At Least 1,400 Academics Call To Boycott Columbia Univ For Its Free Speech Crackdown

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/academics-call-boycott-columbia-free-speech-crackdown_n_67e5d824e4b0ce900a28a88b

At Least 1,400 Academics Call To Boycott Columbia For Free Speech Crackdown

The academic boycott comes as immigration agents continue to target students who have exercised their free speech rights by speaking out against Israel.

Mar 27, 2025, 08:28 PM EDT

A steadily climbing list of academics have committed to boycott Columbia University and Barnard College over the schools’ decisions to punish students and faculty who speak against Israel’s U.S.-backed destruction of Gaza, and collaborate with the Trump administration while federal immigration officials detain their students.

As of Thursday evening, more than 1,400 academics signed onto a statement condemning Columbia’s participation in what they called “an authoritarian assault on universities aimed at destroying their role as sites of teaching, research, learning and activism essential to building a free and fair world.”

“Universities cannot pretend to hold higher education sacred while repressing students and faculty, undermining free speech and academic freedom, and prohibiting dissent,” the statement read. “Every such act of craven suppression and compliance only further undermines the university and emboldens the reactionary forces intent on destroying it.”

[IrishBubbaLiberal]

1. Quote by the onetime US Senator Abourezk, of South Dakota

“Israel’s critics are always accused of anti-Semitism , a charge that serves to silence even the mildest questioning of that country’s policies.”
— US Senator Abourezk, South Dakota


"This is a 75-year-old story, a story of overwhelming death and displacement to the Palestinian people. It is a story of an occupation under apartheid regime that occupies lands, demolishes houses, confiscates lands, military incursions, night raids.” - Jordon’s Queen Rania,
(CNN interview broadcast Oct 24, 2023)

————

https://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/24/the-israeli-plot-to-murder-a-former-us-senator/


James Abourezk represented South Dakota in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1973 and in the U.S. Senate from 1973 to 1979. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate. CNI asked Mr. Abourezk about his experiences with the Israel Lobby while he served in Congress. In his response he told of an Israeli plot against him in whch the US press has displayed no interest. Below is his description of this and other incidents:

[MichMan]

2. Looks like it started a year ago

The boycott terms were originally drafted in April 2024 ― a year before the Trump administration’s demands ― when Columbia instigated the anti-war student protests on campus by calling New York police to violently clear the solidarity encampment and arrest participants.

[AmericaUnderSiege]

3. Very good. Cowards must not prosper.

People who won't defend people they're responsible for, they have no place in authority. Universities must be places of freedom and safety. This is imperative.

[liberalhistorian]

4. I hope Columbia sees a huge

drop in alumni and other donations, and a steep drop in enrollment. Particularly of international students, who bring in a lot of their tuition funds.

If I were a foreign student, especially a Muslim and/or Arab student, there's no way in hell's half acre that I'd even consider Columbia. Or a lot of other American universities right now, for that matter.

[Sky Jewels]

5. I've lost all respect for Columbia University.

It’s very sad to see a once-great academic institution fall to fascists and pro-genocide extremists.