How US universities are trying to muzzle pro-Palestine protests before they begin

As the new academic year begins at US universities, administrators are working in a myriad of ways to tamp out the pro-Palestinian and student-led demonstrations that roiled the country last spring.

And as students make their way back on campus, familiarising themselves with class schedules and reconnecting with university life, administrations have been working - often in conjunction with the police - to weed out the possibility of a repeat of last semester when university authorities were blindsided by the scale and potency of pro-Palestinan protests that swept campuses. 

Several campuses morphed into battle zones with police, often resorting to brutal tactics on unarmed student protesters in scenes streamed live for the world to see.

The efforts to halt the regrowth of the movement have materialised in several different ways.

Back to school has meant new guidelines on hate speech, banning of encampments and maintaining the suspension of students involved in setting up Gaza solidarity encampments last semester.

But as Israel's war on Gaza continues with no end in sight, and as the Palestinian death toll in Gaza continues to rise, the student mobilisation around Gaza has already resurfaced, as it was always likely to.

Protests and demands for schools to end their financial stakes in companies profiting from the war have returned this semester, and administrations have already begun dealing with these protests with force, echoing the responses earlier this year.

Middle East Eye takes a look at some of the ways US universities have sought to curb pro-Palestinian protests on campus as the new semester rolls in.

Police brutality returns to campus

At Columbia University, considered the epicentre of last semester's protests, students assembled outside Columbia University in Harlem this week to launch new protests against the university.

“We ask that you put aside your excitement for a new school year and remember the Palestinians who died by our very dollars,” a flier distributed by students read. By Tuesday evening, at least two students had been arrested.

Last Wednesday, in what was meant to be a peaceful pro-Palestinian "die-in" at the University of Michigan, quickly turned violent after police ordered the students to disperse.

"We complied and got up, and began marching. Police then got in formation and randomly lunged at protesters, arresting and injuring a minor and arresting one alumnus," one student protester, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal from the university, told MEE.

"Police lunged at protesters completely at random at first. They injured and hospitalised two people in the process. Then they specifically targeted two people that they’d been surveilling for weeks prior. Faculty urged them to stop the brutality as hundreds of surrounding students watched the attack."

Four protesters were arrested, and two individuals were sent to the hospital for injuries received during the encounter with police.

The protester who spoke with MEE said that two of those arrested had been subject to "harassment and surveillance for weeks leading up to their arrests yesterday".

The immediate response by the police appeared to show a slightly different approach from the administration compared to last year, and protesters say law enforcement has become more emboldened to stamp out campus protests before they grow bigger.

"We were surprised that they would commit such violence so brazenly and openly, with hundreds of new students watching, especially when it makes students feel so unsafe," the protester said.

The university responded to the incident with a statement saying that it respects freedom of speech and expression but claimed the protesters were "violating university policy" by blocking traffic.

 

Surveillance and consequences

At the University of South Florida, all activities which may feature signs, tents or amplified sound now require prior approval.

Likewise, at the University of California, which saw some of the most violent attacks on pro-Palestine protesters last semester, the university president ordered chancellors on all 10 campuses to ban student encampments and "overnight loitering".  Using a mask to hide your identity or block walkways and university buildings is now also prohibited.

According to the new directive, anyone not following the latest guidelines could face arrest.

Students told MEE they perceived the policies as new layers of repression.

"The university would rather focus on ways to perfect various means of both subtle and brutal repression of their students than engage and address the demands of disclosure and divestment," Mona, a student activist at UCLA, told MEE

Mona, who asked to be identified by her first name only, given the prospect of suspension and expulsion, said the policies being enacted are an attempt to bury the university's complicity in Israel's war on Gaza.

"UCLA and many universities will claim to not have enough resources for a wide variety of social and health initiatives to benefit their students, but will stop at nothing to protect their role in furthering the genocide and occupation in Palestine.

"There is a lot of rhetoric about the values that guide our campus, but the administration's reactions and policy implementations demonstrate that the values of equality and justice, which students are centring, are the farthest thing from their minds," Mona added.

At Tufts University, outside of Boston, hours after a vigil for Palestine was announced last week, administrators targeted a known student activist with several community standard violations, including one that accused him of "stealing water from the university".

"Tufts’ community guidelines regarding protests are both vague and menacing, going so far as to forbid protest occurring near university statues. Students who violate these guidelines will face, in Tufts’ words, “temporary or interim suspension and immediate departure from campus," the targeted student told MEE.

The student said the university's response was an intimidation tactic, but there is a larger political message behind these actions.

"We student protestors are demanding divestment from Israel, which has destroyed every single university in Gaza and martyred thousands of students and academics.

"The fact that student protestors opposing this scholasticide are met with such over-the-top harassment reveals that rather than genuinely caring about the well-being of students, these universities are colonial institutions dedicated towards maintaining an unjust status quo," the student who requested anonymity, said.

Similar action has taken place at Columbia University in New York City.

Last week, a group of students had gathered for a "Palestine 101" teach-in at a local park near the university campus when students noticed that New York Police Department vehicles were circling streets around the park.

The incident was one of several instances of surveillance on students and faculty in just the past several months.
 

'Community guidelines' and online censorship

As part of the efforts to muzzle student demands, university administrators have also looked to alter and control the language used to describe Israel's war on Palestinians on the campuses.

Two weeks ago, New York University issued new guidelines around hate speech and harassment. Under the new measures, anyone who identifies as a "Zionist" falls under the category of a protected class. This means criticising "Zionists" would amount to hate speech and be subject to punitive action.

The university had earlier adopted the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in 2020, which human rights experts say conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

The new guidelines at NYU, however, create a new "protected status" for individuals subscribing to Zionism.

"The new guidance sets a dangerous precedent by extending Title VI protections to anyone who adheres to Zionism, a nationalist political ideology, and troublingly equates criticism of Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people," NYU FSJP said.

NYU appears to be one of the first schools to adopt these guidelines, but observers say it's unlikely to be the last.

At George Washington University (GWU), students said the mandatory orientation briefing for new enrollments included a briefing on what students could and could not say with regards to criticism of Israel on campus.

In presentation slides seen by MEE, criticising Zionism was presented as antisemitic.

"On one hand, I'm incredibly glad to be back with my community, to see everyone again, to see friends who were arrested," said a representative from the student coalition for Palestine at GWU.

"But on the other hand, like I'm on edge in class, because I'm sitting around students who cheered the police beating me and my friends. I am at a university that is fundamentally opposed to who I am," the student said.

The coalition said that five students involved in last year's pro-Palestine demonstrations were still barred from GWU's campus, save for attending class. This means they can't go to the library, visit the multicultural centre where the prayer room is located, or even shop at the grocery store.

With George Washington University being one of the largest landowners in Washington DC, the students have effectively been barred from large swathes of the city itself.

The containment of language has accompanied efforts by social media giants to censor pro-Palestine student groups online.

In the past week alone, Instagram permanently removed and banned the Columbia chapter of the group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) as well as NYU's SJP chapter.

Despite the efforts to muzzle dissent, students say this wasn't the time to halt their efforts to push their universities to be on the right side of history.

With news that San Franciso State University (SFSU) had divested from several weapons companies involved in Israel's war on Gaza, in a major victory for the divestment movement, students remain defiant. 

"Every day that the genocide continues is heartbreaking. It is our responsibility as students and as humans to continue to demand for our university to end its complicity in and profiting from genocide by pushing for divestment and continuing to advocate for a Free Palestine," Mona, from UCLA, said.