Inside Columbia’s Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Free Speech | Rights This Way Podcast | NYCLU

#columbia #columbiauniversity #studentprotest

Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning – not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don’t approve of. But Columbia University recently violated New York law to single out and suspend two student groups for participating in a peaceful student demonstration and temporary art installation in support of Palestinian rights.

That’s why the NYCLU and Palestine Legal sued Columbia.

These student groups – Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace – were peacefully speaking out on a critical global conflict, only to have Columbia ignore its own longstanding, existing rules and abruptly suspend the organizations. The protest was sponsored by a coalition of over 20 groups, yet none of the other groups involved faced disciplinary action.

That’s retaliatory, it’s targeted, and it flies in the face of the free speech principles that institutes of higher learning should be defending. We talk about this case with two NYCLU lawyers who brought the lawsuit. We also hear from two students who are plaintiffs in the case, Maryam Alwan, an organizer with Columbia’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine and Cameron Jones, an organizer with Columbia’s chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

❏ More on the issue

The NYCLU’s case against Columbia: https://www.nyclu.org/court-cases/col...

NYCLU’s commentary on the police crackdown on pro-Palestinian student protesters https://www.nyclu.org/commentary/pro-...

❏ Follow us

Rights This Way on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Rights This Way on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2AifaBD...

Twitter:   / with_replies  
Instagram:   / nyclu  
Website: https://www.nyclu.org/