Will Occidental expel students exercising free speech?

30 July 2025

President Tom Stritikus   thomas [email protected]
Dean Kathryn Leonard    [email protected]
General Counsel Nora Kahn  [email protected]
Dean of Students Vivian Santiago [email protected]
Board of Trustees, [email protected]  

Dear President Stritikus, Dean Leonard, and Board of Trustees:

The Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Council is deeply concerned by threats from the college’s administration to suspend or expel three students for exercising their rights to speech, association, and assembly. Either of these punishments would be unjust and deleterious both to these students and to Occidental’s mission to provide a liberal arts education for its students, as the punishments are—patently—efforts by those with institutional power to chill the free expression of both knowledge and judgments, specifically in regard to the Israeli state’s denial of Palestinian freedom and equality. Indeed, even the threats of these punishments by the administration constitute a chilling of speech and assembly in support of Palestine at Occidental (and beyond).   A college worthy of the name must not disallow the expression of views and the reporting of facts its trustees and administrators object to or find discomfiting.

As you know, the three students under threat from your administration depend on financial aid and will suffer serious economic hardship if they are suspended or expelled.  We note with great alarm that these very students are also among those who suffered violence by the college’s campus security in response to their peaceful protest.  One of the faculty on JVP’s Academic Council themself experienced the serious misconduct of the college’s campus security force, in the fall of 2024, when they were harassed and surveilled as a visiting speaker wearing a kuffiya. 

Jewish Voice for Peace’s Academic Council knows that demonstrations in support of Palestine, such as those engaged in by your students, are guided by principles of freedom, equality, and justice.  Their criticism of Israel is not a call to violent action, but a demand for a more just and equitable world for Palestinians in the region—and thus also for a just and enduring peace for all in Palestine-Israel.  Criticizing Israel for conducting a well-documented genocide and for its denial of Palestinian rights is not, in any sense, an attack on Jews or Judaism; it follows that none of the Occidental administration’s repressive conduct serves the aim of combatting antisemitism or ensuring Jewish safety. The administration’s support for violence, censorship, and expulsion is morally and politically reprehensible and constitutes an affront to fundamental Jewish values and teachings that oblige us to stand against injustice and with the victims of oppression in all cases–and never on a basis that privileges Jewish lives over non-Jewish lives.

Occidental’s administration is, we know, engaging in unjust and extremist attacks on these students, as well as its own liberal arts ideals, in the context of the anti-democratic frenzy that is prevalent in US higher education and society at this time.  The criminalization of dissent, the censorship of dissident views, and the complicity with federal agencies in facilitating deportation of international students all threaten fundamental rights to free speech, assembly, association, and due process. The threats of suspension or expulsion—like the use of violence against these students—reflect and contribute to the broader erosion of democratic principles and academic freedom protections that aim to shield colleges and universities from the kinds of political pressures to which the Occidental administration has apparently succumbed. 

We urge you to fulfill the college’s own ideals and do right by these students.   We urge you to end the threats to suspend or expel these students and meet your responsibility to secure the rights of speech and assembly on the Occidental campus on a principled basis, without an exception for Palestine. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jonah Rubin, Sr. Manager of Campus Organizing

On behalf of the Jewish Voice for Peace – Academic Council

JVP is a national, grassroots organization working towards Palestinian freedom and Judaism beyond Zionism. With roughly 750,000 members, supporters, and participants in the last year, JVP is the largest such organization in the world. The Academic Council is a network of scholars dedicated to furthering JVP’s vision and values. Drawing upon our shared commitment to both progressive Jewish values and Palestinian liberation, we organize in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle on our campus communities, in our scholarly associations, and in educational and academic settings. We draw upon our skills as researchers, educators, and writers to develop critical analysis and reach broad audiences. We understand the aim of attacks on, and repression of, research, teaching and freedom of expression in support of Palestine and critical of Israel and Zionism to establish precedents for suppressing other social movements, from gender freedom and racial justice to climate change and immigration. As such, the Academic Council also works to defend academic freedom not only with respect to Palestine but across the board in K-12 and higher education.