The Associated Press reports:

Columbia University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel.

The probe is part of a flurry of recent cases brought by a new university disciplinary committee — the Office of Institutional Equity — against Columbia students who have expressed criticism of Israel, according to records shared with The Associated Press.

In recent weeks, it has sent notices to dozens of students for activities ranging from sharing social media posts in support of Palestinian people to joining “unauthorized” protests.

One student activist is under investigation for putting up stickers off campus that mimicked “Wanted” posters, bearing the likenesses of university trustees. Another, the president of a campus literary club, faces sanction for co-hosting an art exhibition off campus that focused on last spring’s occupation of a campus building.

In Alwan’s case, investigators said the unsigned op-ed in the Columbia Spectator, which also urged the school to curtail academic ties to Israel, may have subjected other students to “unwelcome conduct” based on their religion, national origin or military service.

“It just felt so dystopian to have something go through rigorous edits, only to be labeled discriminatory because it’s about Palestine,” said Alwan, a Palestinian-American comparative studies major. “It made me not want to write or say anything on the subject anymore.”

The committee informed her that possible sanctions for violating school policy ranged from a simple warning to expulsion.

The new disciplinary office is raising alarm among students, faculty and free speech advocates, who accuse the school of bowing to President Donald Trump’s threats to slash funding to universities and deport campus “agitators.” [Continue reading…]

Cyril Ramaphosa, Anwar Ibrahim, Gustavo Petro, and Varsha Gandikota-Nellutla write:

What remains of the international order? For more than 500 days, Israel, enabled by powerful nations providing diplomatic cover, military hardware, and political support, has systematically violated international law in Gaza. This complicity has dealt a devastating blow to the integrity of the United Nations Charter and its foundational principles of human rights, sovereign equality, and the prohibition of genocide. A system that permits the killing of an estimated 61,000 people is not merely failing—it has failed.

The evidence, livestreamed to our phones and assessed by the world’s top courts, is unequivocal. From the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories to the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Israel’s top leaders to the preliminary measures issued in the Genocide Convention case brought by South Africa, Israel’s actions constitute clear violations of international law.

Yet, despite these rulings, the violations persist, enabled by nations that brazenly challenge the world’s top courts—with sanctions on officials, employees, and agents of the ICC and open defiance of the court’s orders.

The recent proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to “take over” Gaza—meaning annexation followed by ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population, who Trump has suggested should be deported to Egypt and Jordan—strikes at the very foundations of international law, which the global community has a duty to defend. Such actions, if pursued, would constitute a grave violation of international law and the fundamental principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter.

The assault against the Palestinian people echoes dark chapters in our own countries’ histories—South Africa under apartheid, Colombia during counterinsurgency, and Malaysia under colonial rule. These struggles remind us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We may hail from different continents, but we share the conviction that complacency is complicity in such crimes. The defense of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination is a collective responsibility. [Continue reading…]