GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY police ordered a student to remove a Palestinian flag from his dorm window, with administrators claiming the flag violated their housing code. But a visit to the university Tuesday confirmed countless other national flags hang from dorm rooms there.
The student, 20-year-old pre-med Ramie Abounaja, was threatened by university administrators with future disciplinary action even though he complied with the police order. Civil rights organizations have characterized the flag-removal order as a violation of free speech principles, underscoring the growing attempt to outlaw and punish pro-Palestinian speech on the nation’s campuses.
Abounaja’s ordeal began on October 26, when a university police officer entered his dorm room at GW in Washington, D.C. According to Abounaja, the officer said the department had received “multiple complaints” about a Palestinian flag hanging from his window, and that he would not leave until the flag was removed. Abounaja quickly complied without incident.
A week later, Abounaja received a letter from GW’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which oversees disciplinary issues. “This letter serves as a warning that this behavior is a violation of the ‘Code of Student Conduct’ and/or the Resident Community Conduct Guidelines,” it stated.
The letter continued: “As a member of the larger residential community we hope that you will be respectful of your peers and be aware of your behavior. The act of an individual has a profound impact on the community. … Subsequent reports naming you as a subject may result in disciplinary action taken by the university.”
An Argentine flag hangs out of a window of Sigma Chi fraternity house at George Washington University on Dec. 8, 2015.
Photo: Mikayla Kurland
“I felt like I was being singled out, because of my heritage and the viewpoint of my speech, for something I’ve seen dozens of students, fraternities and other student groups do in my three years at GW,” Abounaja wrote in a letter to administrators.
The case is the latest in a long string of incidents targeting pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses across the country. This suppression campaign has intensified in response to growing support on the nation’s campuses for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel, designed to end the country’s decadeslong, illegal occupation of the West Bank territories.
In an email to The Intercept, Abounaja wrote, “My flag was taken down not because it broke university policy, but because of the numerous complaints people have sent to the department.” He added, “I do believe that the students at GW are very much open minded. … However, a large percentage of students condemn Palestine (and anything related), so I would say that expression is difficult.”
Campus free speech and so-called political correctness censorship have been vigorously debated over the last two decades. That topic received particularly intense attention from journalists and pundits this year in response to controversies at the University of Missouri, Yale and other campuses.
But notably, many of the loudest “anti-PC” voices are silent about threats to pro-Palestinian speech, even though that is the speech that is arguably the greatest and most common target for official campus suppression. Palestine Legal, a U.S. civil rights advocacy organization, reports 140 instances of suppression of Palestine advocacy in the first six months of 2015, 80 percent of which were on college campuses.
Earlier this year, the group issued a report titled “The Palestinian Exception to Free Speech.” It documents how pro-Israel campus groups and alumni “have intensified their efforts to stifle criticism of Israeli government policies. Rather than engage such criticism on its merits, these groups leverage their significant resources and lobbying power to pressure universities, government actors, and other institutions to censor or punish advocacy in support of Palestinian rights.”
In September, the University of California Board of Regents, with prominent political backing, debated a resolution that would label students supportive of BDS or critical of Israel as “anti-Semitic” and subject them to possible suspension or even expulsion.
Steven Salaita, a tenure-tracked professor, was fired by the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign last year over strongly worded tweets critical of Israel’s invasion of Gaza in which 2,131 Palestinians and 71 Israelis were killed, after which the university paid him $875,000 to settle a lawsuit he brought alleging violation of his free speech rights.
A U.S. flag hangs out of a window at Mitchel Hall dormitory on Dec. 8, 2015.
Photo: Aidan Adams/Courtesy of Students for Justice in Palestine at GW
The Palestinian-American student wrote that the incident was “humiliating.” “To be criminalized in front of my roommate and have others around the hall open their doors to see what was happening was uncalled for and unexpected.”
The letter from the GW administration threatening Abounaja with future disciplinary action did not specify what rule he had allegedly broken. To this day, more than a month after the flag-removal order, Abounaja still has not been informed of the exact violation, despite inquiries to multiple offices.
A banner hangs under a window at the George Washington Williams House on Dec. 8, 2015.
Photo: Ramie Abounaja
The George Washington University is committed to fostering a welcoming and safe environment for every member of the GW community, and we encourage students to share their rich diversity of backgrounds, experiences and views with their peers. GW has not banned any flags from its campus; however, the university’s Residential Community Conduct Guidelines prohibit the hanging of any object outside of a residence hall window (Section III. 7). These guidelines apply to all on-campus housing residents.
Section III. 7 states that the “intentional or unintentional throwing, dropping, allowing to fall, lowering of or in any way putting any object, solid or liquid, out of a window or from a balcony or rooftop deck of a residential facility is strictly prohibited.”
