SACRAMENTO, CA – The news of 60 universities facing investigations and a Palestinian student activist’s detention caused Sacramento State University students to protest “existential attacks” on anti-Zionism advocacy in schools by the federal government, as reported this week by The Sacramento Bee.
A group of about 40 students made their voices heard by chanting in the library quad, said the Bee, noting they “condemn(ed) President Donald Trump’s crackdown on student activism,” holding signs demanding free speech and Palestinian liberation.
Referencing Sac State President Luke Wood’s message to the campus community, the Bee cited his “response to the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Title VI investigation into the university.”
Wood referred to the protest, and emphasized his commitment to both working through the investigation and protecting Jewish students in this time of free speech controversy.
“This week at a student protest on campus, groups were chanting offensive and hurtful messages that go against our values. Though these messages are protected speech under the law, they fundamentally contradict the values we uphold as a community,” said Wood, according to the Bee.
The Sacramento Bee said it requested a list of statements that Wood considered harmful, which he denied out of caution, adding “that’s what our Jewish community has asked us to do.”
Spokesperson Lanaya Lewis stated to the Bee, “Sacramento State does not want to cause further harm by sharing the offensive and hurtful language chanted at the student protest.”
The Sacramento Bee acknowledged Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) representatives in the belief that Wood is referencing the phrase “from the river to the sea.”
This notable “battle cry” has been honored by pro-Palestinian advocates, but condemned by Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League for being anti-Jewish “because it does not leave room for Israel.” However, those who use the slogan claim “it is an aspirational call for peaceful coexistence, not destruction.”
SJP representatives, the Bee added, refer to this as “a conflation of politics critique,” pointing out the charge of antisemitism to delegitimize their values.
Responding to Wood’s letter, the SJP told The Sacramento Bee, “The Trump administration, and anyone’s cooperation with it, is policing our language, abusing the idea of anti-semitism in the West to stifle speech in support of Palestinian rights, in the face of what is clearly a long-standing project of ethnic cleansing.”
Jack and Amal, Sac State students and SJP board members, discussed common fears among college students and members of faculty with the Bee, noting the academic community faces unease “that Trump’s pressure on higher education institutions will threaten free speech, academic freedom and student safety,” and worry their schools “will not do enough to fight back.”
Regulating Free Speech
The Sacramento Bee wrote the Trump Administration has been strictly enforcing regulations on schools which “allowed ‘illegal’ protests on campus,” referring to advocacy as “antisemitic and violent against Jewish students.”
The Bee wrote that Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon last week told the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to direct resources towards “investigating Title VI complaints related to alleged antisemitism at pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations.”
The OCR, after losing about half of their employees, focused their primary attention on regulating 60 campuses that highlight advocacy. Two California universities on the roster include Sacramento State and UC Davis.
Both universities held groups that “erected controversial encampments in May 2024,” explained the Bee, and reported activists called for institutional divestment from Israel. Federal agents, such as Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor, refer to such encampments as “paralyzing to campus life,” the Bee wrote.
The Bee also wrote the Trump Administration “detained and attempted to deport” Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and Palestinian activist earlier this month after his involvement in a campus encampment, and the administration pulled $400 million in grants and contracts from the university, citing a failure to act regarding “persistent harassment of Jewish students.”
The University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU) systems both face potential budget cuts, as proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, noted the Bee, and with combined reductions on both the state and federal level, faculty and students will face a disproportionate consequential burden.
The Sacramento Bee reports the UC system is enacting a “hiring freeze and the elimination of diversity statements in any hiring processes,” adding this is occurring following the Department of Education’s federal directions to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices throughout the American education system.
However, the Bee writes UC and CSU faculty and students insist their criticisms of the Israeli state and Zionism are not antisemitic, and insist Trump is regulating activism not to protect Jewish students, but as “a threat to free speech.”
Professor Ahlam Muhtaseb, a Palestinian educator at CSU San Bernardino, expressed fear to the Bee of “opposing forces be(ing) successful in shutting down critique of Israel,” setting a precedent leading to further issues in the future…federally banning government criticism, the U.S. Government could be enabling hidden injustices.
“Because when constitutional rights are taken from one group in a society, this could be extended to so many other groups,” said Muhtaseb to the Bee, maintaining it “feels like a new manifestation of McCarthy-style repression of the 50s and 60s.”
