University of Georgia anti-Israel protesters argue school shouldn't have suspended them for violating law, university policies

Six students suspended from the University of Georgia after their participation in an anti-Israel encampment in April are appealing the decision, stating they didn’t cause any harm.

The students, who are all members of Students for Justice in Palestine, alleged that UGA has suppressed open dialogue and refused to meet with them on multiple occasions to discuss their suspensions.

“In choosing to ignore our requests to meet for over eight months, UGA’s administration has made clear their complicity in the atrocities being waged in occupied Palestine,” the students said in a recent statement. “In preferring to arrest, ban, and suspend students for protesting a genocide rather than come to the table, the university administration further confirmed its stance in opposition not just to free speech but to speech in support of Palestinian lives and liberation.”

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Lauren Heinze, one of the six students in question, argues that her and her peers’ actions, which included erecting a barricaded encampment on UGA’s historic Old College Front Lawn and disobeying police officers’ instructions for over an hour, did not meaningfully harm other students either academically or physically.

“There’s no evidence that our actions disrupted any academic activities or put any other person in danger,” Heinze said. “In fact, the university put us in danger by sending dozens of armed police officers to break up a peaceful demonstration.”

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UGA spokesperson Greg Trevor said that the university’s decision to suspend the students is consistent with their commitment to open dialogue and does not indicate an institutional departure from free speech.

“Let us make it abundantly clear that while the University of Georgia staunchly supports freedom of expression, we will not cede control of our campus to groups that refuse to abide by University policy and threaten the safety of those who live, work and study here,” he said. “The University of Georgia remains an institution where ideas, viewpoints, and scholarship can be openly expressed and debated.”

UGA granted the students an initial hearing on July 29. The appeal panel did not render a decision during the hearing, but it indicated that it would notify the students of its decision in the near future.

Campus Reform has reached out to UGA and the Georgia Department of Public Safety for comment. This story will be updated accordingly.