In a statement released today, Students for Justice in Palestine at GW said that “these actions point to anti-Palestinian sentiment.” Citing the fact that “flags of other countries hang out of dorm windows with no disciplinary consequence,” the group argued, “selective reinforcement of these rules is discrimination. In this moment of rising Islamophobia in the United States, it is contradictory that a university that advertises inclusivity and diversity would act like this.”
On Monday, Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.” Last month, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton reaffirmed her opposition to the pro-Palestinian solidarity movement in an op-ed published in The Forward, vowing to “combat growing efforts to isolate Israel internationally and to undermine its future as a Jewish state, including the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. I’ve spoken out against BDS in the United States and at the U.N., and will continue to do so.”
A pirate flag hangs off of a balcony at the City Hall dormitory on Dec. 8, 2015.
Photo: Josh Serchen/Courtesy of Students for Justice in Palestine at GW
GW students contacted by The Intercept confirm that hanging flags from dorm windows and balconies is common on campus and sent photos of multiple current examples, which we are republishing with permission.
“I remember having seen a California state flag, an American flag … a Star Trek flag for the federation, and a couple of countries here and there,” wrote GW student Mikayla Kurland in an email to The Intercept.
Christmas lights hang out of a window at the Mitchel Hall dormitory on Dec. 7, 2015.
Photo: Priyanka Walimbe/Courtesy of Students for Justice in Palestine at GW
The case has elicited mixed responses from students and alumni on the “Overheard at GW” Facebook group. Some felt Abounaja had been wronged by the school and the GW community, while others wrote that the officer was merely responding to an infraction that had been brought to the police department’s attention.
UPDATE:
GW has rescinded the warning letter to Abounaja and expunged the
incident from his file. According to a statement from Palestine Legal released on Thursday, “Mr. Abounaja is still seeking clarification that GW will apply its policies equally, along with a written apology from GW for its discriminatory removal of his Palestinian flag, police investigation and reprimand.”
The George Washington University updated their public statement on Wednesday:
GW has responded to the student and Palestine Legal correspondence, and we believe we have addressed the concerns that were raised. Members of the Division of Student Affairs also met with the student. While we believe the university has been responsive, because of federal privacy laws, we are unable to provide additional information about the discussion or the outcome of the meeting.
In a statement posted on Thursday evening, University President Steven Knapp said he has apologized to Abounaja and that the student had been subjected to a flawed process:
I have instructed the relevant offices to end the practice of sending warning letters to students solely because of a reported violation of a university policy. I have also instructed them to ensure consistent enforcement of all university policies.
At the same time, I have personally apologized to the student for this unfortunate incident and assured him that the university’s actions were in no way a response to his expression of his beliefs or opinions.
Palestinians would do well to divorce themselves form terrorist Hamas and Islamic Jihad – it would certainly increase their life expectancy.
Is this a threat?
“terrorist Hamas and Islamic Jihad”
Lol, you really went for the hasbara trifecta there, didn’t you, Louise? Is the pay good?
Jews would do well to divorce themselves form terrorist Jewish State – it would certainly increase their life expectancy, or at least their moral standing in the world.
Knapp’s statement is hilarious.
Not sure it was letter that was the problem so much as the blatant enforcement of the Zionist line, in violation of your “policy” that was so sacred when it was needed to save you from the threat of a …flag.
Is there anybody that believes that? If you have nothing credible to say, say nothing at all.
Are students at GW allowed to fly the Stars and Bars? I know these have been banned at some universities.
Only one complaint from anyone would have sufficed to punish this student. Ever person is not equal. Look at Killary’s lying statement in a Zionist paper.
What strikes me about these comments is that they are really quite timid bits of paper “fist-shaking”. Not one advocates the kind of organized student protests so typical on college campuses those centuries ago. Why? Many centuries ago when I was a student during the Vietnam war at the University of California, Berkeley the anti-war protesters (and a few pro-war advocates as well) routinely set up and manned information distribution and petition signing card tables in front of the U.C. administration building in Sproul Plaza. Clark Kerr, president of U.C. Berkeley’s administration, took flak from ‘patriotic’ California legislators about the “clearly Communist” propaganda being distributed in the Plaza, the main traffic area on the campus. Responding to those ‘patriotic’ legislators, Kerr issued an order that students would not be allowed to put up those info card tables on the pretext that “… they blocked traffic to and from UC Berkeley’s administrative offices. The result of Kerr’s order triggered what became a massive student “Free Speech” protest movement that culminated in U.C. Berkeley being shut down, the Berkeley police being called in to ‘disperse’ the crowds, and ultimately the Governor of California calling in the California National Guard to restore and maintain order. And perhaps you know about the parallel tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio where an Ohio National Guard unit was called in to disperse students demonstrating in an anti-war free speech movement; the unit was sent to the Kent State campus armed with loaded rifles, which they subsequently turned towards and used with lethal effect on the peacefully protesting students, who reasonably enough scrambled to get out of the line of fire, leaving student bodies lying dead on the ground. You don’t remember that, do you. Or even know about it?
