An executive order that purports to combat antisemitism on university campuses is likely to chill free speech and target students for pro-Palestine, antiwar and anti-racist views. The order, signed by President Trump, threatens to deport noncitizen college students and other international visitors who take part in protests considered antisemitic under a broad and contested definition of the term. Though the order gives them new teeth, these threats of deportation are not new, as our guest Momodou Taal, a doctoral student at Cornell University who was threatened with deportation last year, can attest. While public outcry forced Cornell to lift Taal’s suspension and allow him a limited return to campus, he is still effectively banned from campus life and blocked from teaching positions. “There’s somewhat of a great irony that students who were protesting apartheid are now subject to forms of exclusion bordering on apartheid,” says Taal about his ongoing exclusion.
Rights groups and legal scholars say the new executive order violates constitutional free speech rights and would likely draw legal challenges if implemented. “This is basically a textbook authoritarian playbook meant to stifle any criticism of what’s going on in Israel,” explains our other guest, Etan Nechin, a New York correspondent for Haaretz. Students like Taal, however, say they will not allow the government and their administrations to prevent them from speaking out. Taal says his pro-Palestine activism comes out of his obligations as “a human being” and that “when fascism is at the door, what we do is come together and unite even stronger.”
