 |
| Rumeysa being arrested in Boston by masked ICE agents |
I THOUGHT IT MIGHT BE GOOD in these increasingly tumultuous times to
look at how freedom of expression, that fundamental right cherished by
democracies everywhere, is being eroded in the West. A case in point: Last
Wednesday, in Massachusetts, Rumeysa
Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish doctoral student enrolled at Tufts
University, was arrested by U.S. immigration officials and her student visa
revoked. Her crime? An op-ed she wrote—a
year ago—in the student newspaper complaining the University should do more to
“acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and to divest any financial ties it may
have with Israel. Wow! Thank goodness the wizz-kids at ICE (Immigration and
Customs Enforcement) were on the ball in tracking down this dangerous terrorist! There’s no telling what’s in her backpack. School books? Highly
unlikely.
“Rumeysa Ozturk was detained on Tuesday
outside Boston, as she was walking to an Iftar meal to celebrate Ramadan[The
Muslim holy month]. Video shows masked, plain-clothes officers handcuffing and
leading her to an unmarked car. Tufts said in a statement that it had
been told by officials that the student visa held by Ms Otzurk, who is a
doctoral student, had been revoked.” (The Guardian)
IN RECENT WEEKS at other universities in the U.S. similar stories of international
students being arrested and detained for participating in student
demonstrations in support of Palestine or else posting social media comments condemning Israel for its genocidal onslaught in Gaza. Earlier this month, there was the high-profile
case of Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil a “Green Card” holder who had his status as a "permanent resident"
revoked. He was arrested and sent to a federal prison in Louisiana, 1300 miles
from his pregnant American wife, pending deportation. He is accused of “supporting Hamas”, a
designated terrorist organization, which is an absurd claim made against
someone whose only 'crime' was helping to organize a pro-Palestinian
demonstration at his university. His lawyers are challenging his deportation.
ANOTHER Columbia University student, twenty-one-year-old Korean-American Yunseo Chung, a permanent resident with a Green Card, who
has lived in the United States since she was seven-years old, went into hiding
as her lawyers launched a suit against the Department of Homeland Security
challenging its claim that Ms. Chung broke
the law when she was earlier arrested (though not charged) while attending a
student protest at Barnard College that was later deemed to be a ”pro-Hamas rally” by the DHS. They seek to deport her back to South Korea where she has not lived since she was a child.
OTHER INTERNATIONAL students at Cornell and Georgetown universities, and in other universities throughout the U.S., have
also been targeted and arrested for pro-Palestinian statements they've made through social media or for participating in student protests on campus.
These arrests, detentions, and deportations have one thing in common:
those individuals so charged were protesting against Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people of Gaza and the
West Bank. They are critics of Israel’s government. And because of their
principled stand, they are labelled as "antisemitic". In the Columbia University
cases, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold four-hundred-million
dollars in federal funding because, it claims, Columbia failed to
“protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment”. (Aljazeera)
SO, crackdown is
the word on U.S. campuses near and far as they round up and deport all those
mouthy critics of Empire and its attack dog in the Middle East, Israel. Jewish lobby groups such as the ADL (Anti-defamation League) and
AIPAC (American Israeli Public Affairs Committee) and wealthy Zionist donors (including Christian Zionists) carry
and use the big stick of antisemitism to beat down critics of Israel. It
is truly amazing how everybody seems to fall into lockstep behind Zionism’s
twisted and racist logic.
THE THREAT of
being labelled a hotbed of antisemitism forces more and more universities to
sacrifice some of their most cherished principles—academic freedom and open
debate in a respectful manner among equals. Recall last summer the House
committee on "Education and the Workplace", when three Ivy League university presidents were forced to resign following their
testimony before the committee in which they were deemed inadequate in
combating antisemitism on their respective campuses. Beyond censorship regimes at U.S. universities, individuals can run afoul of authorities for being adherents to the Muslim faith. Take the case of Browns
University assistant professor and a doctor, Rasha Alawieh, 34, a Lebanese
citizen in the U.S. on a work visa who was deported back to Lebanon just hours
after returning from her homeland in early March. She had attended the large,
public funeral in Beirut of Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader who was also a
spiritual leader of millions of Shia Muslims in the region. Alawieh states she
attended the militia leader’s funeral because of his religious teaching not
because she supported Hezbollah or favoured the mullah’s political views. She
has also launched legal action to be allowed back into the U.S.*
Claims of
antisemitism and “unsafe spaces” for Jews on university campuses are heard
everywhere (in Canada, too), and, as mentioned, it’s not just universities that are the feared
abattoirs of Jews. A second example of censorship comes, oddly enough, from the U.S. public health sector. Apparently,
antisemitism is also a "health concern" as articulated by HHS (Health and Human
Services) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in a recent X post:
“Anti-Semitism
– like racism – is a spiritual and moral malady that sickens societies and
kills people with lethalities comparable to history’s most deadly plagues. In
recent years, the censorship and false narratives of woke cancel culture have
transformed our great universities into greenhouses for this deadly and
virulent pestilence. Making America healthy means building communities of trust
and mutual respect, based on speech freedom and open debate.” (RFK Jr. X post)
LAST TIME I
CHECKED HHS Secretary Kennedy was tasked with
improving the health of Americans and combating waste and grift within the
public health system, not calling for more censorship of those stricken with the disease of "wrong think".