My point is, protests are only temporary and rather meaningless distractions to academic administrators — “all in the day’s work”, as they say — unless students join together in direct student political actions against academics and their institutions for purposeless restrictions and interference to restrict students in engaging on the basic freedoms guaranteed in our federal Constitution. Which include, by the way, the fundamental right not only of free speech, but also the right to form groups, in peaceful assembly, to directly protest restrictions on fundamental political rights.
“Observe good faith and justice toward all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.” George Washington 1st U.S. President……..So GWU can not follow his ethos….he must be turning in his grave!
So in the United States we have a fundamental right to burn and American flag in public, but not to raise a Palestinian one.
We should have the right to burn the flags of the United Snakes and of the JSIL (Jewish State in the Levant) and of any other state or entity we choose, and to raise the Palestinian flag.
Don’t students’ right not to feel uncomfortable or offended outweigh free speech concerns on college campuses? Seems that any flag that offends someone else should be taken down in order to preserve the students’ safe space.
Then take down all flags so as not to offend or be democratic and fly all flags so everyone is represented!
No, there is no “right not to feel uncomfortable or offended”. Arguably, though, there may be a right not to be exposed in shared spaces to symbols of one’s oppressor, such as the right of Blacks not to have to have to regularly look at the Confederate flag, nooses, or other racist symbols, of Jews, Roma and others not to have to regularly look at Nazi flags and symbols, or of Palestinians and other Levantine Arabs to have to regularly look at the flag of the Zionist state. It may be difficult, however, to objectively distinguish between uses of such flags and symbols for purposes of intimidation of the less powerful and their use in political criticism, such as the legitimate use of the Swastika in place of the Star of David on a mock Israeli flag.
Students have every right to read the following article on spinal cord regeneration:
http://www.mayo.edu/research/departments-divisions/department-neurology/programs/neuro-regeneration-spinal-cord-injury
Hey,
Thanks for your work, is there any chance that the intercept would be available in French, that would gain the magazine a wide audience in the African countries (Many of them have Muslim and Arab speaking population with French as an official language or the first foreign language). We desperately need good journalism as opposed to the rumour mangers posing as media outlets here. Even if your main focus is American policies and affairs, those have direct impact on the Muslim world and consequently we need the information.
Thanks
Israel is the only apartheid state in the world. Literally, with no hyperbole, every single credible human rights organization in the world that monitors the conflict, including the UN and some excellent Israeli ones, report that Israel is using the fourth of fifth most powerful military in the world to subject the defenseless, native Palestinian people, who have no army, no navy and no air force, to systematic racist terrorism daily. ALL decent human beings who believe in truth and justice, much less university students, are outraged by Israeli racism, terrorism, colonialism, mass murder and apartheid. Apparently GWU screens potential students to make sure that they aren’t human beings but entitled, racist creeps who don’t care about irrelevant things like justice, human rights and international law.
“Israel is the only apartheid state in the world” – with the United States coming up fast behind.
There, FIFY.
Some people can be such boneheads. Right on, Andrew Fishman and Students for Justice in Palestine!
[Excerpt]
On Monday, after Palestine Legal published an open letter to GW President Steven Knapp requesting an explanation, an apology, and the withdrawal of the disciplinary notice, the university’s Office of Media Relations issued a brief statement:
The George Washington University is committed to fostering a welcoming and safe environment for every member of the GW community, and we encourage students to share their rich diversity of backgrounds, experiences and views with their peers. GW has not banned any flags from its campus; however, the university’s Residential Community Conduct Guidelines prohibit the hanging of any object outside of a residence hall window (Section III. 7). These guidelines apply to all on-campus housing residents.
Section III. 7 states that the “intentional or unintentional throwing, dropping, allowing to fall, lowering of or in any way putting any object, solid or liquid, out of a window or from a balcony or rooftop deck of a residential facility is strictly prohibited.”
In a statement released today, Students for Justice in Palestine at GW said that “these actions point to anti-Palestinian sentiment.” Citing the fact that “flags of other countries hang out of dorm windows with no disciplinary consequence,” the group argued, “selective reinforcement of these rules is discrimination.
Firstly, thank you for publishing this article about what has become a continuing trend of double-speak and thought control on American campuses. I am an American academic teaching at a British university in China, in part because a) I can foster critical discussions with students about such things as Israeli’s apartheid state without fear of university interference or retribution and because b) I don’t have to pay taxes to support the continued dropping of bombs on children. I don’t at all buy the rhetoric that critiquing Israel is any form of anti-Semitism, as many of us who are leading these critiques are, in fact, Jews. But to put it plainly Freedom of speech is freedom of speech across the board, even if we don’t agree with the message or if the message is the hate speech of a Trump. To think that Freedom of speech can be selective is an Orwellian construction. I grew up outside the markedly Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, Ill. When the neo-Nazi’s were marching in Skokie in the 1970’s, we, in the Jewish community, were against it, BUT we understood if they were not allowed to march, then there was no freedom of speech and one day in turn we might not be allowed to voice protest to them. I fail to see how what is happening in the U.S. today with the structural violence toward Palestinians and Muslims, in general, is in any way different from the rhetoric and policies of Nazi Germany.
