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<h1 class="title" id="page-title">Palestine solidarity group banned at
Northeastern, students threatened with expulsion</h1>
<div class="submitted">
<span property="dc:date dc:created" content="2014-03-12T13:34:10+00:00"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" rel="sioc:has_creator">Submitted by <span
class="username" xml:lang="" about="/users/ali-abunimah"
typeof="sioc:UserAccount" property="foaf:name" datatype="">Ali Abunimah</span>
on Wed, 03/12/2014 - 13:34<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestine-solidarity-group-banned-northeastern-students-threatened-expulsion">http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/palestine-solidarity-group-banned-northeastern-students-threatened-expulsion</a></small></small></small></b><br>
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src="cid:part1.00030809.07010203@freedomarchives.org" alt="" title=""
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<p>Authorized Columbia SJP banner removed by Barnard College
administrators following complaints from pro-Israel groups.</p>
<span class="credit">(<a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/columbia-students-justice-palestine"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Columbia
Students
for Justice in Palestine</a>)</span>
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<p>Palestine solidarity activists are facing harsh censorship,
repression and retribution on at least two US campuses during <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-apartheid-week">Israeli
Apartheid
Week</a>.</p>
<p>In the most alarming case, officials at <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/northeastern-university">Northeastern
University</a> in Boston, have banned a branch of Students for Justice
in Palestine (SJP), launched police investigations into students and
threatened two of them with expulsion for distributing leaflets on
campus.</p>
<p>At <a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/barnard-college">Barnard
College</a> in New York, administrators have removed an authorized
banner expressing solidarity with Palestine.</p>
<p>Israeli Apartheid Week is an international series of on-campus
events, designed to draw attention to Israel’s crimes against the
Palestinian people.</p>
<h2>Northeastern SJP banned</h2>
<p>On 7 March, members of Northeastern University’s SJP were informed
that their organization had been suspended until at least 2015 and
student members have been permanently banned from holding positions in
recognized student organizations unless they undergo what amounts to
university-supervised re-education.</p>
<p>Members of Northeastern SJP are <a
href="http://www.northeasternsjp.org/current-situation.html">calling
on their peers across the country to stand in solidarity with them</a>
as they face what appears to be the most serious attack on students
advocating for Palestinian rights since the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/irvine-11">Irvine 11</a>
trial.</p>
<p>“As if banning our activities from campus and denying us all use of
campus resources wasn’t outrageous enough, the university is pursuing
expulsion-level sanctions for two students — all for participation in a
mock eviction action,” Northeastern SJP says in a statement.</p>
<p>The two students targeted for possible expulsion “happen to be the
only women of color in the Northeastern SJP chapter,” <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/people/max-blumenthal">Max
Blumenthal</a> reports <a
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/northeastern-university-interrogation.html">at
Mondoweiss
today</a>.</p>
<h2>Action call</h2>
<p>The Northeastern SJP <a
href="http://www.northeasternsjp.org/current-situation.html">action
alert</a> urges concerned members of the public to sign a petition to
“Reinstate SJP and drop all charges against its members.”</p>
<p>It urges the public to contact university officials directly,
including the president Joseph Aoun, and requests organizations to send
letters of solidarity to Northeastern SJP.</p>
<h2>Punished for leafleting</h2>
<p>As Blumenthal reports, the students received a letter from Jason
Campbell-Foster, director of the school’s Center for Student
Involvement, that “offered a litany of charges against the students.”</p>
<p>The main accusation related to the SJP’s 24 February distribution of
mock eviction notices across campus.</p>
<p><a href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mock-eviction-notices">Mock
eviction
notices</a> are leaflets that students have distributed on a
number of campuses to raise awareness about Israel’s systematic <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/home-demolitions">demolitions</a>
of Palestinians homes.</p>
<p>This image of the leaflet was tweeted by Northeastern SJP: </p>
<div id="file-26819"
class="file file-document file-text-oembed oembed-rich oembed-default oembed-twitter">
<h2 class="element-invisible oembed-title"><a
href="https://twitter.com/northeasternsjp/status/439079250251902976">on
Twitter</a></h2>
</div>
<p>Anti-Palestinian groups on campuses including <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/rutgers-hillel">Rutgers
University</a> in New Jersey and <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/florida-atlantic-university">Florida
Atlantic
University</a> have responded to mock eviction notices with <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/jewish-students-werent-targeted-palestine-solidarity-activists-rutgers-probe">false
claims</a> that Jewish students were specifically targeted by the
notices, and that the notices made Jewish students feel unsafe.</p>
<p>In both cases, university administrators investigated and found no
evidence to support the accusations that Jewish students were targeted.</p>
<h2>Police interrogations</h2>
<p>But Campbell-Foster’s letter to Northeastern SJP states: “You have
not shown a concerted effort to improve your practices and educate your
members on how to properly operate your organization within the
