Northeastern University (NU) temporarily suspended in March a pro-Palestinian group that it says has “multiple violations” of campus policy.
But the student group, called the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), says it is unfairly being singled out for its views.
NU said in a statement that the suspension has nothing to do with the issue of “free speech or the exchange of disparate ideas,” but rather with violations of university policy.
“The undergraduate Students for Justice in Palestine organization at Northeastern has been temporarily suspended for multiple violations of university policy over an extended period of time,” said the statement. “This decision was handed down only after a careful and thorough review of the facts, and only after repeated efforts by university officials to guide the leadership of the undergraduate SJP organization.”
SJP said in a statement posted on its website that the suspension was “chilling” and that academic freedom is “essential for students to challenge our own university’s complicity with many forms of discrimination, injustice and violence.”
“This unprecedented ban and appalling prosecutions are the latest attempt by the university to suppress pro-Palestine speech, and continues the university’s disturbing history of enacting injustice,” the statement said.
It is unclear how long the suspension will last.
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The SJP of Northeastern University, I'm quite certain, will be reinstated next academic year.
As long as they jump thru a few hoops.
There just is no legal or moral precedent to suspend a human rights organization from performing their civic duties at a college campus, where free speech should be encouraged, no matter whose feelings are hurt.
Bottom line is that Palestinians deserve their civil and human rights free from outside subjugation and oppresssion