For speaking up for Palestine, I have been targeted – and have seen colleagues and students face arrest and sanctions Sandy Tolan is a professor at the University of Southern California in Los AngelesThe Trump administration’s attempted deportation of the Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the US, is sparking outrage and nationwide protests. But as shocking as his arrest may have seemed to the world, it was sadly unsurprising to those of us on the frontlines of the war at home over Gaza. Here in the US, a building fury of anti-Palestinian hatred, especially since the October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, is giving Donald Trump cover to cleanse the country of “undesirables” and undermine free speech and academic freedom.“If you love Hamas so much why not pack up and move to south Gaza,” an infuriated reader wrote to me last spring, after the LA Times published my opinion article criticising my own university, the University of Southern Californ...
According to the author, the Trump administration has intensified attacks on free speech at US universities, particularly regarding Palestine. The author cites their own experiences of being targeted for speaking up for Palestine, as well as the experiences of colleagues and students facing arrest, sanctions, and other forms of reprisal. This is due to a climate of anti-Palestinian hatred, used to undermine free speech and academic freedom by falsely conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.
