The war of Trump administration in the campus has reached a new, disturbing turning point. On March 8th, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University and a reputable organizer of the Gaza Solidarity Campus Campus, detained the immigration and customs officers. For days later, the Ministry of Internal Security (DHS) announced that he had taken away the Visa wounded, skewed, a graduate student of Columbia, and arrested Leqa Kordia, a former Columbia student.
In parallel, President Donald Trump’s administration canceled federal scholarships and contracts worth $ 400 million received by the University and asked to set up his Middle East Department, South Asia and African Studies under “academic acquisition for at least five years”.
Columbia, for its part, announced that it expelled students and recalls the degrees of participants in the occupation of a building, Hamilton Hall, in April 2024, renamed by the protesters of Hindo Hall, after Hind Rajab, a six -year -old Palestinian girl killed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
The University ultimately capitulated the favorable demands of Trump administration – banning masks, remodeling its disciplinary procedures, appointment of an approved academic supervisor and expanding police powers in the campus – despite a wide condemnation of scholars and legal experts.
This unprecedented attack on freedom of expression and disagreement in the campus is a new phase in weapons of charges of anti -Semitism. What began as a limit of speech and disciplinary campaign in the campus has now evolved in arrests, deportations, supervision and direct interference with university issues.
The ultimate end game is not only the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism, but to take over ideological control over higher education in the United States. The attack on the universities is part of the wider right -wing effort to transform the Academy into the ideological stronghold of conservative nationalism.
Trump clearly explained this during his campaign, saying that he aims to “regain our once major educational institutions from radical lefts and Marxist maniacs.” Targeting Palestinian activism is just an excuse – a leading carriage in a procession to remove academic independence and impose ideological compliance.
It is important to remember that the attack on the American higher education, which Trump now escalates, began a few years ago with pressure on the University of the United States, as well as Canada and Europe, to adopt the International Covenant to Remember the Holocaust (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
In 2016, Ihra introduced a working definition of anti-Semitism, providing examples of that-on-heading of which included criticism of Israel. Initially, the definition was intended to assist the law implementation and provide a research tool for monitoring anti -Semitic incidents. But over time, persistent efforts for lobbying led to its adoption of various governments and institutions.
The pressure on the universities to apply the definition in their internal affairs came as the attitudes towards Israel began to change, especially among young Americans. This change has threatened with a longtime double-sided consensus in the United States on unconditional support for Israel, which is urgent for the advocates of Pro-Israelje to establish a new defense line.
In the campuses, the Ihra definition began to be used primarily for smear tactics, which led to harassment, Doxxing -Ai damage for those who criticized Israel. Professors, students and activists are designated as anti -Semitic and undergoing campaigns intended for intimidation in silence.
But after the attack on October 7, the attack on the Pro-Palestinian views and activism dramatically escalated: the professors were discharged, the student groups were banned, the speakers were disinfected, and now they even take place and deportation.
An unprecedented suppression campaign even captured the progressive Jewish community. Universities began to suspend organizations such as the Jewish voice for peace and targeting Jewish academics critical of Israel.
For example, Maura Finkelstein, a Jewish lease professor, was discharged from the college M “If I can be discharged for criticizing a foreign government, drawing attention to genocide and using my academic expertise as an anthropologist to point out that the strength acts, then no one is sure,” she said in a statement after the release last year.
The campaign for the silence of Jewish voices critical of Israel was led by Haifa Itamar Mann and Lihi Yon University, to warn, in an article to review the law of the law, that legal frameworks, such as the definition of IHRA, use the “discipline of Jewish identity” and Stifl Pro-Palestinian activism. Their analysis points out that Ihra definition narrowed the extent of the Jewish identity, punishing Jewish individuals who reject Zionism or criticize Israel. As a result, Jews that align with anti-national traditions-in-counterattacks, citing many religious and progressive voices-are marginalized in their own communities.
This suppression emphasizes the fundamental reality: the weapons of the IHRA of the definition and charges of anti -Semitism that have politicians and institutions have nothing to do with the protection of the Jewish people. Instead, they serve as an excuse for the progression of a political agenda aimed at remodeling higher education into an ideological stronghold that censors an unpleasant political perspective.
And that is not just a Republican effort. Many Democrats have accepted these authoritarian measures as well. Senator John Fetterman openly praised Trump’s reduction in Columbia, stating: “Columbia allowed anti -Semitism to trigger Amok to satisfy the crazy border and pay for provocateurs.”
Representatives Josh Gottheimer, Ritchie Torres and many others also advocated for sharper measures against student protesters, aligning with Trump’s wider suppression of pro-Palestinian activism.
Even the leader of the Senate majority Chuck Schumer, as he called for the release of Mahmoud Khalil, framed the Pro-Palestinian protest in the campus as “anti-Semitic”, enhancing the false narrative that equates Palestinian activism with Bigotia.
The hearing of Democrats in this attack on academic freedom does not only have to be concerned about donors and influential interest groups, but with its own insecurity regarding the challenges of the authority of the institution. Many Democrats support the suppression of disagreement at the college campuses as part of a wider strategy for maintaining control over the next generation of activists and intellectuals.
This campaign against US universities reflects historical patterns of state repression. During the 1950s, McCarthyism’s weapon for communism silenced political opponents and cleared leftist thinkers from the University, Hollywood and government institutions. In the era, they saw black lists, oaths of loyalty, mass shootings, and even the prison of those suspected of left -wing belonging.
Despite its intensity, McCarthyism has not been able to erase left -wing ideas from public spaces or universities in the end. Over time, excesses of red are exposed and its main advocates are discredited.
Similarly, today’s repression of Pro-Palestinian activism and wider academic freedom may succeed in the intimidation of academic institutions and individuals in the short term, but will not be able to delete ideas rooted in justice and liberation. How much this new mccarthyism will go will depend on the will of Americans to return and protect their freedom.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeere.
