Signs are gathered on the steps of the Moritz College of Law in preparation for a Sept. 12 pro-Palestine protest, which was attended by roughly 60 students, faculty and community members. This event marked just one of many pro-Palestine demonstrations to take place on Ohio State’s campus this academic year. Credit: Nora Igelnik | Campus Editor
This letter was submitted on behalf of Ohio State’s chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, an organization made up of faculty, graduate students and staff advocating for Palestinian self-determination.
As spring break ends, many members of our Ohio State community wonder what kind of home they are returning to. As we described in our letter to The Columbus Dispatch last week, a growing number of students, staff and faculty are no longer feeling secure on campus.
The illegal abduction of Mahmoud Khalil for his pro-Palestine activism — which remains blocked by a federal judge — has horrified many around our nation and the world, but it was not an isolated event; it is part of a concerted anti-education, anti-protest, anti-Palestine and Islamophobic policy agenda.
Ohio State is one of the institutions in the crosshairs of that agenda, as the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Letter makes clear. The threat of deportation and arrest looms over Buckeye students, too.
The dangerous conflation of pro-Palestinian activism with both antisemitism and terrorism continues to enable these illegal actions. We call upon you, university President Ted Carter Jr., to heed the views of the American populace, who are seeing through this false conflation.
According to a Gallup poll from March 6, the number of Americans who sympathize with Palestinians has increased within the past year, whereas the support for Israel in 2024 has decreased to the lowest level since 2001. As a leading public university, we should acknowledge these national trends, do all we can to refuse the dangerous conflation between Palestinian support and antisemitism and protect the students, staff and faculty it threatens.
So, what will you do, President Carter? Will you defend the freedom of speech and the right of protest? Will you reject any collaboration with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement? And lastly, will you staunchly protect the students, staff and faculty who still believe they have a home at Ohio State?
Shannon Winnubst, professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies
Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, Ohio State University Chapter