Hey,
I hope this is not weird for you, but I always wanted to meet a Jew that recognises the injustice to which the Palestinians are subjected. I’m a Moroccan citizen of Berber decent and I grow up with Palestinian cause throughout reading about it in Arab magazines. I know stories about Jews in israel who smuggled food to Palestinians during the 2010 assault on Gaza, Jews campaigning against israel .. Etc..
Unfortunately, not many other people are aware of those things if I may judge by the evidence in my immediate family. I’m sad to say that the israeli propaganda portrays their actions as “for and by” all Jews (Kind of like the “Islamic” state in our case). I realise that the zionist lobbies are behind this obscuration ?as a way to sell the struggle as Islam-Arab VS Judaism, as well as the aggravation of the problem by the laziness of average people here information wise, but still it’s a shame. Anyway, although there are Moroccan Jews, I frankly lack the courage to approach one of them and ask them about their position on the Palestinian cause, mainly because most of them have israeli-citizenship and that fact doesn’t boost my odds.
So all this preamble is so I can say to you, Thank you very much, in an era where their own historical sister nations turn their back on them and add to their plight any way they can, you Sir and your kinship ?take a stand in spite of the detriment to your life and interests.
I never got the chance to say this, and I didn’t want to let this opportunity pass me by, as odds are I would never meet a person like you in the present circumstances, and I doubt they’ll change any time soon.
I hope you read this and anyone like you for that matter.
Regards
Dear Grcyfi,
I believe there are as many Jews who are outraged by the injustices directed toward Palestinians, as there are members of any other religion or “ethnic” group. Some of the most vocal critics of Israeli actions and policies (Noam Chomsky, Norman Finklestein, Amy Goodman, to name but a small sample), are Jews. The truth is most people are a bit more complex than their ethnic category. But, when one has experienced injustice, as a member of a group, I would think (or at least hope) that they would have some foresight and empathy for the pain of injustice inflicted on others. Hence, I am horrified by the fact that purportedly “good jews” are so blinded by their own sense of entitlement, that they are inflicting on others what our own relatives (including my own) had experienced at the hands of the Nazis; while the majority of powerful “democratic” nations look the other way and dare not speak out for fear of being labelled “anti-Semitic” for opposing such injustices. These are dark ironies of the times we are living in where suffering begets suffering, rather than learning the lessons of one’s suffering and having gone through that experience, having the humanity and insight to never inflict it on others. When I remember the words I heard repeatedly as a child in reference to the holocaust; “never again”, I shudder at how quickly we have forgotten…
Zionists and Jewish supremacists (not Jews per se) have long sought to restrict any expression they consider dangerous to their agenda, or even merely offensive. Many European countries already have laws against such expression, and the effort is well underway to impose such laws in the US as well, First Amendment be damned.
Those who wish to stifle discussion through censorship invariably reveal at least one of the following:
(1) Their position regarding the issue in question is too weak to be successfully defended with facts and reason. Only lies and error are unable to hold up in an open forum.
(2) They’re mental weaklings who can’t bear to have their poor little feelings hurt.
To demand the removal of a mere flag — ANY flag, whether Palestinian, Israeli, or even Nazi — from public display by a private individual is an admission that one lacks the wherewithal to oppose the flag-waver’s views on an intellectual level.
Israel will be the only place in the middle east where the muSSlim is not able to ILLEGALY OCCUPY
….also, unless I missed this same comment from someone else, Ramie needs to monitor his academic file personally, at intervals, prior to sending out apps for grad schools, or before attempting to transfer to another school if this is in the game plan….
….funny how those cute little comment notes can creep into one’s file from the strangest places from the oddest people/professors…
Great article!….so, can’t fly a flag but GWU takes his money, right?…
…great due process…after the citation is issued, he gets noticed of a violation?….did the Administration have a committee meeting to decide which violation to use…..humm…
I like Easa’s idea below: “Everyone send a Palestinian flag to George Washington University.”
I am emailing mine to the office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, whose email address is, ironically:
rights@gwu.edu
Let’s get 10,000 Palestinian flags into their inbox by 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.
Hilarious!!!! You made me spill my coffee.
Sent a Palestinian flag!
good idea, send a Palestinian flag, if it annoys them just a wee bit it’ll be worth it
Thanks for this piece Andrew.
The funny thing is that it reveals a sort of desperation from the pro-Israel Camp. If you don’t have an argument for your apartheid, then discipline them.
This is going to backfire. If I were a GW student reading this article, of whatever background, the first thing I’d do is put a Palestinian flag out my window. What’re they gonna do? Discipline everybody? Discipline White Christians?
And I have to say, reading that disciplinary notice sent chills down my adult body. If were a 20 year old student, yet to receive my diploma, that would feel like some real Gestapo shit.
