More of a side note, but on Both of these students claim that they were NOT protesting, and were simply caught en mass by happenstance while walking through campus and being near protestors....
More of a side note, but on
On March 9, Yunseo Chung had to file a lawsuit and eventually seek a court order barring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining her for her protest activity. On March 11, Ranjani Srinivasan chose to cross the border to Canada upon the belief that this university was ready to hand her over to ICE.
Both of these students claim that they were NOT protesting, and were simply caught en mass by happenstance while walking through campus and being near protestors. Whether or not that’s true, who knows, but it is their current claim.
Not to say that what ICE is doing is OK even if they were protesting, but it feels somewhat icky that they’re being used as symbols or martyrs for something that they’re currently not consenting to, but will be subject to the consequences of.
I feel like it would be the responsible thing to do to at least mention that fact, as opposed to just bucketing them under
I disagree. Neither of the two had leadership roles in any of the Palestine protest movements, but they both had some form of participation, which is the reason why they were targeted. I am not...
I disagree. Neither of the two had leadership roles in any of the Palestine protest movements, but they both had some form of participation, which is the reason why they were targeted.
I am not entirely sure what the circumstances were around Chung's arrest, but she was certainly part of the protests. Even if you set aside the government's allegations (which is fair), her own lawyers are quoted saying she was a protester.
“Like many thousands of students nationwide, Yunseo raised her voice against what is happening in Gaza and in support of fellow students facing unfair discipline,” said Ms. Ahmad, a co-director of CLEAR. “
Srinivasan's situation is even more bewildering since she was erroneously detained, but she has also publicly supported the Palestinian cause.
[Srinivasan] said that her activity on social media had been mostly limited to liking or sharing posts that highlighted “human rights violations” in the war in Gaza. And she said that she had signed several open letters related to the war, including one by architecture scholars that called for “Palestinian liberation.”
I think it's a fair description of what is going on. You don't have to be as involved as someone like Mahmoud Khalil to "stand for Palestine." The fact that they were not in any way prominent figures just speaks to how far the government and Columbia will go to suppress even the most basic pro-Palestine speech, which is kind of the point that Khalil is trying to make here.
More of a side note, but on
Both of these students claim that they were NOT protesting, and were simply caught en mass by happenstance while walking through campus and being near protestors. Whether or not that’s true, who knows, but it is their current claim.
Not to say that what ICE is doing is OK even if they were protesting, but it feels somewhat icky that they’re being used as symbols or martyrs for something that they’re currently not consenting to, but will be subject to the consequences of.
I feel like it would be the responsible thing to do to at least mention that fact, as opposed to just bucketing them under
I disagree. Neither of the two had leadership roles in any of the Palestine protest movements, but they both had some form of participation, which is the reason why they were targeted.
I am not entirely sure what the circumstances were around Chung's arrest, but she was certainly part of the protests. Even if you set aside the government's allegations (which is fair), her own lawyers are quoted saying she was a protester.
Srinivasan's situation is even more bewildering since she was erroneously detained, but she has also publicly supported the Palestinian cause.
I think it's a fair description of what is going on. You don't have to be as involved as someone like Mahmoud Khalil to "stand for Palestine." The fact that they were not in any way prominent figures just speaks to how far the government and Columbia will go to suppress even the most basic pro-Palestine speech, which is kind of the point that Khalil is trying to make here.