Why the hell is Kennedy talking about antisemitism? Is he
beholding to rich, Zionist donors? Or is there kompromat on him? Gosh, I hope
it has nothing to do with gerbils!
👉In the end, combating
genuine instances of antisemitism, as well as Islamophobia, is something
we all should approve. But, making false, reputation-damaging accusations of
antisemitism, and weaponizing the legal system to
go after anyone that does not toe the party line, does not make Israelis
safer, surrounded, as they are, by angry neighbours and the smoldering resentment
from indigenous Palestinians. And Jews outside of Israel are not safer, either, as publics, globally, see Israel committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in
Gaza and the West Bank, and its military adventures and land seizures in the Levant.
Cheers, Jake.____________________________________
* ANOTHER EXAMPLE comes from Austria where Richard Medhurst, a Syrian-born British citizen whose parents are recipients of
the Nobel Peace Prize2, was arrested by Austrian police and has been
charged with—get this—being a member of Hamas, not just supporting the militia group
through his writings (he is an independent journalist and blogger, and is an ardent
critic of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere in the Levant), or that he violated
new speech laws cropping up everywhere these days. They’re charging this young man with being an actual member
of a designated terrorist organization. 😖 GMAFB! He is also being investigated in
Britain, where he was detained and questioned by British police upon his arrival
at Heathrow Airport in London in August of last year. What's happening to Richard is a blatant example
of “lawfare”, when the courts are used to silence dissent against official government narratives. Julian Assange, the recently freed journalist and WikiLeaks’
publisher is a prime example of what can happen when the legal system is used to
harass truth speakers by immiserating their lives with constant and specious legal
wrangling.
THESE ARE DISGRACEFUL ABUSES of police powers used to silence critics of
Israel, by calling those that speak out “antisemitic”—a moniker as dreadful as
the yersinia pestis virus was in the Middle Ages. Richard’s is one such case, and while he has not been charged under hate speech laws per se, his outspoken (and correct) condemnation of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and elsewhere are surely the reason for the trumped-up charges against him. There are others--journalists and members of the public, and there will be more as time goes on. 👉Welcome to our brave
new world. (Shhh! Mums-the-word!)
[Photo is of Richard outside Belmarsh Prison in London protesting the upcoming deportation of Julian Assange to the U.S. which was fortunately voided when Julian made a plea deal to gain his freedom in June, 2024. Ed.]
1. Fun Fact: Did you know that Israel’s borders have never been fully
established in the nearly eighty years of its existence as a state? Now, why
would that be? Perhaps to make it easier to fudge the boundary line when you
need to take more land, as Israel has recently done in advancing across the
Golan Heights into Syria, following the fall of the Assad government last
December. The land grab by IDF forces created a large buffer zone between Israel and Syria. And what about those boundaries between Israeli settler' lands and Palestinian lands in the West Bank? Property lines there are just penciled-in, it seems. So, is there fair and equitable treatment under the law to resolve legal disputes between the two groups arising from contested land claims? Don't make me laugh! What the settlers don't hoover-up using lawfare, they take by force.
👉ON A DIFFERENT NOTE, Syria has been touted as a possible landing pad for
all those pesky Palestinians if Jordon and Egypt, Israel’s neighbours, raise
too much of a stink about taking them. Just dump them in Syria, now that Israel
has a robust buffer zone to keep them from filtering back to their (destroyed) homes in
Gaza and the West Bank. We’ll see what happens. But, by Gumbies! That would solve the problem. Send
several million Palestinians into the Syrian hinterland. Done and done. High Five! No more
pics of children shot in the head by Israeli snipers or bombed tent encampments
with shell-shocked Gazans mourning their dead. Instead, it's Israel in charge of the Levant. Offshore Palestinian natural gas piped into Europe. Trump towers in Rafah. And resorts, spas, and Gazan time-shares. What’s not to like?😂
2. They received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work as UN peacekeepers
in 1988.
[One possible bumper sticker: “Israel: Land of Milk and Honey (and Genocide
and Ethnic Cleansing). Have a Great Day!"💗]
