It’s unclear what aspect of the protests Trump considers “illegal”, as the right to free speech, assembly and protest are protected by the First Amendment. [Getty]
Despite threats coming from the White House, a second major pro-Palestinian demonstration in two weeks at Barnard College in New York emerged and resulted in a police crackdown over an alleged bomb threat.
On Wednesday, police were called to Barnard to respond to an alleged bomb threat at the college’s Milstein Library, where pro-Palestinian students had been staging a sit-in.
That afternoon, dozens of students, wearing keffiyehs, holding signs and beating drums, had entered the library to protest the expulsions of three students who had been disciplined for their pro-Palestinian activism on campus.
As the New York Police Department arrived at the library to respond to complaints of their sit-in, the X account Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine shared photos and comments on the police presence on campus.
“Protesters have staged a SECOND sit-in inside Barnard’s Milstein Library, declaring it the Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone,” the student group wrote in a statement. Along with photos and video footage they shared, they then wrote that the police were brutalising students and urged for people to come join them in solidarity.
Barnard is a sister college of Columbia University, which has been a leader in the worldwide student-led demonstrations in support of Gaza since the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on the coastal enclave in October 2023.
In the 16 months since the war began, more than 62,500 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank have been killed in Israeli attacks.
The pro-Palestinian student protest movement reached a climax last spring, then became less prominent over the summer and into the latest new academic year as new crackdowns, including bans on masks, encampments and loitering, have led to more cautiousness among students.
With the re-election of US President Donald Trump, pro-Palestinian student activists are facing challenges beyond the logistics of how to protest. In his presidential campaign, he has threatened to deport pro-Palestinian student activists, presumably those without US citizenship.
This week, he has threatened to imprison student activists, have them expelled, deported and to halt all federal funding to universities that allow what he described as “illegal” protests.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social. “Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.”
“American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he added.
It’s unclear what aspect of the protests Trump considers “illegal”, as the right to free speech, assembly and protest are protected by the First Amendment.
Last month, the president signed an executive order to “combat the explosion of anti-Semitism on our campuses and in our streets since October 7, 2023,” the date of the date of the attack led by Hamas, leading to daily Israeli airstrikes and a genocidal war on Gaza since then.
According to the White House website, Trump has issued a warning to pro-Palestinian protesters, saying, “To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”
The inflammatory language, though almost appearing to be satire, has nevertheless created a chilling effect across university campuses in the US. Moreover, members of the US Muslim community are already on edge amid ongoing raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the anticipation of a new Muslim ban.