Jesus Christ! That is just a despicable, unkind, insensitive, disgusting notice from a student body. Who signed that notice? Let’s talk to that guy/gal. Let’s put that person under the microscope and see how s/he likes it.
Precisely. The Zionists are well aware that neither facts nor basic moral principles are in their corner. All they have are lies and half-truths to prop up their hypocritical, two-tiered morality. Hence they resort to blunt coercion, which should be vigorously resisted.
American hypocrisy will never stop to amaze me.
Seriously.. universities should stop trying to restrict free speech. If it offends you get over it – some people will always disagree with you. Disagreement and alternative points of view should not be crimes.
Let him fly his flag! And let me fly my confederate battle flag too!
That *is* a logical corollary, and not one that I would dispute – yet it is indeed hard to imagine petty university bureaucrats being willing to live with your freedom of expression on this point. Which is a huge mistake, because pretending that no one in the world is “soft on racism” in this regard does not actually help students who are discriminated against, but just makes it easier to dismiss their concerns.
The whole world seems to believe in the cartoon physics that you can pull down the windowshade to stop the oncoming train.
It should absolutely be allowed to fly the Confederate battle flag, and any other as well: Palestinian, Israeli, Nazi, Jolly Roger, etc. People don’t have the right to not have their feelings hurt. If we suppose such a right, then we need to censor ALL political expression, since just about any political statement is capable of offending somebody. The only alternative is tyranny, either of the majority or of a powerful minority.
I feel the young man should be able fly his flag
I know it’s petty for me to say this, but hanging any sort of flag out of your window seems dumb. Not wrong or offensive, just something that someone with a lot of bumper stickers on their car would do.
“Section III. 7 states that the “intentional or unintentional throwing, dropping, allowing to fall, lowering of or in any way putting any object, solid or liquid, out of a window or from a balcony or rooftop deck of a residential facility is strictly prohibited.” ”
So, it’s not prohibited to glue it or post it on the window itself, is it ?…
_______________
Funny how your software transforms Arabic into question marks…
“Section III. 7 states that the “intentional or unintentional throwing, dropping, allowing to fall, lowering of or in any way putting any object, solid or liquid, out of a window or from a balcony or rooftop deck of a residential facility is strictly prohibited.” ”
So, it’s not prohibited to glue it or post it on the window itself, is it ?…
The job of a university is to prepare students for life in the real world. They must learn to accept that authority is often exercised arbitrarily and unfairly. So I must commend George Washington University for successfully fulfilling its mandate.
I fear, however, that too many universities are bastions of liberal inquiry, where students are encouraged to express their individuality and experiment with opinions and ideas which have no place in general society. They emerge from such institutions with an intellectual curiosity which invariably gets them into trouble. I hope the example set by GWU is a first step towards setting things back on the right track.
It should go without saying that students should observe which flags are being displayed in dorm windows, and then place an identical flag in their own window.
Beautiful: “They must learn to follow orders at all times.” “opinions and ideas which have no place in general society”! Priceless! GWU is quickly becoming a Jewish/Nazi finishing school!
….guess that means you would not object to displaying an ISIS flag, too?
I’m not sure how you inferred that from my comment. Perhaps it was from my last sentence, “students should observe which flags are being displayed in dorm windows, and then place an identical flag in their own window”. If I arrived at a university where all the dorm windows were displaying ISIS flags, I’d conclude that I had somehow wandered into to the CIAU.
Of course students should have the right to display an ISIS flag! If they are *really* members of ISIS bent on wreaking acts of terror, I’m sure they will run into somebody more effective than university police, and in the meanwhile the rest of the university might as well get a warning. And if they’re not, then let them trollollol to their heart’s content – it takes away some of the ISIS mystique, and with that, hopefully some of their recruits.
Besides, it’s a university, and FREE university students have ways of dealing with that kind of situation, e.g. by rappelling down the side of the building, seizing the flag in the dead of night, and using it to drag a dead pig with a Koran stuffed in its mouth around the campus quadrangle. Which is a lot more than than writing discipline reports, for academics of all ages!
Thanks, I never knew that Mussolini’s first name was Benito, and that ironically “Benito” is a derivative from the word meaning “Bliss”.
Everyone send Palestinian flags to George Washington university
GWU is a shit school for so many reasons. This is one of them. I swear to Christ the school is full of genetically-malfunctioning, loafer-wearing conservative tools who are as interesting and thought-provoking as a saltine cracker.
Avoid it if you can.
Agreed. Hey Ramie, if you’re reading this, transfer to Georgetown. Absolutely beautiful campus. And great school.
I like their electronic briefing books, though wearing loafers is appalling and I don’t go to the school.
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/
They want to remove the reference to the people of Palestine, and then remove the people. They’ve been doing it for decades. Slow genocide.
Unfortunately there are different ways of removing people. A recognition of the state of Palestine on European agenda on migration means also that it is easier to deport emigrants from Palestine back to their country.
