© Tess Scheflan / ActiveStillsNortheastern students walked out of an event featuring Israeli soldiers in April.
On 7 August, students gathered at Northeastern University in Boston to demand that the administration rescind the academic probation it imposed on our campus Palestine solidarity group earlier this year.
Supported by the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights and local union and civil rights groups, the demonstrators handed out leaflets and urged the university president to "change the policy on demonstrations and remove the sanctions placed on SJP [Students for Justice in Palestine]," as reported by
OpenMedia BostonIn April, Students for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern was disciplined in an arbitrary and overtly political attempt to censor our speech based on our pro-Palestinian content. Because we protested a talk given by Israeli soldiers, the university administration has subjected our group to an opaque and exaggerated disciplinary process.
On college campuses across the United States, student Palestine solidarity activists are being punished, intimidated and censored. From administrative sanction, to personal threats, to coordinated smear campaigns orchestrated by outside organizations, it is has been a trying time to be organizing around Palestine on campus.
The protestStudents for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern learned that on 8 April, a panel of active-duty Israeli soldiers was coming to our campus, in an event sponsored by Huskies for Israel, Northeastern's pro-Israel student group. The event was advertised as an opportunity to hear soldiers "present themselves openly - as Israelis, as members of the IDF, and as young adults placed in often impossibly difficult circumstances."
Based on the well-documented human rights violations committed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, we decided to walk out of the event in protest of their presentation. We thought this tactic struck a balance between respecting the free speech rights of the presenters and expressing our abhorrence that they were being hosted at our university.
The Northeastern administration knew of our plans to protest in advance and we agreed there would be no picket signs or vocal disruptions.
Students for Justice in Palestine members and our supporters prepared for the walk-out by taping the names of children killed by the Israeli army on our shirts. Our group of approximately 35 participants then entered the event one by one.
Once the soldiers were introduced, one member of SJP stood up and stated, "the IDF are war criminals and are not welcome on our campus," at which point almost half of the audience walked out.
We chanted "free, free Palestine," as we filed out of the room. The entire walk-out lasted thirty seconds and then the event proceeded as planned.
Students across the country have organized similar actions to challenge unconditional support for Israel's egregious policies. Just a week after our protest, students at Florida Atlantic University walked out of a presentation by Israeli soldiers ("FAU students investigated for 'disruptive behavior' during protest," FAU University Press, 1 May 2013)
These students were threatened with individual conduct violations and some were put on indefinite probation. In a stunning twist,
Florida Atlantic University's administration demanded that several of the students attend a "training" program designed by the Anti-Defamation League - an Israel lobby organization that has pressured university administrations across the US to stifle Palestine solidarity activism.Perhaps the most infamous case of a student walk-out is that of the Irvine 11 - students at the University of California at Irvine interrupted a speech by Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in 2010. The students were arrested, prosecuted and eventually convicted of "conspiracy to disrupt a public meeting" in 2011.
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