Indiana University (IU) is one of the latest schools to crack down on free speech on Palestine.
The target this time around is a faculty member: tenured associate professor of political science and Middle Eastern studies Abdulkader Sinno. He’s been suspended from teaching until next fall because he helped students members of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) organize a public event at the school.
The details are not surprising, as we’ve seen this scenario play out countless times before. The scheduled event was a November talk from Miko Peled, an Israeli-American activist (and Mondoweiss contributor) who has advocated for a one-state solution in the region.
A day before Peled’s talk, Republican Rep. Jim Banks (who is currently running for Senate) sent a letter to IU President Pamela Whitten alleging various acts of antisemitism on campus and demanding responses to specific questions. Israel was predictably mentioned a number of times, as these things generally have very little to do with actual antisemitism and more to do with the United States’s closest ally.
“Banks’s concern is hard to take seriously,” writes Jeffrey Isaac in The Nation. “Back in 2017, when then-President Trump identified “good people on both sides” of Charlottesville’s neo-Nazi Unite the Right rally, Banks did not join with GOP colleagues to condemn him. Nor did he join with his colleagues to condemn antisemitism after the mass shooting at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue in 2018. Nor did he join with anyone to denounce the fascist groups whose participants attacked the Capitol on January 6 sporting neo-Nazi iconography and carrying Three Per Center flags clearly symbolizing white Christian nationalism.”
After the school received the letter, Sinno’s department chair told him to cancel the room reservation because he was violating university policy by listing his department as a sponsor of the event. Sinno told Inside Higher Ed that he’s booked rooms for events more than 20 times and never ran into any trouble.
After the talk, a university administrator filed a complaint against Sinno, which initiated a month-long investigation. In mid-December, he received a letter informing him that he would be suspended from teaching for the spring and summer semesters of 2024. This includes any student-related activities.
“The suspension of Professor Abdulkader Sinno is shameful and inexcusable,” Peled told Mondoweiss in a statement. “The University of Indiana will one day apologize for this travesty and for the attempt to silence voices calling for justice and peace. Academic institutions actross the country are supporting the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people by Israel, and they will one day be publicly shamed for this. From the case of the Irvine Eleven of 2011, to the more recent case of suspending Prof. Sinno, students and faculty a campuses across the world are leading the charge against the Palestinian genocide and one day they will be recognized as heroes.”
The Sinno case isn’t the only recent example of Palestine suppression on the campus.
Last month, the University’s Eskenazi Museum of Art canceled an exhibition by Palestinian-American artist (and Indiana University alum) Samia Halaby that was set to begin in February. Publicly, the museum said they were concerned about the safety of the art, but Halaby says the museum director admitted it was partly due to her pro-Palestine content.
“I thought I had found a little bit of something I could call my home in Indiana,” Halaby told the New York Times, “and it turned out to be totally false.”
Senate votes against learning about Israeli human rights violations
The vast majority of U.S. Senators do not care whether U.S. weapons are used to commit war crimes.
That was the clear takeaway this week when the chamber voted to table an Israel resolution by a vote of 72-11. The resolution, which was introduced by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, would have required the State Department to submit a report to Congress on Israeli human rights violations and how the U.S. is potentially connected to them.
“The reason as to why this resolution must be passed is that, today, right now as we speak, hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza, innocent children, are starving right before our eyes. We cannot turn away. We must act,” said Sanders in a speech on the Senate floor. “This is a tragedy in which we, the United States of America, are complicit.”
“First, it is necessary because of the scale of the destruction in Gaza, the indiscriminate nature of the military campaign, the humanitarian catastrophe that is now occurring and the limits on humanitarian access—food, water, medical equipment and fuel. Second, because of the extensive use of US weapons in attacks that have killed thousands of civilians,” he continued. “Much of the destruction that has taken place in Gaza has been done with US weapons.”
The 11 who voted to advance the resolution were Republican Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Democrats Laphonza Butler (California), Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Ben Ray Luján (New Mexico), Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), Jeff Merkley (Oregon), Chris Van Hollen (Maryland) and Peter Welch (Vermont).
