This was written by the president of #CornellUniversity.

Yet I'll remind you that #Cornell targeted #MomodouTaal in September 2024 for simply being present at a protest, accusing a Black Muslim man of violence with no evidence. Now, Taal faces deportation by the fascists, and if you look at their case for why, it *entirely* rests on Cornell's initial targeting of Taal.

The author of this article is full of shit. Cornell has fully embraced the #PalestineException

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/opinion/ideas-universities-controversey-protest.html?unlocked_article_code=1.8E4.09a6.Scz3HW_hU7d-

"#Liberals in the West – on our campuses and in our politics – have contributed to an anti-Palestinian hysteria by carving a ‘#PalestineException’ into their liberalism. What they have chosen to overlook – the ethnocratic, racist character of the Israeli state; its brutal, authoritarian policies towards #Palestinians – has now been embraced as a model for their own societies by #Trump and the #farRight."

https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/march/submission

#USpol #Columbia #MahmoudKhalil #PalestineSolidarity @palestine

Why are #universities caving to #Trump ? Because they're acting like corporations. Also, the #PalestineException to free speech seems to have morphed into suppressing all protest.
https://jessrow.substack.com/p/why-are-universities-caving-to-trump

From Campus to the Courts, the “#PalestineException” Rules #University #Crackdowns

by Akela Lacy, Yazan Mohammad
November 18 2024, 2:04 p.m.

"With #Israel’s war on #Gaza entering its second year, Khalaf is among thousands of students and faculty members still being targeted in universities’ battles over harsh #ProtestCrackdowns, #FreeSpeech, academic independence, and discrimination.

"The fights are playing out online, in campus quads, internal disciplinary proceedings, and in the courts. Organizers among the students and faculty say universities are retaliating against them for their #activism and restricting their #CiviLiberties and #FreedomOfExpression while claiming to uphold both.

"As campus protests reached their height in May, Dahlia Saba, a second-year Palestinian American graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wrote an op-ed supporting the demonstrators’ demands. She called on the school to address calls to #divest from industries that profit from Israel’s war. She and her co-author Vignesh Ramachandran, another graduate student, were met with student nonacademic disciplinary investigations that relied solely on the op-ed for evidence.

"'The university is threatening us with sanctions that could jeopardize our academic careers if we choose to speak out again,' Saba said. 'They’re low-level sanctions to begin with, but the university is pursuing sanctions against many people on very little evidence.'

"The issue is not so much the severity of the sanctions, Saba said, but using punishments to chill students’ speech. The disciplinary actions become a tool, she said, to help universities keep track of people involved in protests for #Palestine."

https://theintercept.com/2024/11/18/gaza-protest-campus-palestine-exception/

Cornell has been cracking down on the students that demand that the university cut ties with the weapons manufacturers connected to the genocide against the Palestinian people. It is doing so in ethically-questionable ways and I seem to have caught the university misleading a student about something. Read the piece here:

https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=528681

Cornell continues to use "temporary" suspensions to dish out harsh penalties against students who demand that the university address its complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people.

In my latest piece in @nationmag, I found an inconsistency between Cornell's official policy regarding how a process that resembles due process gets reconciled with the unilateral power of the director of Cornell's student disciplinary office. In a meeting with a student facing discipline, this individual seems to have misrepresented her power, overstating it.

“It’s basically a prosecutor’s tactic: overcharge someone so they have a massive sentence ahead of them, so that they’ll plead down to something lesser, even if they were innocent to begin with,” wrote Cornell professor David Bateman in an email.

Momodou Taal, a Black, Muslim, international student initially faced the threat of deportation for being present at the same action that these students are being suspended for. Following much public pressure locally & nationally, Cornell has decided not to de-enroll Taal, meaning that he will likely not have to leave the country. However, without evidence, he is still banned from campus and his ability to work as a graduate worker has been affected.

#Cornell administrators say that the use of temporary suspensions are being used "where immediate action is necessary to protect the Complainant or the University community.”

However, almost a month passed between the action in question and the disciplinary actions taken by the university, so the word "immediate" must have a very expansive definition for Cornell admins.

Though it took the university a month to ban these students from campus, the disciplinary actions took place two days before #CornellUniversity board of trustees met on campus. The chair of Cornell's board of trustees, Kraig Kayser, sits on the board of weapons company Moog Inc.

According to The New Republic, "Last year, Kayser took home over $200,000 in combined cash and stock awards from Moog for his role on its board."

#Ithaca #Ithacany #Divestment #Gaza #Palestine #FreedomOfExpression #PalestineException

https://www.thenation.com/?post_type=article&p=528681

#PalestineDebrief: Challenging the #Media’s “#PalestineException”

"This episode is a conversation with Jason Toney, Director of #MediaAdvocacy at #CJPME about #Canada's #MediaEthics and our #MediaAccountability Project. We talk about the #CanadianMedia's ethics, standards, biases, and erasure of Palestinian content."

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1882083/episodes/16045792-challenging-the-media-s-palestine-exception-with-jason-toney

#PalestineCoverage #GazaCoverage #MediaCriticism #MediaBias #Palestine #Palestinians #Gaza #CdnPoli #PalestineSolidarity #GazaSolidarity

@palestine

#Cornell is leveraging the power of state immigration authorities to suppress pro-Palestinian speech.

For The Nation, I wrote about Momodou Taal, who faces deportation as a result of his expressive activities on campus, demanding that the university divest from genocide.

Interesting that a Black, Muslim foreign national is facing the harshest repression from this elite US institution.
What a coincidence.

#FreedomOfExpression #Palestine #Gaza #PalestineException

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cornell-graduate-student-deportation-palestine-protest/

I just interviewed Momodou Taal, who now could face deportation because of disciplinary action from #Cornell University, as a result of his political speech and activities in support of #Palestine.

Of hundreds of students and protestors, Taal, who is Black and Muslim, is up against some of the most severe punishments for his actions to get the #IvyLeague institution to divest from the genocide in Gaza.

#PalestineException #FreedomOfExpression #HigherEd #Fascism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmECbcAUrv0

Here's a documentary project that I’m supporting. It’s called The Palestine Exception.

The Palestine Exception takes the audience through the four seasons of the academic year 2023-2024, a year when the eruption of violence in Israel-Palestine set off events on US college campuses that dramatically challenged the stranglehold of pro-Israel and Zionist narratives in academia.

This feature-length film tells the story of the largest anti-war movement since the 1970s as students, faculty, and staff demand an end to US military support for Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. Directors Jan Haaken and Jennifer Ruth, academics as well as filmmakers, are working with a committed creative team to complete the film by mid-fall. They have launched a crowd-funding campaign with Seed & Spark to raise $25,000 by September 11th. Please give if you can and share the word widely.

https://seedandspark.com/fund/palestineexceptionfilm

https://www.palestineexceptionfilm.com/

#PalestineException
#Palestine #Documentary

#DemocracyNow
#PalestineException: U.S. #Colleges Suppress #FreeSpeech, #AcademicFreedom for #Students & #Professors
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSnMfEAJTj8

#EndCensorshipOfArtistsWritersJournalistsAthletesAcademics
#CessezLeFeu
#CessateIlFuoco
#PermanentCeasefireNOW
#EndztheOccupationNOW