A battle for free speech is raging on America’s college campuses. In different parts of the country, students, professors, and other actors in university life who promote the rights of the Palestinian people face racist attacks and reprisals that put their safety and livelihoods at risk. These attacks are aimed at countering criticism of Israel and US support for its actions in Gaza. For its part, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution “rejecting Hamas and anti-Semitic student activities on university campuses.”
The resolution refers to one person, a student at New York University School of Law, who had his job offer revoked for sending his classmates a statement in which he expressed “unwavering and complete solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance against oppression and their path to freedom and self-determination.”
Ryna Workman joins us today on Democracy Now! For publicly expressing her support for Palestine, she was not only denied a job opportunity but also suspended from the presidency of the New York University Law Student Bar Association.
We also join Dima Khalidi, founder and director of Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization dedicated to documenting and supporting people who face reprisals for supporting the rights of the Palestinian people. speak, for fear that the same thing will happen to me,” Workman said about what happened, which Khalidi explained by pointing out that “Palestine is the exception to freedom of expression.”
