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Repression

More Violence And Repression, But Youth Demand Refuse To Back Down

April 15, 2025 Hannah Sharland, The Canary. , , , ,
In the face of ongoing Draconian state repression, Youth Demand has successfully disrupted London once again in two acts of mass civil disobedience. The latest actions come amid a sweep of crackdowns in which cops have nicked protesters under the Tories’ dodgy pre-crime laws. However, clearly protesters remains undeterred – as they took two more actions across the capital. Youth Demand supporters have shown once more that they won’t be silenced from calling out the UK government’s disgusting complicity in Israel’s continued genocide. First, on Saturday 12 April, Youth Demand initiated a series of swarming roadblocks. Around 50 Youth Demand supporters blocked traffic across London.

Stop The Genocide Abroad And The Repression At Home

April 14, 2025 Open Letter, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
This April 17, we, a collective of academic workers, students, union members, and activists within multiple higher education associations and unions, trade unions, and other organizing spaces, call for a coordinated national direct action in protest of the ongoing genocide abroad and the escalating repression at home. As academic workers and students united with other labor sectors, we aim to take back public places and uplift the right to dissent and the right to collective organizing for liberation. We stand against the neoliberal and colonial logic of higher ed that represses speech and academic freedom in the US and that enables genocide, carceral tactics, and the long-running destruction of education and historical memory in Gaza and throughout Palestine.

Defending Rights And Dissent Launches Investigation Into Retaliatory Tactics

April 14, 2025 Defending Rights & Dissent. , , ,
Washington, DC – Defending Rights & Dissent has launched a major new investigative project into the abuse of immigration process to retaliate against critics of Israel’s war in Gaza or supporters of the Palestinian people. As part of this project, the free expression organization has filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Justice, requesting documents on the “Catch and Revoke” initiative and the agencies’ communications with private McCarthyite blacklisting organizations and the Government of Israel.

Hillel’s Empty Words

April 11, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
In recent years, we have seen Palestine activists protest Hillel groups on campus. Pro-Israel organizations and pundits often insist that protesting the largest Jewish student organization somehow makes the Palestine movement antisemitic, but Hillel is not exactly apolitical. In the mid-2000s, they embraced the slogan “Wherever we stand, we stand with Israel,” they sponsor the Birthright program, and they forbid campus Hillels from partnering with anti-Zionist groups. Earlier this year, Yale Hillel hosted former Israeli solider and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which inevitably led to protest. At an event at Harvard Business School later he joked that he would give exploding pagers to protestors, alluding to the Israeli attack on Lebanon that killed dozens of people and injured thousands.

Trump Administration Revokes Hundreds Of Student Visas

April 9, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , ,
The Trump administration has reportedly revoked hundreds of student visas, amid a widening crackdown on the U.S. Palestine movement. In recent days, dozens of schools have announced that draconian measures by the Trump administration have targeted some of their students. The list includes UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Ohio State, Minnesota State University, the University of Kentucky, Northeastern, and Harvard. Last month Secretary of State Marco Rubio guessed that he had revoked about 300 visas since arriving in office. “I don’t know actually if it’s primarily student visas,” Rubio told reporters.

Mahmoud Khalil’s Immigration Status Will Be Determined Friday

April 9, 2025 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. , , ,
Mahmoud Khalil’s immigration hearings began in Louisiana on April 8. Supporters who tried to observe the proceedings virtually were not allowed in. ABC News reported that during this hearing, Judge Jamee Comans determined that the Trump administration has 24 hours to provide evidence of allegations they’ve made to justify Khalil’s deportation. The administration has made bogus claims that Khalil poses a threat to national security. Once Khalil’s team has reviewed and responded to whatever information the Trump administration provides, Comans will decide at another hearing this Friday if Khalil can stay in the United States.

The Fire This Time

April 7, 2025 Henry Giroux, Counter Punch. , , , , , , , , ,
We live in perilous times. The mobilizing passions of fascism are no longer a distant echo of history—they are here, surging through the United States like an electric current. We are in a period of social, ideological, and racial cleansing. First, the notion of government as a democratizing public good and institution of social responsibility—that once held power to account, protected the vulnerable, and nurtured the ideals of justice and collective responsibility—is being methodically destroyed. The common good, once seen as the essence of democratic life, has become the enemy of the neoliberal fascist state. It is not merely being neglected—it is being assaulted, stripped bare, and left to rot in the shadows of privatization, greed, and brutality—the main features of gangster capitalism.

