"Rooting out terrorism and antisemitism was the supposed reason that plainclothed ICE agents arrested doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, after she coauthored an op-ed calling on Tufts University to divest from companies with ties to Israel due to the killing and starvation of Palestinian civilians. There is an international movement to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel, but in the United States, President Donald Trump is imperiling the freedom even to publicly discuss such ideas."
"In what seems a long time ago, in 2024, the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, released a blueprint for what it called "a national strategy to combat antisemitism" by addressing what it described as "America's virulently anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and anti-American 'pro-Palestinian movement.'" In essence, and in what's amounted to an extraordinarily effective work of political theater that has been sold to my own state, Massachusetts, among other places, that foundation dubbed its political opponents "supporters of terrorism.""
Plainclothed ICE agents arrested a doctoral student after she coauthored an op-ed urging Tufts University to divest from companies tied to Israel, citing Palestinian civilian suffering. A movement exists to boycott, sanction, and divest from Israel, and governmental actions in the United States are limiting public discussion of those ideas. The Heritage Foundation issued a 2024 blueprint framing pro-Palestinian activists as part of a "terrorist support network" and redefining antisemitism to encompass criticism of the US-Israel relationship. The presidential implementation of that strategy intensifies suppression of dissent and sets a broader precedent for curbing free expression.
Read at The Nation
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