We are a civilized people. Freedom of speech is one of the reasons why. Participation in demonstrations is freedom of speech. Demonstration is supposed to be a strong statement of personal belief. It is not uncommon for students at universities when they believe they are ignored and unheard to enter buildings for emphasis.
I don’t know what it feels like to be a Palestinian in the USA, but, they say it feels like genocide. When a scholar states she believes there is genocide in the world we have an obligation to listen regardless of our politics. Genocide is not a political issue, it is a horrific and final act against a genetic code. That is outlawed internationally and in any moral dictate in the world of civilization.
Those arguments and the ones of the Late Justice Scalia should have been made in a courtroom of due process AT THE REQUEST of Tufts University. Instead, a Palestinian woman scholar wearing her custom public dress was terrified by ICE (supposedly as they were identified) and removed from her home to be returned to danger somewhere in the Middle East where Palestinians reside. That is not civilized. It is not justice.
The Late Justice Scalia was frequently quoted within the political realm of the Republican Party. It is not okay to look the other way to the USA Constitution and Due Process or Freedom of Speech because it is inconvenient for the politics of the day. It is not okay to use the decision of Justices, like the Late Justice Scalia, as a basis of understanding of a political direction only to discard it when it is inconvenient.
Tufts University has a right to conduct hearings regarding student behavior. Boston and Massachusetts have their own sovereign rights to prosecute people within their jurisdiction. The USA State Department does not have the right to ride roughshod over their rights and the rights of an individual for the benefit of hatred and bigotry.
If Tufts, Boston, or Massachusetts needed the help of covertly attired immigration officers to remove a scholar from its real estate I am confident it would have been after due process. This is an appalling act by the USA State Department, completely uncalled for, and a violation and threat of the civilization of the people of this country.
