Author: Omar Suleiman
Published on: 12/03/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
In April 2024, students across the United States were mobilizing to demand an end to their universities’ complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Now, almost a year later, the federal government is fiercely cracking down on these protests, and punishing the brave souls who played a leading role in them. This month, Trump’s government announced the cancellation of roughly $400m in federal grants to Columbia University over what it deemed a “failure to protect Jewish students from antisemit Washington is willing to deport a legal permanent resident for playing a prominent role in protests that were critical of and upsetting to Tel Aviv. It seems the current administration is so committed to pleasing Israel and crushing students’ objections to genocide that it is willing and eager to stamp on core American rights, values and liberties. In its efforts to silence criticism of Israel on American campuses, the American administration is following a well-worn playbook. Taking its cues from Tel Aviv, it is conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. This script has gained increased traction in Congress since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza. Israeli military’s indiscriminate shelling and ground invasions have laid waste to the entirety of Gaza, decimating families and turning schools and hospitals into rubble. Far from a small outpost of “civilisation” in a “barbaric” region, Israel is a ruthless US-backed nuclear-armed power with one of the most sophisticated militaries in the world, attacking Indigenous people to keep them imprisoned. Student activists at Columbia – like those at countless other universities – did not invite oppression or orchestrate some campaign of hate. They urged their institution to stop profiting from or ignoring the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza. In return, the federal government is punishing them and their school with savage fury.
Original: 1298 words
Summary: 294 words
Percent reduction: 77.35%