“Only 11 Senators believe that the U.S. government should have to report what Israeli human rights abuses our taxpayer dollars are funding against the Palestinian people,” tweeted Justice Democrats. “A bare minimum vote towards transparency and Congress still spectacularly failed.”
Israel lobby groups stood united against the resolution, including the liberal pro-Israel group J Street, which cited “concerns with specific provisions” as its reason for opposition.
Even those Senators who voted to advance the resolution went out of their way to make clear they remain strong defenders of Israel.
In a statement explaining his vote, Senator Ed Markey voiced his support for the country, but criticized the apartheid state’s current government. “For decades, I have steadfastly stood by Israel, and I will always stand with the State of Israel and its people and support its right to exist,” he said. “But the Netanyahu government cannot continue to conduct the war in Gaza the way it has until now. It must protect innocent Gazan civilians, negotiate the return of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, and unequivocally commit that it will not engage in a forcible mass transfer of Palestinian civilians from Gaza. Even amidst war, we must work for peace. The United States, the international community, and regional parties must prevent further, dangerous expansion of this conflict throughout the Middle East and beyond and move with purpose towards an enduring peace between Israel and Palestine.”
“The Senate has had a role in overseeing our military involvement overseas running back to the drafting of the Constitution,” said Senator Warren. “We have a responsibility to stand up now and say that given how Netanyahu and his right-wing war cabinet have prosecuted this war, we have serious questions that we are obligated to ask before we go further.”
Odds & Ends
???? Financial Times: ‘Ben & Jerry’s calls for permanent ceasefire in Gaza’
???????? James Zogby on recent Biden Statement Marking 100 Days of Captivity for Hostages in Gaza”: “What the hell!? I thought the Biden Administration couldn’t shock me anew w/ their disregard for Palestinian lives. But this statement on 100 days of war in Gaza only focusing on hostages & ignoring 24,000 dead Palestinians and all the rest is disgraceful.”
???????? Truthout: ‘We Must Apply MLK’s Fierce Critique of Apartheid to Israel’s War on Palestine’
???????? Counterpunch: Israel’s War on Palestine and the Global Upsurge Against It
✉️ Times of San Diego: ‘SDSU Under Federal Investigation After Complaint Alleging De La Torre Email Is Islamophobic’
???????? Press release from the Palestinian Youth Movement:
Three of the women arrested on January 8 at Dallas Love Field Airport for protesting the arrival of President Joe Biden in Dallas are pursuing legal action against the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office for the forcible removal of their religious headscarves while held in Dallas County Jail.
In violation of their first amendment rights, the three protesters were ordered by Dallas jail authorities to remove their headscarves for their mugshot photos despite jail authorities being informed that these were religious garments. Their mugshots were made public and posted by at least one media outlet, a dehumanizing experience for the protesters.
Huma Yasin, one of the attorneys representing the three women who protested Biden on January 8, said: “While this nation honors the legacy of Martin Luther King’s civil disobedience and non-violent resistance predicated on equality, anti-militarism, and anti-imperialism, we continue to bear witness to atrocities committed abroad in our name and blatant, incontrovertible violations of religious freedom for our citizens domestically. We will demand accountability for the intentional deprivation of First Amendment rights and the emotional distress and humiliation inflicted on our clients.”
One of the three women is a Palestinian former employee of the late Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson. Biden was landing in Dallas on his way to pay respects to Johnson when he was disrupted by the 13 protestors. The protest was in opposition to the Biden administration’s role in facilitating and supporting Israel’s ongoing genocide against Gaza, which—since October—has killed over 24,100 Palestinians (9,600 of whom are children), and internally displaced 1.9 million. This protest follows hundreds of mobilizations that have taken place across the country to demand: an immediate ceasefire, the lifting of Israel’s 17-year long siege of Gaza, the release of all Palestinian prisoners held hostage by Israel, an end to the U.S.’s ongoing military, financial, and diplomatic support of Israel, and an end to the ongoing occupation of Palestine. With over 66% of Americans supporting a ceasefire, Biden’s continued support for Israel’s genocide exhibits a complete disregarding of the will of the people.
