COLUMBIA UNI STUDENT GROUP SUSPENDED FOR DEMANDING JUSTICE IN PALESTINE
January 27, 2024Columbia University has come under sharp criticism for its biased and illegal actions against a student group defending the rights of Palestinians on campus.
“This is the first time that a student group on campus has been suspended in such a manner in university history.”
Safiya O’Brien from the Columbia University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group says they will continue fighting for the Palestinian cause.
What this reveals is more of what we have come to learn. That big money in the USA, controlled largely by Zionists, have hijacked not only the American politics, the media and Wall Street, but also sacred institutions such as universities, which are the bedrock of free speech, expression and liberal thinking.
They are imposing on us “”their”” version of right and wrong, just and unjust and what we are allowed to defend.
International Law has been relegated to the wastebin of library shelves without effect or legitimacy.
ALL STUDENTS IN EVERY EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION IN THE WORLD MUST STAND UP AND FIGHT AGAINST THIS OR ELSE SUBMIT TO IDEOLOGICAL DICTATORSHIP!
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If you advocate for TRUTH & JUSTICE, SHARE to spread the knowledge.
#ceasefirenow #FreePalestine #Interfaith #StandWithUs #Truth #Palestine #Gaza #Humanrights #Israel #فلسطين #اسرائیل #غزة
English Script:
Safiya O’Brien: We’re studying and we’re living and we’re organizing in a university that prioritizes the demands and the wishes of the people with the money. We know that donors are really running the university right now, given that so many unilateral decisions are being made and normal procedures are not being followed. And so not only are students being silenced, not being able to express their freedoms on campus, but also, we have the administration suspending us on grounds that are illegitimate. This is the first time that a student group on campus has been suspended in such a manner in university history.
20-year-old Safiya O’Brien is a junior at NYC’s Barnard college of Columbia University, studying political science and Human rights. She is an organizing member of the students for Justice in Palestine Group.
Safiya O’Brien: I do want to become a lawyer and I want to work in criminal defense or in immigration law. And if I’m trying to work in a field of humanity, I want my entire resume to be reflective of that. And I think the Palestinian cause is the litmus test. And I think moving forward professionally, there may be companies that would deny me to work there. But what I would say to that is I don’t want to work at your law firm that claims to be for public service but is not standing against genocide.
Columbia University suspended SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace on November 10th. The university said that the groups violated the school’s event policies.
Safiya O’Brien: It was an illegitimate suspension. They suspended us under the grounds of this unauthorized protest. And so what this meant was that the last protest that we held while we were a recognized student group on campus was unauthorized, since there is a ten day policy that you must fit, given this new policy that they changed in October and now we’re no longer able to host a demonstration with less than ten days of planning, which is impossible when thousands and thousands of people are dying every single day. And the second one is under threatening language and intimidation. And when followed up, the administration could not give us a response to what this threatening language was, what this intimidation was.
Safiya says that by taking this position the university has made it unsafe for its students.
Safiya O’Brien: And so, what it actually did was, it created a hostile environment for us to not only go to class to study, but to organize and and freely speak our minds and exist on campus without getting harassed by other students on campus, other professors and administrators on campus.
Safya is one of the few SJP students who is speaking out publicly despite the suppression and intimidation on campus.
Safiya O’Brien: We are being called names. We are getting death threats. And we are organizing in a time where people do not want the truth to be shown. I was raised on the principles of social justice and to the importance of speaking up for marginalized voices. It really is such such an injustice that is funded by our government. As an American, growing up not only am I passionate about social justice, not only am I Muslim and care about my Muslim brothers and sisters, I am a human being and I have morals and I have values. And every prominent activist that I have looked up to, Angela Davis, Nelson Mandela have been very vocal proponents of the Palestinian struggle.
Following the suspension, Columbia university students formed the apartheid divest coalition. Made up of more than 100 student groups, the coalition works towards “collective liberation”.
Safiya O’Brien: Students coming together and saying that we stand against all systems of oppression, we will continue to educate ourselves and we will continue to use our voices for the better, which is exactly what our university has taught us to do.
Safiya says students should ensure their governments act morally.
Safiya O’Brien: I think students have a very important role. And we gain inspiration from previous activist movements on Columbia’s campus, such as the antiwar protests in the sixties, the anti-apartheid protests in the eighties. And we realize that this is a larger collective liberation struggle. We wanted to start the movement on campus and spread it to other campuses around the country and have this larger movement pushing back, saying we, the educated students of the United States, stand wholeheartedly against the Israeli state, the Israeli apartheid and the Israeli genocide. And we will continue to speak up and lift the voices of the Palestinians.
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