Dissent

Mark Rudd ( Waging Nonviolence ) – What is the ethical response to witnessing a great moral crime? Turn away and allow oneself to be distracted? Pretend it doesn’t exist? Or acknowledge the crime for what it is, and take some sort of action to try to stop it? Students at Columbia in 1968 understood […]

Dissent

I was Arrested at Columbia University in 1968: I am Cheering on the Students of Today

Bob Stein

New York (Special to Informed Comment) – Earlier this week Columbia University started suspending the students who refused to leave the encampment they built to protest Columbia’s support of Israel’s war against Palestinians. The students had responded by occupying Hamilton Hall, mirroring the action that initiated the 1968 protests against the Vietnam War which ended […]

Anti-intellectualism

USC: 17 History Department Faculty Demand Resignation of President, Others, for use of Violence against Campus Community

contributors

We, the undersigned members of the Department of History [at the University of Southern California], unequivocally condemn the university administration for its decision to invite riot police to campus and employ violence against our students and colleagues. On April 24, a diverse coalition of students assembled at Alumni Park to protest several things. Chief among […]

Dissent

Student Encampments at U of Michigan and MSU Peacefully protest Israeli War on Gaza, seek Disinvestment

Michigan Advance

Gaza, Campus, Protest

Anti-intellectualism

Our Alarm at Escalating Repression of Protest on Campuses (Middle East Studies Assn. / CAF)

Committee on Academic Freedom

Middle East Studies Association | Committee on Academic Freedom MESA Board Joint Statement with CAF concerning escalating repression of protest on campuses The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association and its Committee on Academic Freedom view with increasing alarm the growing number of attempts to intimidate, repress, and criminalize campus protests against […]

Dissent

Aaron Bushnell Sacrificed himself to Stop Gaza Genocide: “I won’t be Complicit”

Azam Saeed

Connecticut (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – Despondence, mixed with commitment, courage, and action, can be a starter for epochal change. Aaron Bushnell set himself afire on Sunday, a telling decision by a serving USAF airman, saying that he refused to be complicit in the Gaza genocide. His martyrdom could well make such a contribution […]

censorship

Islamophobia: Defending Rutgers’ Center for Security, Race and Rights from Senate Judiciary Committee

Committee on Academic Freedom

Committee on Academic Freedom | Middle East Studies Association of North America | Senator Richard Durbin Chair, Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate fax: (202) 228-0400 Senator Lindsay O. Graham Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate fax: (202) 224-3808 Dear Senators Durbin and Graham: We write on behalf of the Middle […]

Climate Crisis

In our National Crisis, We need Public Voices of Optimism — not Gadflies circling a Black Hole

Bahman Fozouni

Sacramento (Special to Informed Comment) – Who is a public intellectual? What role should they play? Searching the internet yields several answers. Alan Lightman’s The Role of the Public Intellectual offers a thoughtful discussion of different visions of the public intellectual and their role and responsibilities. I have opted for a broader description, but with […]

Dissent

Gaza: 400K Rally in DC against “Genocide Joe;” Massive Protests in Johannesburg, London, other Capitals

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Millions of protesters came out around the world on Saturday, answering the call of Palestinian activists to rally against the ongoing Israeli attack on Gaza on a “Global Day of Action for Palestine.” Close to home, an estimated 400,000 demonstrated in Washington, D.C., and scattered what looked like bloodied dolls […]