The forced removal of the religious garments is symptomatic of Islamophobic discrimination, and comes amidst a rise in islamophobia, anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism across the U.S. since the start of Israel’s brutal genocide. This violence reflects the dehumanizing language wielded by U.S. politicians in attempt to garner support for Israel’s genocide, which similarly inflicts violence against Palestinian prisoners who face night raids, kidnapping, administrative detention, medical neglect, and sexual violence. This experience also reflects the treatment of migrants in detention centers criminalized for crossing the Texas border and the incarcerated people who become cash cows for the profiteers of the prison industrial complex.
Through pursuit of legal action, organizers make it clear that this violation which aims to suppress pro-Palestinian organizing efforts in opposition to Israel’s genocide, and upholds a discriminatory practice, will not pass unchallenged.
???? At HuffPost Akbar Shahid Ahmed published a story on Biden official Brett McGurk pushing a plan for Gaza that is alarming insiders.
“In recent weeks, McGurk has been pitching national security officials on a plan suggesting an approximately 90-day timeline for what should happen once active fighting in Gaza ends, three U.S. officials said. It argues that stability can be achieved in the devastated Palestinian region if American, Israeli, Palestinian and Saudi officials launch an urgent diplomatic effort that prioritizes the establishment of Israel-Saudi ties, the officials continued. Such a development is widely referred to as ‘normalization,’ given Saudi Arabia’s refusal to recognize Israel since its founding in 1948,” he writes.
Hours after the story ran, White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson told Ahmed that, “This story is not true. Quotes attributed to US officials are made up.”
“Watson played no role in my interviews,” Ahmed tweeted in response. “My quotes are real. Biden team again echoing Trump. I sent the WH detailed questions + criticisms based on very reliable sources; I also extended my deadline at their request. They chose not to engage yesterday & have now decided they have to. They can’t actually dispute the story on its merits so they’re resorting to lies.”
“Earlier in the day, a contact told me a US official they contacted about my story said I lack credibility & am seen as an extremist,” he continued. “Such smear tactics in response to scrutiny & journalism are scary—and reflective of the Trump-style thinking Biden is selling himself as opposing. Baseless claims of lies have defined much of the Biden admin’s deeply controversial public response to Oct 7, from questioning Gaza’s death toll to denying a basis for fears of war crimes. They haven’t quelled huge public frustration or alarm among natsec folks in & outside gov.”
“And they won’t have their intended effect on me: I stand by my reporting & I’ll keep aggressively covering US foreign policy, as I’ve done for more than a decade; my integrity is widely acknowledged by folks in my field & working on these issues.”
Mitchell Plitnick wrote about the Biden administration’s “ignorant and incompetent” Gaza plan for the site here.
???? Here’s GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley calling for another Nakba: “I have always said that what the Palestinians need is to move to pro-Hamas countries such as Qatar, Iran and Turkey.”
???????? TomDispatch: ‘The Killing of Gaza’s Environment’
???? VTDigger: ‘Anti-war protesters target Vergennes weapons facility to call for cease-fire in Gaza’
???? Middle East Eye: ‘New Yorkers march for Palestine on Martin Luther King Jr Day’
???????? ‘There is no U.S. interest in backing a genocide and bombing Yemen’
???????? Reuters: ‘Relatives recount Gaza deaths as protesters in Washington demand ceasefire’
???????? Naomi Klein in The Guardian: ‘We have a tool to stop Israel’s war crimes: BDS’
Stay safe out there,
Michael
It is truly a tragedy for the question of Palestine to be regularly tied up in peripheral matters. To have activism for Palestinian liberation hindered by alleged allegations of anti-Semitism, based on the questionable interpretation of a primary slogan, is wasted time at best and undermining politically at worst. How to understand this handicap not being recognized as a priority?
in his role as left cover for the imperialist policies of the US government. This from a Senator who refuses even to call for a ceasefire. The man is a disgrace and an object lesson in what socialism and solidarity are not.