Trump and Democrats Unite Against Freedom to Protest on Campuses
Trump’s promised escalation of repression attacking the pro-Palestine advocacy efforts in the US are upon us now.
One of Trump’s numerous and mostly illegal executive orders was to randomly state that visiting students who are engaged in protest on college campuses can have their student visas revoked. The whole order is a broad false and damaging smear against the Palestine protest movement as being pro-Hamas and illegal. The logic is just because Trump says something – no evidence is needed – be it the most outlandish smear – it is legally binding. He smears all Palestine support as aligned with Hamas and as illegal – totally fictitious and without evidence but this deportation executive decree enforcement has begun accordingly.
As pointed out in the liberal yet pro-Israel publication The Forward, the AI mechanism Trump is using to go after pro-Palestine students is a law that historically was used to attack Jewish Holocaust survivors:
‘The 1952 law, known as the McCarran-Walter Act, codified immigration restrictions of “subversives” and communists. The act’s quotas and ideological litmus test were widely understood at the time to target Eastern European Jewish Holocaust survivors suspected of being Soviet agents.”’ ‘
Firing the first shot across the bow, ICE jack boot fascist thugs were sent to Columbia University on Saturday, March 8 where they arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former student there who has played a significant role in pro-Palestine protests at that campus. The arrest is not based upon evidence or any hearing but on broad smears by Trump presented without evidence – suggesting some connection between the Mahmoud Khalil and Hamas.
While the initial executive order was that they were going to revoke the Palestine advocates student visa but as it turns out – Mahmoud Khalil is a permanent green card resident with the same constitutional rights to protected free speech as citizens. Once that fact surfaced, Secretary of State Rubio did not miss a beat and announced that he would have his green card revoked – which would be illegal. (As of today a judge has temporarily injuncted any attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil.) 1000s of protesters filled the streets of NYC today (March 10) protesting the arrest and threat to deport Mahmoud Khalil.
DOGE
Another action taken now is the random arbitrary cutting of $400M of allocated funding to Columbia University. Apparently the massive repression by Columbia of the pro-Palestine advocates in the spring of 2024 was not enough. Now Trump is using the protests as a pretext to impose the massive $400M cut in funding to Columbia. Again this is not based upon any hearing or evidence – only on the smear and false accusations by Trump of supposed anti-Semitism at Columbia Universrity and by that they mean protests against the US backed Israel genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza.
The Department of Education has sent a letter to 60 universities warning of similar actions over the failure to repress the free speech of Palestine advocating students adequately to the liking of the pro-Israel fanatics, Trump and the gangsters he has surrounding him. Three NJ campuses are included on the list, Princeton University, Rutgers New Brunswick and Rutgers Newark.
Trump is using these smearing and false accusations against these colleges as a means to slash support for higher education in the USA. The movement for Palestine is only growing stronger and these sorts of attempts to control thought and protected protest speech activity through laws and threats of funding will fail. The protests will continue and if allowed to persist with these cuts, the protests will be used as a pretext to cut massive funding from higher education – which is consistent with the DOGE – tax cut agenda of the administration.
What Trump did – unilaterally – to illegally slash the funding to Columbia University, and the threats to 60 colleges, is similar to what Democrats are attempting in NJ. United – joined at the hip – to their Trumpian counterparts in NJ legislature – NJ democrats are in the lead role in trying to pass laws that will allow Trenton to cut off funds from campuses, public schools, townships, non profit service providers – based upon false accusations of anti-Semitism because opponents of Israel policy exercise first amendment rights to criticize Israel. Our movement is not going silent – not in public schools, not on the campuses and not in the public streets.
DEMOCRATS IHRA SUPPORT IN NJ WILL EMPOWER REPUBLICAN DOGE STYLE SLASH AND BURN POLICIES AT THE NJ STATE LEVEL
If the Democrats get their way with passing the IHRA laws – they will be aiding and abetting NJ’s Republicans who are introducing and promoting laws to create DOGE type operations in NJ. The Democrats through IHRA will hand the Republicans the tools to dismantle public education and state funding for colleges. Smears brought by pro-Israel will be used to further the anti-education and privatization agenda of NJ republicans who want to follow the national DOGE example as a blue print for similar slash and burn policies in NJ.