This is all part of a movement to declare protest against Israel’s apartheid and genocide of the Palestinians as “hate speech”. And if Clinton wins the Dem nomination and presidency, she’ll ram it through. The NRA is second only to the Israel lobby in owning our Congress. That includes Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren who both spout the Netanyahu line about Israelis having the right to protect themselves from Palestinian rockets (the same does not apply to Palestinians protecting themselves from F-16’s dropping phosphorus bombs on Gaza.) And this is why I will not donate to Sanders, or Warren (my senator) until they educate themselves about the Israelis repression, and worse, of Palestinians.
At the last debate Gov. John Kasich actually said, “And no more criticizing of Israel in public”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27bOEgYnBVg
This is where we are headed as a country. If Kasich and Clinton have their way, someday it will become a CRIME to criticize Israel.
Funny how they are both so eager to take an oath to the Constitution.
Pffffttt!
You’re quite right about the Zionist lobby, but it’s interesting that you bring up the gun lobby also. The two subjects are more closely related than it might seem.
Many of the most prominent Zionist political figures, such as Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Michael Bloomberg, are also well-known as leaders of the anti-gun movement. I doubt this is a coincidence. I suspect these revolting creatures would love nothing more than to disarm Americans and reduce us all to the level of the long-suffering Palestinians, who have no weapons to resist Israeli tyranny other than those they can smuggle or improvise. Disarming Americans to the greatest extent possible would provide insurance against any future rejection of the Zionist agenda by the American people, should the Zionist propaganda machine ultimately fail.
Because millions of armed Americans will not permit ourselves to be disarmed without a bloody struggle, the gun lobby is actually keeping the peace by resisting the imposition of unacceptable laws that seek to incrementally disarm us, starting with the weapons that are on par with those in common police use. (Meanwhile, violent crime in the US has been steadily declining for at least a decade, though to really cause it to plunge we would need to legalize drugs and put the gangs out of business.)
George Washington University is a far right school that should now be placed into the same group as Liberty University.
Andrew, just to show you how far school censorship of speech and expression can go, I give you In re George T., 33 Cal.4th 620, 93 P. 3d 1007 (Cal. Supreme Ct., 2004), in which the authorities criminally prosecuted a high-school English-honors student for writing creepy poetry.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6926810346193317780&q=
(You can Google the case if the link doesn’t work, it’s a famous enough case).
Worth a look as to the line between speech and criminal threats, esp. in a school setting. Also worth a look are In re Ricky T., 87 Cal.App.4th 1132 (2001) and In re Ryan D., 100 Cal.App.4th 854 , 123 Cal.Rptr.2d 193 (2002) which may still be current (I don’t have access to Westlaw these days).
The story of professor Robinson of UC Santa Barbara and the repercussions of his criticism of Israel here:
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/news/u-s-professor-cleared-over-comparison-of-gaza-war-to-holocaust-1.278790
I’m just shocked there’s a University Police in the US. WTF?
Authoritarian nonsense.
The U.S. had a serious problem with cheap public education back in the 60s-70s. It tended to make for controversies, and had people thinking too many thoughts. So they laid on the bureaucracy, made the university like a state within a state, with its own special police, own power station, own rigged court system for mishandling rape allegations, own housing units built to super expensive requirements and so forth. Eventually they managed to get the price up enough to keep out the rabble.
The best way to control people is to get them into debt. This is what makes today’s college students so docile. Unless they’re young republicans they lose their loans and/or grants and scholarships if they become politically active.
None other than Thomas Jefferson died in debt to British Banksters. George Washington had to submit to British Financial blackmail from British Banksters as POTUS. Debt is the way money is created and even the USA, the richest country in the history of the world borrows from private banksters when it could choose to create it’s own money. By the way, the Fed. is a consortium of private banksters as is the Bank of England. In fact, only the Bank of Canada is owned by the nation and it used to create the money supply for government(s) interest free until 1974 but sold out to the BIS and we now borrow from private banksters too. Someone tell me why and tell me over and over again who really runs the world!
Not “a” University police. Many major universities have their own local departments, for instance, the University of California system. There have been problems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Davis_pepper-spray_incident
“Many major”?? ALL major and MOST minor.
He should hang it up on the inside of the window.
He can’t do that, without being subject to future scrutiny and punishment. Remember, the letter also said this:
Subsequent reports naming you as a subject may result in disciplinary action taken by the university
So any student can subsequently report him and put his future in jeopardy. Is that some gestapo crap or what? Seriously.
Here we come to the “time place and manner” issue — authorities, in this case, public and private schools, may very well be able to regulate the time, place and manner of speech on their campuses if the regulation is content-neutral.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_in_the_United_States#Time.2C_place.2C_and_manner_restrictions
Question here is whether a private school can be more restrictive. The other examples in the article — University of California, University of Illinois — are public schools; their authorities are government entities. Seems to me that if GW employs sworn peace officers, and is using them to enforce speech codes, then they have a strict scrutiny to overcome.
