Censorship on campus?

BOSTON Free, free Palestine! protesters shouted, carrying a 30-foot-long Palestinian flag through the streets.

At first glance, the 150 people gathered just outside Northeastern University on March 18 seemed to be staging a typical rally criticizing Israeli policiesan increasingly common sight on left-leaning American campuses. But upon closer inspection, the mix of NEU students and local Boston activists were calling for another thing to be freed: their speech.

Eleven days before the protest, the NEU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine had been suspended, meaning they could no longer meet as a group on NEU property or receive university funds. The administration cited several violations of campus policies and procedures, most recently when SJP failed to get university approval to distribute 600 fliers on February 23.

The fliers were designed as mock eviction notices to symbolize the Palestinian experience in occupied territory, where homes have been razed for Israeli settlements. It warned the reader that their dorm was scheduled for demolition in three days, followed by statistics on displaced Palestinian families. The flier was punctuated by a disclaimer at the bottom: This is not a real eviction notice. #BostonMockEviction.

The requirement to obtain pre-approval before distributing fliers is in the student resource handbook at Northeastern. But according to SJP members, the university doesnt consistently enforce the policy.

There are hundreds of fliers in different places around campus, and almost none of them have the universitys stamp of approval, said Max Geller, an SJP leader.

Charlie Flewelling, a third-year law student who's part of several Northeastern student groups, including the National Lawyers Guild and Queers United in Radical Rethinking, agreed with that assessment. "It is common practice for student groups to put up fliers around school," he said. "None of [our] fliers had university approval," but neither he nor any of his group members "have received any form of discipline or warning."

Tori Porell, the president of SJP, said this double standard is part of a concerted effort to censor the pro-Palestinian group. The result, she said, is that our free speech is suppressed.

Renata Nyul, director of communications at Northeastern, said SJP was "sanctioned based on a series of violations of university policy. Every student organization is viewed the same way. [SJP] is not being singled out." Northeastern also wrote in an earlier statement that the issue at hand is not one of free speech."

Still, the campus has become the latest battleground for pro-Palestinian student activists who claim they have been marginalized or unfairly punished by university higher-ups. Earlier this month, a banner reading Stand for Justice, Stand for Palestine was taken down at Barnard College following complaints by pro-Israel student groups. Last year, five Florida Atlantic University students were put on indefinite probation and ordered to take a civility training course after briefly protesting and walking out of a talk by a member of the Israel Defense Forces. Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, which has been tracking this issue, has documented more than 80 complaints of campus intimidation against advocates for Palestinian human rights.

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Censorship on campus?