Pro-Palestinian group claims UW Madison shields 'Zionist war crimes' with protest discipline
The university maintains that disciplinary actions are based on violations of rules, not the content of protests.
Palestine Legal criticized the University of Wisconsin, Madison for disciplining students involved in a pro-Palestine protest, calling the measures discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Palestine Legal recently aruged that the University of Wisconsin, Madison’s disciplinary measures against student protesters are “discriminatory” and helped to support what the group called “Zionist war crimes.”
Specifically, the group sent a letter to UW Madison, asking that the school “terminate a new round of illegal and discriminatory charges brought against students relating to last spring’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment.”
According to The Daily Cardinal, UW Madison investigated and conducted disciplinary proceedings for around three dozen students who participated in the anti-Israel encampment that was erected on the school’s campus during the spring semester.
But Palestine Legal calls the university’s standard disciplinary process “discriminatory” and “unconstitutional.”
“The university’s repression campaign against pro-Palestinian students is not only discriminatory and unconstitutional, but seeks to shelter its complicity in Zionist war crimes in Palestine from accountability,” said Dahlia Saba, one of the students who is facing disciplinary measures from the school. “This draws attention to the lengths that the university is willing to go to in order to protect its moral bankruptcy.”
The letter asserted that “hundreds and perhaps thousands of students were present at the encampment” on UW-Madison’s campus.
Jennifer Mnookin, UW-Madison’s chancellor, stated that students only face disciplinary measures if they violate explicit “rules and regulations” that the university has put in place.
“No student will ever face disciplinary consequences for protests and free expression activity that stays within our rules and regulations, but once it goes beyond those, then absolutely there can be consequences,” Mnookin explained.
In its response to Palestine Legal, which was shared with Campus Reform, a university representative provided a link to “information regarding the non-academic misconduct process” and noted explained the disciplinary procedure, wherein each student can “present to the hearing committee or examiner information to support their arguments related to their conduct and the proposed discipline.”
This is just the latest installment in a contentious battle between the UW Madison administration and pro-Palestine demonstrators. More than a dozen UW Madison students and faculty were arrested during the anti-Israel encampment erected at the school.
The university administration also suspended a pro-Palestine student group at UW Madison for violating policies, which chose to “disaffiliate” from the school entirely over the summer.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Palestine Legal for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