Interesting fact pattern. Class?
@ coram nobis
I forget the fine distinction, but I think the two big problems for GW are whether they receive federal funding (presumably they do in part even though a private university) and whether they are directing state police officers to enforce its “policies” rather than the law of the state.
The kid should force the First Amendment issue if it is important to him and/or if his ability to fly the flag of Palestine is. Don’t really see how GW wins unless they are exempt as a function of their not taking federal (or possibly state) education dollars and are legally a purely “private” university.
Partly it’s a matter of taking offense, selectively. I’m not aware of a right not to be offended in the Constitution, and if it exists in some penumbra of case law it could stifle speech, art, literature and whether we say happy holidays instead of “Io Saturnalia.”
It’s happening a lot, e.g., a dustup over art on BART.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/BART-rejects-Mission-gentrification-art-6682500.php
We do need to settle this offense issue.
? Yes, Israel is a pain in the åss
GWU receives plenty of federal funding (a few examples here: http://gwtoday.gwu.edu/federal-funding-fuels-research-academics ), grounds that Palestine Legal notes in their write-up:
@ Andrew Fishman
That confirms what I suspected. And that’s precisely why Mr. Abounaja should force the issue. My guess is GWU would have a significant legal problem and liability exposure in a civil suit to Mr. Abounaja for violating his rights. Either ban all flags regardless of content, or permit all that are otherwise protected political speech consistent with the US Constitution and First Amendment jurisprudence.
” … to known acts of harassment or intimidation …”
Trouble is, in this age of trigger warnings and such, that definition in itself, overbroad as it is, can inhibit speech, e.g.,
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/trouble-teaching-rape-law
We’re talking law classes here.
Easy solution for Ramie Abounaja–bring the matter to a head. So long as other flags aren’t being forcibly removed by police or the administration, rehang his Palestinian flag and let either the administration or the police attempt to discipline him or otherwise cite him.
While he’s at it, the second he hangs his flag, he should walk around campus snapping photographs of every existing flag that is being draped out a window (in such a way as record the date and time on the photo).
Then go to the proper administration office for such complaints and lodge a formal complaint regarding every single flag he’s taken a picture of, including his own, and ask that they be removed pursuant to the purported Residential Community Conduct Guidelines Sec. III 7.
Either the administration will enforce its purported prohibition regarding flags being draped out windows equally, and without respect to the content of the message or image on the flag, or Mr. Abounaja will have a viable legal case if he is disciplined (once the disciplinary process runs its course and upholds any discipline) or is otherwise legally cited.
Selective enforcement of rules by an entity that likely receives federal education dollars, and/or discriminating against him due to place of origin or any message in support of his place of origin protected by the First Amendment, would likely open GW up to a whole host of potential legal claims.
He should push the issue on principle. I doubt whatever “discipline” might be meted out for continuing to fly his flag, so long as others are flying flags out dorm windows, would never affect his ability to finish school or obtain entrance into med school if he otherwise qualifies.
It’s a good fight to fight. IMHO.
Nice thinking. Top notch rabble rousing.
Back in the “day: this would be a good fight to engage. I hope someone fights it. I see more and more how certain groups try. and succeed sometimes, to control or limit other’s rights to free speech. The days of movements starting on campus might be coming to an end, I hope not. As financing is now a big burden, these efforts,(the fights), might not be feasible anymore. I do hope someone does engage before it’s too late.
Wouldn’t it make more sense just to file the complaints about the others without putting himself at risk? Except as a “troublemaker” that is, which, come to think of it, is probably the greater risk anyway… which brings us, of course, to this article, where The Intercept publishes the pictures with dates and brings the issue to a head without requiring this student’s personal involvement. That’s actually the best course, and the one actually taken.
It would however be amusing, assuming no action is taken, for him to ask the administration for a clarification of whether he would be allowed to hang a pirate flag out the window like the other guy. I mean, if Palestinian is out, he ought to be allowed to have *some* nation. He might sew the pirate flag to the back of the Palestinian, and if he gets it backwards one day I’m sure he could videotape the most amusing interchange.
@ Wnt
Well presumably his goal isn’t to make sure no flags can be hung, but that all flags can be hung without content based discrimination being at issue. To simply lodge complaints about the other flags and having them all removed doesn’t achieve the end of teeing up the legal issue at play. Moreover, as a legal matter, he wouldn’t have standing to sue, and thereby potentially resolve the issue definitively with regard to GWU’s policies, if all flags are prohibited on some content neutral rationale because absent differential treatment (i.e. personalized harm) he hasn’t met one of the necessary legal elements of certain legal claims (or alternatively there isn’t an actual case or controversy for the court’s to decide although sometimes there is a way around that problem if it is a “recurring” situation that is otherwise technically mooted before the court can decide the issue).
Similarly, if a court doesn’t rule on the matter definitively with regard to GWU’s policies then GWU can continue to screw with students based on their viewpoints any time it suits them. Again, not an end anyone should want.
