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Tag: repression

Columbia University Student Activist Detained by Department of Homeland Security Following Threats of Deportation of Pro-Palestinian Students

Posted on by neversleep

The arrest comes on the heels of the Department of State’s announcement that it plans to deport students affiliated with pro-Palestine protests. The student, who is Palestinian, is a lawful permanent resident of the United States.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK—On March 8, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and recent graduate student at Columbia University, at his place of residence, an apartment building owned by the university.

The DHS agents said that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s green card.

At approximately 8:30 p.m. ET, Khalil and his wife, a U.S. citizen who is eight months pregnant, had just unlocked the door to their building when two plainclothes DHS agents forced their way in behind them. The agents initially refused to identify themselves, instead asking Khalil to confirm his identity before detaining him without explanation. The agents proceeded to threaten his wife, telling her that if she remained by his side, they would arrest her too.

Later, the DHS agents stated that the U.S. Department of State had revoked Khalil’s student visa, despite the fact that he has a green card, not a visa, and is a lawful permanent resident. An agent showed Khalil what he claimed was a warrant on his phone. Khalil’s wife went into their apartment to retrieve his green card while the agents remained with Khalil downstairs. When she returned, advising them of Khalil’s legal status and presenting them with Khalil’s green card, one agent was visibly confused and said on the phone, “He has a green card.” However, after a moment, the DHS agents stated that the State Department had “revoked that too.” Khalil’s wife then phoned his attorney, who spoke with the agents in an attempt to intervene. When Khalil’s attorney requested that a copy of the warrant be emailed to her, the agent hung up the call.

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THE BATTLE OF HIND’S HALL FROM OUR SIDE OF THE BARRICADES

Posted on by neversleep

A MESSAGE TO THE STUDENT INTIFADA:

Let us not dialogue with our persecutors.

In the words of Ghassan Kanafani, we must reject the “conversation between the sword and the neck.”

The footage you are viewing is contraband. It was smuggled out of Hind’s Hall and hidden from the NYPD in the band of a militant’s bra. Until now, the only footage to come out of the battle and raid was from the perspective of the pigs, but this footage is the worldview of the militant. We are releasing it in response to the latest wave of repression sweeping across amerika. The Student Intifada put the imperialist ruling class on its back foot. Echoes of 1968 and the threat of mother country militancy still loom over their heads—they remember the last time this kind of struggle erupted. They remember the last time youth in the metropole began to identify with the Third World guerrilla. The enemy is scared, and they should be. They’ve responded using every tactic of repression available to them, teetering on the edge of criminalizing all anti-zionist speech.

Yesterday, Columbia expelled another student for their alleged involvement in the Student Intifada. This is the first expulsion for alleged involvement in Hind’s Hall.

We send a message to our enemies:

We will not back down. We will resist you.

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Barnard expels students for class disruption, pro-Palestinian protest

Posted on by neversleep

February 24, 2025

Barnard college, an affiliate of Columbia University in New York, reportedly expelled two students last week for disrupting a session of the class “History of Modern Israel.”

The Barnard students, both seniors in their last semester of undergraduate studies, banged on drums while chanting “free Palestine” and distributed flyers with the phrase “CRUSH ZIONISM” and a depiction of a boot over the Star of David, according to [news source].

A Columbia University student was also involved in the protest and has since been suspended and barred from campus, the university said in a press release last month.

The history course is being run by Columbia, and the disturbance occurred on the first day of spring semester classes for both schools, according to the student group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

The pro-Palestinian coalition criticized the expulsions in a statement posted to X Sunday, calling Barnard’s decision “a serious escalation in the crackdown” against student activism. The group said in their post they plan to hold “a week of action” Monday through Thursday in response.

Columbia University became the epicenter of nationwide protests last spring, during which students built encampments and denounced Israel’s escalating response in its war against Hamas. In one day of demonstrations last April, more than 100 Columbia students were arrested on campus.

More than 50 students from Barnard have been suspended for political protest, according to Columbia University Apartheid Divest.

Found on mainstream news.

risks of being a political criminal

Posted on by neversleep

Hello NeverSleep anarchists,

I woke up 4 o’clock in the morning, I decided to visit your website to see is there are some news, and I see you published questions about political criminals, should we spend time with other people and expose/bring them automatically to repression? here is my opinion, I will try to be short, but I see author of zine don’t know so much about spies therefore I must write longer. you can also publish this message on your website because we can not leave comments on articles, therefore I send email to you.

Person who made questions in this zine asked many questions and I can not answer all of that, I can say one short example: I was in Denmark and I said to anarchist (insurrectionist) girl from Croatia: I am followed by danish spies and if I visit anarchists, they will be followed also, therefore it is better that I don’t visit their gatherings and don’t spend time with them. She told me: “we are anarchists and we must accept that we are under repression, we can finish any time in the prison, we must stay together and we should not separate because of repression, it means I should not avoid other anarchists.” it is the same about spending time with illegal immigrants or soup kitchen mentioned in this zine about political criminals, if you are under repression, you should not isolate yourself from others, and others should accept they can finish in the prison because ruling class make repression and nobody can escape from that. so, I answered shortly about many questions from zine.

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no peace

Posted on by neversleep

Reflections on Columbia, the Student Intifada and the Culture of Counterinsurgency

28 October 2024 – by Anonymous

“The concentration of violent power in the hands of the few can occur unopposed if it is done quietly, if unnecessary provocation, which can set a process of solidarity in motion, is avoided—that is something that was learned as a result of the student movement and the Paris May.”

— The Urban Guerilla Concept, The Red Army Faction 1971

 

On 30 April 2024 — the 56th anniversary of the 1968 Columbia University mass arrests — the New York Pig Department besieged Harlem, locked down the entirety of Columbia’s campus, swept the Gaza solidarity encampment, and raided Hind’s Hall. This raid marked the end of the spring of the Student Intifada. Those of us who were at the barricades are still reeling from the experience. There are few moments in our lives where history opens its doors to us. Taking the leap through is disorienting, but the responsibility to make sense of this conjuncture falls squarely on those who take the leap.

Journalists and pundits have chimed in endlessly on the Student Intifada with a particular focus on Columbia University. Many of these pundits were nowhere near the action nor the partisans who made the action happen, thus they often get the basic facts of the action wrong. As one rebel once advised, “No investigation, no right to speak.” Additionally, the political orientation of the commentariat necessitated the silencing and erasure of the most radical flank of the movement. This flank played a vital role in not only the uprising at Columbia, but in the direction of the movement nationally. This essay is an attempt to both correct the record and offer up some political perspectives from a segment of this radical flank.

The next sequence of the Student Intifada remains elusive but it is important that interventions are made to push the movement in the correct direction. A minority with the correct revolutionary line is not a minority.

Continue reading “no peace”