Maura Finkelstein, Ph.D. is not the first faculty member in the U.S to be terminated for speaking out against the genocide Palestinians face, and she will certainly not be the last—unless we, the students, take a stand. A phrase from physics comes to mind as I reflect on my advocacy for a liberated Palestine: “What goes around, comes around.” This applies not only to the global injustice of U.S.-funded weapons being tested on Palestinians, but also to the attack of academic freedom.
What we allow to happen beyond our borders, whether internationally or within the boundaries of student life, paves the way for those same injustices to be replicated in our own communities. However, to be clear, we should act not only out of fear of potential harm to ourselves, but out of recognition that these injustices are already harming others. Here at Muhlenberg, the College administration’s handling of Dr. Finkelstein’s termination reflects bias and a lack of transparency. The school has yet to explain why she was removed (or if she was officially removed at all). Was it due to her social media activity? Or is there a deeper bias against pro-Palestinian faculty and students? The administration’s silence speaks volumes.
There is an open letter written by the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (LVAIC) and its supporters circulating in solidarity with Dr. Finkelstein, and I urge everyone to read, sign, and share. Here is a small excerpt:
“Dr. Finkelstein’s termination sets a dangerous new precedent for institutions of higher education, especially as these same institutions are increasingly targets of reactionary political campaigns. Instead of defending the right to dissent, Muhlenberg’s administration succumbed to the pressure created by a public petition calling for Dr. Finkelstein’s firing. Instead of protecting an employee from an organized campaign of harassment, Muhlenberg’s administration chose to join the attackers. Limiting academic freedom to protect Israel from any criticism is changing higher education as we know it and eroding the rights of students, faculty and staff. The termination of Dr. Finkelstein is an escalation of the assault on academic freedom and makes all of us more vulnerable to such attacks. We are in solidarity with Dr. Finkelstein and honor her courage to stand up for Palestinians and confront a culture of fear that Muhlenberg’s administration has created on campus. Our safety continues to be in our numbers, and by standing together, we can break through this targeted repression of one of our own. We refuse to look the other way.”
The letter also sets a deadline: “If Dr. Finkelstein is not reinstated by October 25th, 2024, a call for an international boycott of Muhlenberg College will be released.” Students will not be recommended to apply to this institution.
This is not the first time that Muhlenberg’s academic freedom has been called into question. I came across something deeply troubling, and eye-opening a few months ago that current students are completely unaware of. In 2015, Hillel’s student president, Caroline Dorn, resigned in protest over Hillel International’s restrictions against hosting speakers critical of Israel. Such censorship blocks crucial discussions on Israel’s apartheid, violations of human rights and the impact on Palestinians, who have suffered bombings of airports and water sanitation facilities, segregation and more.
The Electronic Intifada reported on Dorn’s resignation, noting:
“The president of Hillel at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania has resigned in protest over the national organization’s attempts to censor veteran civil rights activists critical of Israel. Caroline Dorn accused Hillel [International], a nationwide network of campus centers for Jewish students, of failing to respect its stated commitment to political pluralism. Dorn stepped down as the group’s president at the liberal arts college after Hillel blocked her from holding an event featuring Jews who had campaigned against racial segregation in the U.S. Hillel’s “standards of partnership” suggest it supports political pluralism. Yet the same guidelines have been invoked to stop speakers critical of Israel from taking part in Hillel’s events.”
“Speaking to The Electronic Intifada, Dorn said that such restrictions meant that Hillel was not respecting the full spectrum of views held by Jewish students. ‘My hands were tied.’ I didn’t feel represented, and I was the president,’ she said. ‘There were students at my school who didn’t feel that they were represented, and that their political views weren’t welcome, and I felt that my hands were tied when I tried to bring in programming that would better represent their needs as Jewish students.’”
As the genocide in Gaza worsens—where conservative estimates place the number of martyrs at over 186,000 according to The Lancet medical journal, the suppression of voices in academic institutions and organizations is intensifying. Administration may claim “neutrality,” but there is no neutrality in genocide, and their actions of “terminating” Dr. Finkelstein, and supporting censoring policies of national organizations on our campus is anything but neutral.
Returning to the idea of “what goes around, comes around,” the consequences of silencing professors like Dr. Finkelstein, and allowing spaces to exist on campus that prohibit free academic inquiry will eventually come back to us, the students, which we have already been seeing take place in real time, globally. I personally face daily harassment from peers, alumni and outside organizations for my advocacy. We must not allow ourselves and our professors to be next. We demand justice and immediate reinstatement for Dr. Finkelstein, and safety for Muhlenberg Students to speak out and resist against genocide.
I leave you with Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous poem, “First They Came,” which echoes the message I want to impart: if we don’t speak out now, we may find no one left to speak for us.
First they came for the Communists,
And I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists,
And I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak out,
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak out,
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—
And there was no one left to speak for me.
In regard to Dorn’s protest, The Muhlenberg Weekly would like to clarify the following:
- The speaker did end up coming to ‘Berg under sponsorship of a different organization
- This situation was an issue of a student protesting Hillel International policy, not an issue of the College censoring speech critical of Israel
