Saturday, May 23, 2 pm, Palmer Square, Princeton, New Jersey, alongside Princeton University Reunions.
See this as well.
Stop the Wars Rally: Saturday
“Terms of Repression”
You’re invited to our 2026 Reunions Event: Terms of Repression
Join us for a panel discussion with Dr. Sadaf Jaffer, Aditi Rao, and a student (now alum) participant in the 2024 encampment and expert on Princeton’s complicity in war crimes. Moderated by Irfan Khawaja ‘91.
What types of repression have students and faculty been facing since the 2024 encampment? How do the University’s actions towards Palestine activists square with President Eisgruber’s new book on campus speech policies, Terms of Respect? Where does the divestment movement stand, and where do we go from here?
When: Saturday, May 23th, 11:30am – 1:30pm. Panel discussion and mingling to follow. There will be food for purchase.
Where: in town, very close to campus – exact location will be shared with confirmed attendees. RSVP here.
–PRINCETON ALUMNI FOR PALESTINE
Tomasi and Flier on “Commencement Neutrality”
I recently attended a webinar on “commencement neutrality” sponsored by Heterodox Academy. In it, the presenters, John Tomasi and Jeffrey Flier, argue that
Students receiving diplomas while a speaker condemns their political values, whether progressive or conservative, are justified in objecting.
The graduation stage is not an op-ed page, a political blog, or a partisan rally, though some wish to make it one.
This claim extends the idea of “institutional neutrality” to commencement speeches, and is elaborated at further length in Flier and Tomasi’s recent Boston Globe piece, “Keep Politics Out of Commencement Speeches” (May 14, paywalled). The basic argument is that commencement speeches have a ceremonial or celebratory function which is incompatible with the discomfort provoked by sharp political commentary.
Continue readingArrest Michael Kotlikoff
On April 30th of this year, a debate over Israel/Palestine took place at Cornell University, introduced and attended by Michael Kotlikoff, the President of the University. After the debate, Kotlikoff was followed from the venue to his car by students who asked him questions while filming him. Kotlikoff clearly didn’t want to talk to them, so he hurried to his car, and got in, closing the door. The students then surrounded the car on all three sides–the driver’s and passenger’s side as well as the rear of the vehicle–crowding fairly close to it, pressing their questions. Kotlikoff then backed up, hitting two students, and drove away. Neither student was seriously injured. Video of the event is widely available online, showing the event from various angles.
Continue readingToward an ICE-Free Jersey
The Princeton-area League of Women Voters recently held a candidates’ forum for the four Democratic candidates for Municipal Council. They’d asked voters for questions to ask the candidates, and as it happens, my question was the first one asked (starts at minute 3 of the video):
Would you be amenable to passing an “ICE-Free Princeton” ordinance banning the use of municipality-owned property by federal immigration enforcement without a judicial warrant?
All four said “yes,” at least pending legal review. So the idea has advocates in both of the places where I’ve advocated it, West Orange and now Princeton. Now all we have to do is write up some legislation and pass it. Something to put on the to-do list for the second half of the year.
Continue readingNJ-12: The Trance Is the Motion
I’ve so far received campaign literature or text messages from seven of the candidates in the NJ-12 congressional race: Sue Altman, Brad Cohen, Adam Hamawy, Adrian Mapp, Verlina Reynolds-Jackson, Shanel Robinson, and Squire Servance. Of these, Hamawy is the only one who’s mentioned ending the Iran War as an explicit part of his pitch. The other six either say nothing, or next to nothing.*
Try to get your mind around this evasion: six out of seven candidates in a Democratic primary don’t think that our being involved in the most irrational and ruinous war in decades is even worth mentioning. Aggression means nothing to them, even when committed by their supposed arch-enemy, Trump. Mass death means nothing to them. Regional war means nothing to them. The potential destruction of the entire oil infrastructure of the Persian Gulf means nothing to them. The potential for a ground invasion means nothing to them. The potential for nuclear war means nothing to them. The indefinite closure of the Strait of Hormuz means nothing to them. The blockade of the Persian Gulf means nothing to them. The recent increase in fuel prices means nothing, the prospect of inflation means nothing, and the expected downstream consequences of the closure and blockade mean nothing.
Charlie Kratovil for Mayor of New Brunswick
Though I don’t live in New Brunswick, and can’t vote in its municipal elections, I commute through the city ten times a week, and spend time there just about every week. I also have a strong interest, as do all of us in this area, in the workings of New Brunswick’s major institutions: Rutgers University, Johnson & Johnson, RWJ Barnabas Health, DEVCO, the Middlesex County Commission, and now HELIX. These institutions are among the main power brokers behind Jersey politics as such. The people who call the shots within them end up calling the shots for all of us. Continue reading
Calling All Palestine Activists
Converge on Princeton: Reunions, May 21-24
I’ve been making the case to pro-Palestine activists wherever I go: the experience of being shut down at LeMoyne, NYU, U of Texas at Dallas, and Rutgers (with the prospect of retaliation at Michigan) and elsewhere is certainly a dispiriting one, but the answer is not to keep demanding entry where entry has effectively been denied, but to find opportunities for visibility when and where they present themselves. Continue reading
Guns and Poses
For weeks now, the papers in Princeton have been full of news items about anti-Semitic graffiti discovered around town. In virtually every case, the reports have been vague to the point of deliberate concealment about what the messages have actually said. Here’s a typical example, from the April 29 issue of Town Topics:
On April 21 at 1:05 pm, officers responded to headquarters for a report of a threatening letter received at a religious organization on Cherry Hill Road. The letter, which was intended for a separate Jewish group that uses the location for gatherings, contained anti-semitic threats of violence. Investigation revealed similar letters had recently been sent to multiple Jewish organizations throughout Mercer County and Bucks County, Pa. The incident remains under investigation (p. 13).
The Unintended, the Foreseen, and the Defamatory
“We absolutely cannot and should not ever be cheerleading and wishing for the deaths of Israeli children…”
–Sue Altman
Sue Altman and Adam Hamawy are both Democratic candidates for Congress in New Jersey’s 12th Congressional District. A controversy has recently erupted over Altman’s response to comments Hamawy made in an interview with Hasan Piker. The basics of the controversy are nicely captured in this short piece in Jewish Insider. I’ll quote the first few paragraphs, but urge readers to read the whole thing. Continue reading
Policy of Truth 