Doing what’s right sometimes entails risk. He’s in a good position to take on that risk given it would likely be a relatively minor or slight risk under the circumstances to stand up for the First Amendment. I doubt he could be kicked out of school or the dorms, or be denied entry to med school for simply flouting a housing policy or any discipline that might result.
@rrheard
Can he also sue for mental anguish, pain and suffering, and trauma, and humiliation he was made to feel for being of the ethnicity he is?
I would. I can see myself at 20 being scared and devastated by a notice like that.
Just by the way, that American flag hanging from Mitchell Hall is mine and UPD came to my dorm and made me take it down.
Suddenly enforcing the rule on everyone when its expedient is one way to try and get heat off your back.
Yeah. Did they also send you a letter reminding you that “the act of an individual has a profound impact on the community?”
@David
That above reply was for you david. Did you receive any notice for your display?
@ David
Fair is fair. Either allow all flags or permit no flags. Short of that, and with limited possible narrow exceptions (like nudie photos on flags, or violent acts or whatever), GW’s administration (if it receives federal education program funds) shouldn’t be engaging in viewpoint-discrimination regarding speech protected by the First Amendment. If it doesn’t receive funds, I suppose it can do what it pleases. And even then, just on the basis of funding it might be a close call legally.
But short of banning any flags from being hung outside university property windows, then flying the flag of Chairman Mao, Fidel Castro, Chavez, Palestine, Israel or the US should be protected political speech.
Now flying the flag of a designated “terrorist” organization might be problematic, but short of that and the few narrow exceptions based on content that is unprotected speech, students should be treated equally when it comes to the content of the flags.
Yes, valid points, understandable if GW banned all flags, or set certain hours and places, much like a sign ordinance. And permitting display of flags should include those of Palestine, Israel or the Confederate States of America. Terrorist or fascist organizations? This would run up against the Brandenburg v. Ohio/RAV v. St. Paul standards on hate speech, which is a stiff one indeed.
Enforcement is still possible, but not something as lazy as banning speech as such.
@ coram nobis
Agreed. It is straight viewpoint discrimination and it is prohibited by the First Amendment if the one engaged in it is a “state” official or entity. Like I suggested earlier, it would probably legally hinge on GW’s status as a “truly” private entity or whether they receive enough federal or state taxpayer support to be considered a proxy of the state.
If GW is truly “private” they can probably ban whatever speech they want. But if memory serves this is precisely how Title IX is enforced against nominally “private” universities. If they accept the federal education dollars, they are subject to federal law.
It’s easy to say it’s “fair”, but suppressing all speech has been far too commonplace for universities, and it’s not a good thing! A good social environment requires communication, and there is no real communication without the right to offend those who disagree. It’s easy to say that hanging a flag out the window is somehow dangerous, but we know that’s basically a load of bull; it’s about the content. No doubt the next step is for the original student to hang a Palestinian flag inside his room, and someone sees that and complains, and the university says wall hangings are a fire hazard, and people complain others aren’t banned, so they’re banned there too, and then he uses a flag on an online profile for a site, and people complain, and the university says that labelling your online profile with a flag encourages discrimination and can’t be allowed, and people complain others aren’t banned, and so those are banned too, etc.
@ wnt
Agreed. See my response to you above. That’s why he should force the issue.
“. . . UPD came to my dorm and made me take it down.”
When, exactly, did they do that, David?
Out of curiosity, did you have to have a formal police report written up as well as a letter from the school regarding your violation?
Well, as many of us sometimes say on the internet: “Oh FFS!” It’s good old fashioned gobbledygook to write a letter referring to that section pretending that it apples to hanging a flag or a banner. The words quoted above obviously are about tossing down a water balloon, a bucket of piss, a potted plant, a brick, or any other “funny” or not so funny liquid or solid object onto a person or crowd below. It’s not about hanging a flag or banner which is secured in place. I’m calling bull shit on the administration.
By the way, good on that cop for explaining to the student when he was ordered to come back to make a report that writing a report of such incidents was, in his experience, “highly unusual in his long career as a police officer. “
ah h ahahahah hahahahahahahahaha ha ha ha hah ha, whew:
“The letter from the GW administration threatening Abounaja with future disciplinary action did not specify what rule he had allegedly broken. To this day, more than a month after the flag-removal order, Abounaja has still not been informed of the exact violation, despite inquiries to multiple offices.”
I wonder if the university would have ordered a Taiwanese student to take down the Republic of China’s flag because students from the People’s Republic were offended that they were flying it instead of the flag of Chinese Taipei. Of course, to ask the question is to answer it.
Especially if the complaint is the authorities’ excuse. It means that one voice, or the loudest voices, can censor someone else, while the authorities can use that as their pretext. One parent can get a school library book off the shelf, one offended patron can get artwork removed, and so forth. It suggests a timidity on the part of the authority.