Statement: Stop CUNY's Repression against Palestine Solidarity

In his email, the Chancellor:

1. Lists "anti-Israeli sentiment" as a form of "hate and discrimination", thus bringing criticism of Israel settler colonialism into the ambit of CUNY’s official anti-discrimination policy.

2. Asserts that “restrictions may be placed on the time, place and manner” of public rallies, events and protests and even the "placement or size of signage" in the Fall, following a trend of increased restrictions on protests implemented by administrations across the country.

3. Cynically obfuscates Israel’s settler colonial genocide of Palestinians through the use of the phrase "conflict in the Middle East".

This escalating repression of campus organizing is a response to the powerful Gaza Solidarity Encampments last spring which bravely and powerfully opposed the US-backed zionist genocide.

We have already begun to see attempts by colleges to limit anti-genocide organizing at CUNY with newly enforced rules. The CUNY Law SJP is facing new requirements implemented for student club registration. The City Tech SJP was asked to remove a Palestinian flag at a club fair and the SJP at CCNY was told it needs a permit to protest on top of being restricted to a specific location and time frame. Banners that were dropped at CUNY Law have been confiscated by the administration, and for the first time, the administration is refusing to return them to students. The Baruch administration sent a series of intimidating emails to the student body attempting to dissuade support for Palestinian liberation following a successful anti-genocide rally led by students. At the Graduate Center, the administration has begun monitoring the student-only listserv and notified student organizers that no "communications of a partisan political nature" can be distributed, right after an email was sent inviting the student body to join the ongoing struggle against settler colonial genocide in Palestine and CUNY's support of it.

The Chancellor's new "guidelines" are thus yet another, albeit more intense and explicit, attempt to protect a genocidal settler colonial state - one that is funded, politically supported, and armed by the US. They are an attempt to silence the voices of conscience in our community. This is a shameful and unethical step by an administration which has already shown us that it has no moral compass. We refuse this blatant act of repression and assert our unqualified right to criticize any state and any individual - be they Israeli, US, or any other nationality - who engage in or support genocide, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism and imperialist wars.