Palestine Legal Condemns Wave of Campus Anti-Protest Policies Intended To Suppress Student Activism

IN THE EARLY MORNING OF MAY 31, HEAVILY ARMED POLICE IN RIOT GEAR SURROUNDED STUDENT PROTESTERS. (PHOTO: KYLE ALLEMAND VIA MONDOWEISS)

The stakes have gone up this fall for students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Across the U.S., colleges are rolling out new anti-protest policies in an attempt to prevent a repeat of last spring’s historic wave of student activism calling on universities to disclose and divest from financial ties to Israel. 

Throughout the spring of 2024, universities across the country experienced levels of student protest reminiscent of the Vietnam anti-war and South African anti-apartheid eras. In response, many universities summoned state, local, and campus police to brutally crack down on student activists on a scale not seen in decades. University administrators called in law enforcement to arrest over 3,000 students, professors, and solidarity activists on more than 80 campuses. 

Policy changes targeting pro-Palestinian student activists across universities, public and private, have been tracked by several independent and mainstream news outlets. The underlying goal of these new policies is clear: to restrict, repress, or outright ban student protests. 

This new wave of administrative policies includes banning encampments, imposing severe restrictions on when or how demonstrations may take place, and suspending student organizations. These policies are also accompanied by expanded conduct rules and harsher sanctions for violations that the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has condemned as “broadly chill[ing] students and faculty from engaging in protests.” 

Last month, the University of California and Cal State systems – home to a sizable share of the nation’s college population – prohibited both encampments and the use of masks to “conceal identity” across their 33 campuses. 

Shortly after, New York University unveiled new student conduct policies that appear to prohibit criticism of Zionism — making NYU the first university to expressly claim that “Zionist” is an identity meriting protection under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, rather than a political ideology that justifies apartheid and genocide. 

Earlier this month, in an egregious and unlawful move, the University of Maryland banned all “expressive events” on campus that are not university-sponsored on October 7th, to prevent their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace from holding a vigil that had already been approved.

Many of these top-down edicts by university administrators, in apparent response to pressure from powerful donors and Israel lobby groups, have also been developed in consultation with law enforcement – with little to no input from campus stakeholders. 

The consequences of these policies have already begun to unfold, with Palestinian and associated students facing intense and discriminatory scrutiny and police repression as they return to school. Columbia’s school year began last week with the NYPD violently arresting student picketers demanding divestment from genocide on the first day of classes, while at the University of Michigan, four people were arrested and two were hospitalized after police slammed students into the ground for engaging in a peaceful die-in demonstration. 

These policies have ultimately consolidated administrative and state power while undermining freedom of expression, the right to assembly and protest, academic freedom, and safety for students and faculty on campuses across the country. While these rules have been instituted to target speech critical of Israel, once in place, these policies will be used by university administrators to prevent students from speaking out about other issues as well, such as climate change, police violence, and more. 

Palestine Legal remains dedicated to supporting the student movement. We are working to ensure that students know their rights in this quickly evolving environment and have support if they do face repression. We are monitoring these repressive campus policies and will challenge those that cross the boundary of restricting constitutionally protected free speech, or that contribute to a hostile environment of anti-Palestinian racism.

As in previous eras of university crackdowns on student movements for justice, universities will surely learn that their draconian efforts will fail to silence the millions morally compelled to speak out against a genocide unfolding before their eyes.