The proposed NJ IHRA law package will A. Create a false definition of anti-semitism that includes criticism of Israel under the definition of anti-Semitism and B. Require all recipients of NJ funds including schools, colleges, city administrations, libraries, non-profit service organizations to impose the false definition of anti-semitism – the IHRA definition – that forces subjects to be loyal to Israel or silent about their views on Israel related issues.
Of all the harmful actions of Trump, Musk and their gangster appointees – you will not hear much noise from Democrats about the actions that Trump is taking to advance Israel’s objectives.
Democrats are united and supportive of Israel and Israel has given Trump a golden pager calling Trump, not the USA, Israel’s number one ally. The golden pager is a reference to the terrorizing of Lebanon’s people with weaponized consumer products, pagers, walkie talkies and solar devices – that exploded based upon a kill signal sent by US backed Israeli terrorists. Dozens were killed and over 1000 wounded – many of them having their eyeballs blown out of their heads in the US backed operation that is now a big pro-Israel joke.
In NJ, US Senator Andy Kim walked across the aisle when he voted for Kristi Noem to lead the Department of Homeland Security which oversees ICE and the anti-immigrant crackdown. It was ICE fascists that grabbed the Columbia student leader.
Kim has had nothing to say about this. He has told NJ over and over how he is a son of Korean immigrants yet he voted for the ICE crack down when he voted for Kristi Noem. He also routinely voted to arm Israel during the last 15 months of genocide as a congress member. He has had some verbal critique of the ICE crackdown as NJ has been impacted but that all contradicts him using his ACTUAL POLITICAL POWER to endorse it through his vote for Noem as head of DHS. Of course now he is silent on the arrest of Khalili as is also Cory Booker (Boot Licker) and the NJ Dem congressional delegation – they say nothing about the fascist arrest of University of Columbia student Khalil because THEY AGREE WITH IT.
If that is not the case – let Senator Andy Kim son of immigrants speak out now to condemn the fascist grab of Mahmoud Khalil, demand his immediate release and respect for his protected free speech rights. Otherwise Senator Kim – kneel before Trump and fasten your tongue once again to his boot.
NJ is at cross roads – the people are ready to fight against all of the harms of the Trump administration. Democrats in NJ are trying to control this movement to steer opposition away from Trump’s vicious continuation of the Biden – Harris supported genocide in Gaza. Trump’s policies inclucde:
- Pivot toward West Bank, supporting Israel’s escalation of settlement gangsterism backed by police and military action to drive more Palestiinias from their land
- Glibly announcing plans to seize all of Gaza and remove all Gazans for the benefit and profits of foreign usurpers.
- Increasing the repression in the US of all of us who speak up in defense and support of the Palestinian people and against their ruthless slaughter.
- Support for Israel’s stepping toward greater war currently in particular with Iran
UNITED FRONT CHALLENGED BY NJ DEMOCRATS UNIFIED WITH TRUMP IN IMPOSING PRO-ISRAEL FASCISM A LA “IHRA” FRAUD
NJ Democrats collaborating with Trump in the crackdown on NJ’s pro-Palestine advocacy community is the number one obstacle preventing a successful effort to organize a united front to challenge the many crimes of the Trump administration. We can not organize effectively as our community is under assault and we can not be in unity with events where the speakers are the same ones giving Trump the tools to attack us.
The daunting times with the many ongoing actions of the Trump administration require a unified fight where we are having each others back and defending each other from efforts to repress us – whether the repression is coming from the smearing attacks on our fighters from the Trump administration or the attempts to legislate thought control and forced loyalty to Israel in the NJ legislature – an effort currently led by NJ’s Democratic Party.