A Letter To Columbia

April 7, 2025 Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia Daily Spectator. , , , , , ,
To Columbia—an institution that laid the groundwork for my abduction—and to its student body, who must not abdicate their responsibility to resist repression, Since my abduction on March 8, the intimidation and kidnapping of international students who stand for Palestine has only accelerated. 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.

Surveillance, Cybersecurity, And Financial Tech For Mutual Aid

April 7, 2025 Shareable, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , , , ,
Long before October 7, 2023, Israel has weaponized surveillance and advanced targeting technology against Palestinians. This includes snuffing out dissent and preemptively arresting Palestinians before holding them for years without formal charges, access to legal representation, or sentencing. Similar technologies are now being used in the United States to criminalize dissent, target marginalized communities, and suppress mutual aid efforts. This brings us to the theme of this week’s episode. Today, we’re sharing excerpts from Shareable’s Mutual Aid 101 Learning Series‘ third session.

Germany Issues Deportation Orders Against US, EU Citizens Over Pro-Palestine Activism

April 2, 2025 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , , , , ,
German authorities are seeking to deport four foreign nationals, including three EU citizens, over their alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian protests in Berlin, a move that has sparked significant legal and civil rights concerns, 972 Magazine and The Intercept reported on 1 April. The individuals – Cooper Longbottom (US), Kasia Wlaszczyk (Poland), Shane O’Brien, and Roberta Murray (both Ireland) – have not been convicted of any crimes. However, they face expulsion orders under German migration law, citing vague accusations linked to demonstrations against Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The Urgency Of Fighting For Our Rights While We Can

March 31, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , ,
The repression of people who show support for Palestinian liberation has escalated. The Trump administration is using an antiquated immigration law and executive orders to target student activists, threatening them with deportation, and has gone so far as to kidnap students and professors. Clearing the FOG speaks with a Cornell University PhD student, Sriram Parasurama, who was suspended for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations and is currently a plaintiff in a case challenging two of President Trump's executive orders and with Chip Gibbons, a lawyer with Defending Rights and Dissent and the author of an upcoming book on the FBI, surveillance and the national security state. Both explain the urgency of fighting violations of our Constitutional rights and how to do that, as well as the implications of not taking action.

Youth Demand Supporters Raided By Cops Across United Kingdom

March 29, 2025 The Canary. , , ,
Police repression has reached a new level after direct action group Youth Demand’s welcome talk and a number of houses were raided last night and this morning. Nine people, including one attending their first meeting and a journalist were arrested. At around 7:30pm on Thursday 27 March, over 30 Met Police officers crashed into the Youth Demand Welcome Talk at the Quaker Meeting House in Westminster and arrested six people, including one attending their first ever welcome talk and a journalist. Three people were released in the early hours of the morning but three remain in custody.

Does Columbia Still Merit The Name Of A University?

March 28, 2025 Rashid Khalidi, the Guardian. , , , , , , ,
It was never about eliminating antisemitism. It was always about silencing Palestine. That is what the gagging of protesting students, and now the gagging of faculty, was always meant to lead to. While partisans of the Israeli-American mass slaughter in Gaza may have been offended by their protests, large numbers of the students whose rights of free speech have been infringed upon via draconian punishments were themselves Jewish. Many of those faculty members who are about to be deprived of academic freedom and faculty governance, and perhaps fired, are themselves Jewish, indeed some are Israelis.

Explainer: The Lawsuits Aiming To Stop Trump’s Assault On Free Speech

March 28, 2025 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , , , , , , , , ,
According to a tracker developed by Just Security, there have been at least 146 legal challenges to Trump administration actions since he took office. Several of those have dealt with the White House’s war on Palestine activists. In recent weeks, students, faculty, and legal organizations have launched multiple lawsuits aimed at halting the Trump administration’s draconian crackdown on Palestinian protesters and holding universities accountable for their complicity. Here are some of the legal efforts that we’ve seen so far.

Swarthmore Students Punished For Gaza Protests

March 27, 2025 Betsey Piette, Workers World. , , , , , , ,
Swarthmore College issued sanctions on March 6 against 15 students for participating in anti-genocide activism for Palestinians in Gaza. Their peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with Gaza occurred between October 2023 and March 2024. The college in Media, Pennsylvania, is located outside of Philadelphia. The most extreme sanctions are aimed against one graduating senior who was suspended, nine who received one-semester probation and one who received a two-semester probation. The second-semester senior set to graduate was suspended on the charge of “assault” for the use of a megaphone indoors.
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