Category Archives: Neutrality and Complicity

Outside Agitation

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity

Scenes from Delaney Hall (3)
In 1963, an outsider named Martin Luther King, Jr. traveled from Atlanta, Georgia to Birmingham, Alabama to protest injustice there by deliberately intensifying “tension” in that, to him, foreign city. His presence, as well as that of his followers, was questioned by locals:

However, we are now confronted by a series of demonstrations by some of our Negro citizens, directed and led in part by outsiders. We recognize the natural impatience of people who feel that their hopes are slow in being realized. But we are convinced that these demonstrations are unwise and untimely.

King unapologetically doubled down on being an outsider:

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Why We Upheld the U.S. War Crimes Act At Port Elizabeth and Were Arrested

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, Guest Post, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

On May 26, I posted a press release on the May 22, 2026 activist blockade of Port Newark/Elizabeth Marine Terminal. This post below is a reprint, with permission, of an item describing an earlier action of theirs that took place on October 3, 2025. For the original post,and more material, visit their Substack, Zoomed Out. I’ve supplied the hyperlinks.

I would just underscore the fact that if “[h]undreds of tons of tax-payer funded weapons are being shipped weekly from its docks to the Israeli ports of Ashdod and Haifa via commercial shipping companies, Maersk (Danish) and ZIM (Israeli),” then ostensibly civilian infrastructure and workers are being used as human shields, not just at Port Newark/Elizabeth itself, but at every point in this supply chain from beginning to end.

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Bodies Blocking Bombs

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

New Jersey Activists Blockade Port Newark
Though press attention is currently riveted on what’s happening at Delaney Hall (and with good reason), the press release below describes a largely unnoticed activist action that took place at the same time at virtually the same place–the industrial east side of Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. Taking a cue from successes in Oakland (see this and this), activists are putting their bodies on the line to block the shipment of weapons out of Port Newark/Elizabeth to Israel. (I’ll be posting a report on a prior action at the same location from this past October, and also on activity by the Oakland Peoples’ Arms Embargo.)

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Sonia Sotomayor Smiles for Palestine

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Princeton University, slices of life, War with Iran

Our Stop the Wars rally found its way into Princeton University’s Reunions celebration, where we spent several hours making our anti-war case to the approbation and disapprobation of the several thousand revelers marching in Princeton’s annual P-rade. Among those apparently expressing approbation was Princeton alumna Sonia Sotomayor, as revealed in this photo, in which she smiled directly at activist leader Sireen Sawalha, who was standing right next to me.

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Tomasi and Flier on “Commencement Neutrality”

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

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. 

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“Terms of Repression”

Posted on by under activism, General announcements, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, Princeton University

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

Arrest Michael Kotlikoff

Posted on by under activism, cancel culture, Fatwas, moralism, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

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.

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Toward an ICE-Free Jersey

Posted on by under activism, Electoral Ethics and Politics, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity, princeton, West Orange

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.

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NJ-12: The Trance Is the Motion

Posted on by under Electoral Ethics and Politics, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine, War with Iran

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.

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