boundaries of university policy.”</p>
<p>Northeastern SJP has long been the target of university sanctions
and harassment over members’ free speech and advocacy for Palestinian
rights.</p>
<p>Max Geller, a second-year law student, <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/content/jewish-student-receives-death-threats-over-palestine-solidarity-work/12890">told
The
Electronic Intifada last year</a> how he had received death threats
over his advocacy work as a member of SJP.</p>
<p>Blumenthal reports that the day after the mock eviction notices,
Robert Jose, Northeastern’s associate dean of students, sent a
campus-wide email stating: “We do not condone any behavior that causes
members of our community to feel targeted and/or intimidated.”</p>
<p>“Jose urged students to express ‘how this has impacted [them]’ by
contacting school administrators and the Hillel House of Northeastern,
an explicitly pro-Israel Jewish communal organization committed to
countering SJP-related activism,” Blumenthal adds.</p>
<p>University officials have now launched a harsh crackdown.</p>
<p>Geller told Blumenthal that campus police summoned students for
investigation and visited students in their dorms. According to Geller,
the first Northeastern SJP members to be visited by police were Muslim
and Arab.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.northeasternhillel.org">statement</a> on the
Northeastern Hillel website condemns the mock eviction notices and
confirms that the “administration is working with the Northeastern
University Police Department to conduct a thorough investigation.”</p>
<p>Blumenthal’s <a
href="http://mondoweiss.net/2014/03/northeastern-university-interrogation.html">must-read
report</a> details how the suspension of Northeastern SJP is “the
culmination of a long-running campaign against the group led by
powerful pro-Israel outfits based in Boston.”</p>
<h2>Crackdown at Barnard College</h2>
<p>At Barnard College on 11 March, university administrators removed a
banner with the words “Stand for Justice in Palestine,” pictured above,
that had been placed by Columbia SJP.</p>
<p>Barnard College is a sibling school to <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/columbia-university">Columbia
University</a>.</p>
<p>“The banner was placed after members of [Columbia SJP] went through
the required bureaucratic channels and processes in order to give voice
and presence to our week-long events as part of Israeli Apartheid
Week,” Columbia SJP <a
href="http://columbiasjp.org/2014/03/11/official-statement-regarding-barnard-administrations-sjp-banner-removal/">explains
on
its website</a>.</p>
<p>The statement says that the banner was “taken down by the
administration of Barnard College after they caved to pressure from
other groups. Barnard administration offered no explanation, and no
warning that they planned to remove our banner.”</p>
<p>Columbia SJP adds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fact that our banner has been taken down now is a direct
violation of our freedom of expression. The removal of our banner this
morning has left members of Columbia SJP, Palestinian students on
campus and other students that are often marginalized and silenced,
feeling that Barnard College does not follow its own
anti-discrimination policies. We are alarmed to know that “Palestine”
and “justice” are not acceptable in Barnard’s educational space and
that certain voices are discriminated against by the College.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Campus newspaper <em>The Columbia Spectator</em> <a
href="http://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2014/03/11/students-justice-palestine-banner-removal-sparks-debate-free-speech-display-policy">reports</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Barnard Dean Avis Hinkson said in a statement Tuesday afternoon
that it has been a long-standing policy to allow student groups to hang
banners outside Barnard Hall promoting their events. But Hinkson
acknowledged the concern about placing SJP’s banner next to Barnard’s,
and promised a re-examination of the banner policies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The campus pro-Israel group LionPAC “said that the removal of the
banner was necessary to prevent confusion over Barnard’s position on
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” according to the <em>Spectator.</em></p>
<h2>Under pressure</h2>
<p>Last year Barnard president Debora L. Spar, <a
href="http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/.premium-1.533831">went on
a junket to Israel</a> with Project Interchange, a <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/hasbara"><em>hasbara</em></a>
operation of the Israel lobby group the <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-jewish-committee">American
Jewish
Committee</a>.</p>
<p>As I write in <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/my-new-book-battle-justice-palestine"><em>The
Battle
for Justice in Palestine</em></a>, Project Interchange has
brought thousands of influential figures, including many top US police
officials, on propaganda tours designed to increase participants’
sympathy with Israeli policies.</p>
<p>In 2012, Barnard was the target of a <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-department-education-throws-out-zionist-groups-civil-rights-complaint-against">bogus
complaint</a> by Zionist groups under <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/title-vi-civil-rights-act">Title
VI
of the US Civil Rights Act</a> that a Jewish student faced
discrimination. The US Department of Education <a
href="http://electronicintifada.net/tags/title-vi-civil-rights-act">dismissed
the
complaint</a>.</p>
<p>The administration’s latest surrender to such bogus claims and
campaigns provides yet another disturbing example how of basic free
speech rights and academic freedom are being sacrificed in order to
protect Israel from criticism and to suppress solidarity for
Palestinian rights.</p>
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