Additionally, The Sacramento Bee highlighted a demonstration hosted by The Davis Faculty Association to both “protest the Trump administration’s ‘assault’ on higher education,” and to call action from the UC system in denouncing the administration’s new policies.
“The repression of Palestinian students and faculty is a blueprint for the repression of all of us … We are in an existential fight. We must defend the university, our students, and our right to a workplace free of repression,” according to a UC Davis Faculty Association statement cited by the Bee.
Preemptive Compliance
Muhtaseb recognizes the actions taken by Trump as a method to work toward his own political goals, rather than to investigate antisemitism, telling the Bee, “They are just weaponizing the charges of antisemitism to silence us, those of us who research, teach or advocate on behalf of Palestinian human rights.”
The Sacramento Bee noted Muhtaseb’s “culture of fear,” referencing that it is directed at both university leadership and the educators who are already “preemptively self-censoring” speech related to the war and noting while new policies are still in their beginning stages, faculty is already responding with censorship that minimizes the quality of education received by students.
The Sacramento Bee wrote Muhtaseb was supposed to give a speech at a UC Davis community Iftar, a cultural event where Muslim individuals gather and break their Ramadan fast, but, only two days before the event, a Muslim Facility and Staff Association employee uninvited her.
While Muhtaseb’s work focuses on the identities of Palestinian and Arab people, she told the Bee she was told that attending the Iftar could endanger students and staff by being “vulnerable to threats or doxing.”
The Sacramento Bee wrote that the Muslim Faculty and Staff Association informed the Davis Enterprise that cancelling Muhtaseb’s invitation was not to oppress her, but “an effort to protect those present at the event, particularly those made most vulnerable by the current political climate.”
In response, Muhtaseb stated to the Bee, “We can’t be silencing ourselves. It’s very dangerous. Our silence is not going to protect us.”
Protesters Reject Antisemitism
Craig Taylor wrote a letter to Sac State President Luke Wood on March 10, as stated by The Sacramento Bee, in which he used the Columbia event to justify the Trump administration’s path of “rooting out antisemitic harassment in schools and college campuses.”
Sac State was the only CSU campus investigated, explained the Bee, but Sac State was one of the only schools where encampment members and staff settled peacefully with the university, insisting their new investment standards do not receive any funds from “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights.”
The Sacramento Bee noted two SJP representatives that attend Sac State firmly “deny issues of antisemitism within the encampment.” With firsthand experience, the individuals claim that the allegations stem from “conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”
Amal insisted to the Bee that Jewish Voice for Peace is regarded as one of the group’s “most frequent allies and advocates. The whole narrative has been shifted to paint us as antisemitic and put targets on our back to villainize and delegitimize our movement. The reason we’re out protesting is because of the genocide in Gaza, not because of anything to do with Jewish people — it’s to do with the state of Israel.”
Similarly, Jack told the Sacramento Bee that notions of The Trump Administration caring about antisemitism are “laughable,” noting Trump allies’ use of Nazi salutes.
UC Davis Law Professor Ashutosh Bhagwat specializes in free speech, and in the Bee, avoided indicating that the government is “seeking to silence political dissent,” but he is worried the Trump Administration “will conflate anti-Israel speech with harassment,” eventually causing First Amendment controversy.
“Protesters have no right to harass Jewish people, of course. That’s not a question. But if they’re making public statements, say in support of Hamas, which I find utterly deplorable, that’s still free speech right?”
Bhagwat said to the Sacramento Bee, “But to convert that type of statement that is a part of public discourse into a claim of antisemitism, that’s a line I fear the administration might cross, and then there is a big free speech problem.”
Methodology
Micheal Lee Chang of Sac State’s Students for Quality Education said to the Bee he fears that Trump is attacking “student political dissent” by limiting encampments to certain time, place, and manner restrictions.
Chang believes the policy is vague to further suppress students from protesting, the Bee noted, while allowing campus police to arrest “at will,” creating “a bigger threat for undocumented students. That policy, regardless of intention, will not only suppress student free speech but will actively aid in Trump’s efforts to oppress dissent and deport students.”
The Bee quoted Bhagwat, who explained that “time, place and manner policies are not themselves unconstitutional,” and that institutions could have valid reasons to implement them, but cited the policy could have problematic impacts “if it shuts down the possibility of protest or is selectively applied.”
