are appalled that Columbia suspended, expelled, and revoked the degrees of students for their principled protests of an ongoing genocide and that they expelled and fired Grant Miner, president of UAW Local 2710, the union that represents thousands of student workers at Columbia, on the eve of contract negotiations. We join the American Association of University Professors in condemning these acts as the “sacrifice [of] students to the demands of an authoritarian government.”
We are appalled that Columbia’s leadership has colluded with the authoritarian suppression of its students by fully capitulating to the conditions imposed by the Trump administration for the release of $400 million in grants withdrawn on March 7, and that it did so against the warning issued by Constitutional law scholars that this course of action “creates a dangerous precedent for every recipient of federal financial assistance.” For over a year before being presented with this extortionist set of demands, Columbia targeted and criminalized its students. Now it has also agreed to impose the IHRA definition of antisemitism and a mask ban, specifically intended to target student protestors. It also took advantage of the opportunity to widen the scope of area studies departments placed under review and, in direct opposition to calls to divest from Israeli institutions, to reinvest in the Tel Aviv Global Center.
Columbia’s actions endanger all students, staff, and faculty. These are concerted attacks on the integrity of higher education and on our ability to conduct research, teach, and learn. These attacks are fueled by anti-Palestinian racism and enabled by the dangerous weaponization of antisemitism. They expose classrooms, dorms, labs, and other common spaces to the surveillance and predation of a federal government that has declared war on higher education.
We call on Columbia University to reinstate disenrolled, suspended, and expelled students, and reverse all changes made in compliance with the Trump administration’s harmful and illegitimate demands. Until this happens, we (re)commit to the following terms of the Columbia University boycott, originally called in April 2024 in response to the violent removal of students encamped against the genocide in Gaza:
1) We will not participate in academic or other cultural events held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University or Barnard College. This includes, but is not limited to, workshops, conferences, talks, screenings, and invited lectures. Signatories will use their discretion when it comes to solidarity events, and particularly with programs and people that are under direct attack from the administration.
2) We will not collaborate with Columbia or Barnard faculty who hold positions within the university administrationin addition to their academic appointments. This includes but is not limited to: invitations to academic events at our universities; collaboration on any new grants and workshops; co-authorship of papers.
3) Some signatories may further engage in common sense boycotts of individual faculty based on their complicity with Columbia and Barnard’s repression. Likewise, some signatories may engage in common sense boycotts of publications affiliated with Columbia University.
Universities cannot pretend to hold higher education sacred while repressing students and faculty, undermining free speech and academic freedom, and prohibiting dissent. Every such act of craven suppression and compliance only further undermines the university and emboldens the reactionary forces intent on destroying it. We call on our universities to be a sanctuary for our students, and a space of unqualified academic freedom, rather than an enforcement arm of an authoritarian state.
Bullies are never stopped by acquiescence. Never has it been more urgent to dissent and stand with our students, for our profession, and for democracy and social justice.
Signed,Organizations
1. CUNY Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
2. CUNY for Palestine
3. CUNY Graduate Center for Palestine
4. Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine National Network
5. National Students for Justice in Palestine
6. Columbia University Apartheid Divest
7. Virginia Tech for Palestine
8. Labor for Palestine National Network
9. UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine
10. Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
11. The New School FSJP
12. Stand with Kashmir
13. SDSU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine
14. Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim (PAM) Caucus, California Faculty Organization
15. Coalition for Action in Higher Education
16. Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG)
17. Toronto Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG-TO)
18. Within Our Lifetimes (WOL)
19. Princeton Apartheid Divest
20. WeAreColumbia
21. Pratt Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
22. Cooper Union FSJP
23. Harlem for Palestine
24. University of Washington Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
25. UC Riverside Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
26. UAW 2325 Labor for Palestine
27. California Indians for Palestinian Liberation
28. Palestinian Assembly for Liberation (PAL)-Awda NY/NJ
29. Cornell Coalition for Justice in Palestine
30. Rutgers FSJP
31. Interrupting Criminalization
32. Medical Students for Justice in Palestine National
33. California Scholars for Academic Freedom
34. Black Lives Matter Grassroots
35. Students for Palestine MDU
36. Montclair State University Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
37. University of Illinois at Chicago Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
38. U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
Apart from these 38 organizations and groups representing those fighting for racial equality and justice (BLM) and labor rights who see their struggles as intertwined with the struggle for a free Palestine (Labor for Palestine National Network), over 1400 faculty from across the world have signed on to this letter, including Yours Truly.From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free; and with it, so will the rest of this world we share.
© Counter Punch