NEW YORK, NY – Drop Site (DS) reports Columbia University has allegedly implemented secret investigations after student protests opposing the Israeli war in Gaza.
Pro-Palestinian students on campus who say, “Israel’s actions (are) genocide or apartheid,” have been investigated, reports DS.
By suppressing campus activism with provisions from the Civil Rights Act, Columbia directly characterizes any criticism of Israel to be “discriminatory harassment,” said DA, adding the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) runs this operation to “review and arbitration of all reports of discrimination and discriminatory harassment at Columbia.”
DS charged the office has the power to investigate and punish with “disciplinary notifications, suspensions, loss of housing, expulsions, and even the revocation of diplomas for graduates.”
The dozens of students targeted by the OIE have received notices, requiring them to sign a non-disclosure agreement to see the unredacted evidence against them, which further bans them from discussing these accusations or the process publicly, reports DS.
DS reveals the allegations could include charges regarding distributing posters on campus, placing stickers on walls, posting calls on social media for student walkouts, or generally criticizing the Israeli government.
DS maintains the students are experiencing restrictive privacy agreements in exchange to see the evidence against them, while the OIE has been unwilling to amend or alter the contract.
This is a gag order and contract of adhesion, as one loses their ability to participate in the process when signing or not, adds DS.
Several former state district attorneys are staff members of the OIE and they use an expansive interpretation of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits the criticism of Israel, despite being otherwise protected under the First Amendment, reports DS.
In the OIE’s interpretation, any negative statements about Israel could be considered prohibited speech punished by sanction, even if nobody is actually being discriminated against, notes DS.
The Trump administration has escalated threats against schools holding large protests, added DS, claiming the administration has said, “All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
DS said Columbia’s disciplinary records have the power to turn that information into law enforcement and to the U.S. Congress, regulating pro-Palestinian speech on campus and seeking deportations and harsh measures on those who engage in such speech.
Congress has pressured and demanded these schools to comply by taking disciplinary records of students involved in these protests, states DS.
These opaque disciplinary panels hold power to suspend, expel, or revoke students from campus and their diplomas, while Columbia stands with the Israeli government and invites them as guest speakers, charged DS.
DS states the office is ultimately Columbia’s prosecution of pro-Palestinian speech on campus by implementing extreme tactics to censor free speech and cause a “potentially life-altering disciplinary measures leveled by the OIE.”
So here’s the problem:
“Pro-Palestinian students on campus who say, “Israel’s actions (are) genocide or apartheid,” have been investigated.”
Those are stupid things to say in my humble Jewish opinion, but not illegal and totally protected. Criticizing Israel is also protected speech. Heck, I do it often. Many Jews do, supportive of Israel or no.
” . . . regulates pro-Palestinian speech on campus and seeks deportations and harsh measures who engage in such speech.”
Pro-Palestinian speech is legal. Open support of Hamas or calling for the death of Jews or America, or taking over buildings and harming employees, blocking and intimidating Jewish students and faculty . . . not so much.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.”
And yet the word is “illegal”, and none of the things this article says they are going after people for are illegal.
So I’m going to go out on a limb. I’m gonna say the authors aren’t admitting there is illegal activity, and are trying to paint a picture of students doing legal things, and then saying the administration is going after the legal activity they say protesters are engaging in like little face-covered angels. And I’m gonna say that there is illegal activity (see news reports, Jewish student accounts (and I don’t mean self-called “anti-Zionist” Jews), and the authors are playing an embarrassingly transparent Mott & Bailey game to make it seem like the administration is going after free speech. And I’m gonna further guess that the illegal activity is what the administration is interested in stamping out. And I’m going to guess they will succeed.
Heck, if criticism of Israel were illegal, you’d half to to deport the majority of Jews, too. To where, exactly? Israel? Hmmmmmm . . .