In response to protests over the Israeli genocide in Gaza, university administrators at Cornell University have weaponized the idea of antisemitism to limit freedom of speech and academic freedom. Similar attacks are happening across the country.

Schools across the U.S. have altered policies and even landscapes in an attempt to make a repeat of last spring’s Palestine protests impossible. The result is a far-reaching war on free expression and the increased militarization of higher education.

After the Cornell President, Martha Pollack, issued a statement about rising antisemitism “amid ongoing tensions in the Middle East,” evidently at the urging of pro-Israel students who feel “unsafe” in the light of pro-Palestinian demonstrations, Palestinian students and others sympathetic to the Palestinian cause were angry and demoralized, as she exhibited a lack of recognition for Palestinian suffering and grief in the Gaza attack.