St. John's Censors Palestinian Grad's 'Free Free Palestine' Post Amid Israeli Onslaught
/Incident Part of Larger Pattern of Silencing Palestinian Voices at Commencement
St. John's University in New York censored a Palestinian doctoral student, preventing her from celebrating her Palestinian identity and scholarship during the school's virtual commencement ceremony last month.
st. john’s university censored palestinian doctoral student laila shikaki’s graduation slide that said “free Free palestine.”
The university removed "Free Free Palestine" from the graduation presentation slide of Dr. Laila Shikaki, outrageously claiming initially that her slide violated campus guidelines forbidding content considered “defamatory, libelous, obscene, immoral, or fraudulent to St. John's University.”
After apologizing for implying that advocating for Palestinian liberation was defamatory, the university then claimed that Dr. Shikaki's slide was "political speech" and violated previously-unexpressed policies requiring that messages be "content neutral" and "celebratory in nature." These requirements had not been published or shared in advance of the ceremony.
Palestine unfairly singled out
At the same time, St. John's permitted content that was political in nature to appear on other students' graduation slides, including "Black Lives Still Matter" and quotes from Ayn Rand and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
As such, it appears that messages in support of Palestinian rights were unfairly singled out for censorship and that the university's policy was not consistently applied.
Besides being Palestinian herself, Dr. Shikaki's dissertation explored how representations of self in Palestinian autobiographies surmount anti-Palestinian discourses. Her inclusion of "Free Free Palestine" in her graduation slide was a celebration both of her heritage and of the hard work she put into completing a dissertation on how Palestinians challenge racism and represent themselves instead of being spoken about or written about.
‘My commencement message was celebratory’
"I have dedicated not only my entire PhD years at St. John's to advancing Palestinian freedom, but also my whole life and existence,” said Dr. Laila Shikaki. “What appears to be political to some, is very personal to others. My happiness is incomplete without the freedom of Palestine. My commencement message was celebratory and common sense to me as a Palestinian student and professor in two departments at St. John's University."
Dr. Shikaki was an adjunct professor in the English Department and Institute of Core Studies while working on her doctorate.
Following her persistent demands, Dr. Shikaki’s personal message was ultimately reinstated on the school’s website, but this occurred long after the ceremony was over, and her slide remains unchanged on the video of the ceremony.
Civil rights groups demand an apology
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and Palestine Legal recently wrote St. John's demanding an apology to Dr. Laila Shikaki and requesting clarity on why content in support of Palestinian freedom was singled out and censored.
To date, the school has not responded to our request.
A pattern of targeting in other states
Dr. Shikaki was not the only Palestinian targeted during spring graduation ceremonies this year. Palestine Legal responded to other commencement incidents in recent weeks.
California high school student told to remove Palestinian stole
In California, a Palestinian-American high school student was forbidden from wearing a Palestinian stole at her graduation ceremony because the school claimed it did not meet the criteria for cultural adornment.
Examples of Palestine graduation stoles available in the U.S. and graduates in Palestine wearing stoles celebrating their cultural heritage. Mariam’s school district told her the Palestinian stole did not meet the criteria for cultural adornment.
(2nd Image Credit: Nedal Eshtayah/apaimages; 3rd Image Credit: Al Najah University)
While the public school district originally told Mariam* she could wear the stole underneath her commencement gown, on the night of graduation a school official told her to remove her gown and surrender the stole she wore underneath because “the rules have been changed.”
During graduation, several students wore kente stoles representing their heritage, demonstrating that administrators had selectively chosen which cultures they deemed legitimate enough to be represented in the ceremony.
Instead of celebrating one of the most important milestones in a young person's life, Mariam felt upset, silenced, policed, and robbed of what was supposed to be a great night.
Palestine Legal contacted the school district to assert Mariam's rights under the state's educational code and state and federal constitutions.
*A pseudonym was used out of concern for the client and her family’s safety.
Erasure of Palestinians at the University of Delaware
On the other side of the country, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Delaware (SJP at UD) have launched a campaign regarding the university's erasure of Palestine from its doctoral graduation ceremony.
In May, a 59-year-old Palestinian student graduated from the University of Delaware with a doctorate in educational leadership. The Dean of the Graduate College and Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Education called him "our most experienced doctoral candidate” in his remarks for the hooding ceremony.
During commencement, the student wore a stole with kuffiyeh print and the word Palestine in bold red lettering and shared how his parents managed to push him and his siblings to become educated despite being illiterate.
But the university failed to upload the portion of the graduation ceremony that included the Palestinian student wearing his Palestine stole—until a complaint was filed, according to SJP at UD.
University of delaware omits palestine from graduation slide (screenshot).
And despite notifying the university of his Palestinian national origin, Palestine was not included in a university slide of the countries represented by the doctoral candidates at the hooding ceremony.
To date, the university still has not included Palestine in the list of countries represented or responded to the SJP’s questions about why Palestine was excluded in the first place.
"This is a direct example of the continuous erasure that Palestinians in Occupied Palestine AND in the diaspora face," SJP at UD wrote in an open letter to the university.
Censorship as support for Palestinian freedom grows
All three of these incidents took place in the context of an escalation in Israeli colonial and apartheid practices against Palestinians and a rise in solidarity around the world with the struggle for Palestinian freedom. This growing wave of support for Palestinian rights has been met with increased efforts to censor or silence these voices.
"When schools cave to real or imagined pressure from those who oppose Palestinian freedom and justice, it is often at the expense of the civil and constitutional rights of Palestinians and their allies,” said senior staff attorney Meera Shah. "These commencement incidents illustrate a particularly painful aspect of the backlash experienced by Palestinian students who are not allowed to celebrate this milestone as their full selves and must check part of their heritage or identity at the door.”
Would you like to report a Palestine-related incident from your commencement? Contact Palestine Legal at our intake form.