Protecting the right to free speech in American universities

Threats to the 2024 pro-Palestinian college protestors should make us examine how free our free speech is.

By Jake Boyette

Freedom of speech and freedom of expression are our fundamental rights as Americans, protected under the First Amendment in our U.S. Constitution. This has been a luxury for our country, allowing us to freely speak and protest, a right that only 15% of the world enjoys, according to Article 19. 

This freedom is now under attack by the Trump administration as it puts forward warnings for the 2024 pro-Palestine college protests, calling the protests illegal and threatening to cut funding to the colleges, according to Reuters. This signals to me a dangerous change in how protected our free speech is. 

The recent attack on free expression came from a warning to 60 colleges whose students held pro-Palestine protests, labeling the protests as anti-Semitic, according to the U.S. Department of Education. This focus on shifting protestors as anti-Semitic or terrorist sympathizers is intentional to weaponize and change the definition of the protests to villainize them more effectively. 

From the White House’s website, they describe the protestors as “Celebrating Hamas’ mass rape, kidnapping, and murder.” which is completely different from the stated goal from the student protests of cutting ties with companies profiting from the Israel-Palestine conflict. Student protestors demand their universities sever ties with Israeli universities and other general calls for a ceasefire in the conflict. 

There were anti-Semitic incidents in the college protests, some groups harassed Jewish students through vandalism and blocking entryways, according to the Anti-Defamation League. However, this was not the primary focus of the college protestors, with many groups stating that the focus was specifically on Israel, according to ABC News. 

However, framing the protests as anti-Semitic Hamas sympathizers helps the Trump administration in criminalizing anti-Israel speech, going so far as to promise to deport non-citizens who support the protests, according to the White House. 

Arrests are already being made, with deportations starting for non-citizens on student visas. Mahmoud Kahlil, a student at Columbia University, was already arrested by ICE without a warrant for his involvement in the protests, according to ABC News. This came with the threat of deportation despite being a permanent resident with a green card, under the pretext of Kahlil being a paid protester in support of terrorism, according to President Trump’s Truth Social post. 

An immigration judge ruled that Kahlil can be legally deported, according to NPR, giving the government a legal precedent to deport students on visas who protest in what is deemed an illegal protest by the administration. 

This isn’t just limited to in-person protests either. The administration has also pursued students like Rumeysa Ozturk, a student who protested through writing.  

Ozturk was one of the authors of an opinion article criticizing her university for its ties to Israel, demanding an acknowledgement of the genocide in Palestine, and for the university to cut ties with companies connected to Israel, according to the New York Times. This was enough for Ozturk to be arrested by ICE for supporting Hamas.  

This sets a dangerous precedent for our free speech. You may have temporary status in the U.S., but if you say something, or write something the administration doesn’t like, your visa won’t matter.  

While the Trump administration has gone back on revoking student Visas, according to ABC News, it has already come at the cost of thousands of students labeled terrorist sympathizers, which threatens their personal and professional lives. 

Demonizing protesters in this way reeks of McCarthyism, where fear of communist influence on American institutions was used to target left-wing politicians and labor unionists. Instead of communism, the new scare word is Hamas and Anti-Semitism. 

This fear-mongering has already affected other politically hot topics like border control. Back in 2023, Trump on Truth Social claimed that Hamas militants were pouring in from America’s southern border.  

While there was no proof that Hamas was crossing the border illegally, it didn’t stop the topic from becoming a conversation for news sites like FOX News from discussing how it would affect our border security. 

The way fears of Hamas were turned on fears of immigrants shows a deliberate weaponization of the terms to reach a political goal of a closed border. In the FOX News article, they admit the lack of evidence of Hamas on the border, but instead equate it to what-ifs about who is crossing the border. 

These terms are also erasing Jewish organizations that have taken a stance against Israel in the conflict. Organizations like If Not Now and Jewish Voice For Peace are Jewish Americans who claim to be anti-Zionist. They stand for ending the U.S. support of Israel and the conflict. 

To lump every Jewish person into a humongous pro-Israeli group is denying them their own autonomy to decide for themselves what to think of Israel. Isreal doesn’t represent all Jewish people and saying you’re against what the Israeli government is doing doesn’t mean you’re Anti-Semitic, therefore you shouldn’t be punished by the sitting government. 

Fighting between pro- and anti-Israel Jewish people has been a large discussion for many years. In the Jerusalem Post, the author discusses how anti-Zionist Jews like Jonathan Glazer ignore how the attack on Zionism is an attack on all Jewish people. However, the administration has been taking this argument to the extreme to cement lines in what is anti-Jewish or not. 

This can be seen with President Trump’s remarks on “disloyal” Democrat Jews. Trump compared voting Democrat to being disloyal to their faith and Israel, according to PBS News. This shows, again, a deliberate linking between the weaponization of Anti-Semitism, this time turned against Jews who don’t support Israel. 

The message is clear to me that comments against Israel are not allowed and that measures are being taken to try to silence speech. Not even being Jewish allows you to take a stance against Israel. 

I worry that freedom of speech has become less free under the attack against pro-Palestine college protestors. As much as there has been pushback from protestors, our freedom of expression seems to be taking a turn. 

Marco Rubio estimated that while the termination of student visas was in effect, at least 300 students were arrested for their involvement in the protests, according to the BBC. It’s unclear if this targeting of students will stop anytime soon, as schools are still cracking down on pro-Palestinian protestors, according to The Guardian. 

Protests are still ongoing, with new ones popping up for the affected international students. Organizations like The Jewish Voice for Peace have started petitions to protect student protestors. 

Under this administration’s push for silence, the most we can do is be vocal. We can’t let attacks on our freedom of speech, no matter how small, happen. 

Even if you disagree with the protestors, we must at least acknowledge that the attacks on them are unfounded and we must recognize them as Americans with a voice.