by B.S.Ph., May 10, 2025, 19:45 ///
“Free Speech is always fine, just don’t mention Palestine”.
This chant is particularly relevant in the context of the University of Chicago because, for a long time, UChicago championed itself as a beacon of free speech and academic freedom. However, as the US-Israel genocide on Gaza intensified, the university showed multiple times that there are certain lines its liberal hypocritical mask couldn’t cross. In April, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) erected an art installation in the quad highlighting the university board of trustees’ direct connections and complicity in the genocide in Gaza. Additionally, the art installation honored that behind each number of Martyrs there are people, histories, and dreams.
It came as no surprise that after less than a day of being up, the University started an investigation into the art build under the pretext that it may violate university policy regarding “unlawful discrimination”. Citing the “university’s obligation to provide a safe and non-discriminatory environment”, UChicago would like its students to stay idle as the administrators are cherry-picking which speech fits their propaganda of political neutrality and free speech. Every single time Palestine was in question, the university and its administrators either chose silence or openly displayed Zionist tendencies. At the same time, the university president, Paul Alivisatos, has refused through the entirety of this genocide to even utter the word Palestine or acknowledge simple facts like that all universities in Gaza have been bombed and destroyed by the IOF.
Let us not be fooled by the so-called concern about anti-discrimination, because University harassment has never been about the safety of students or UChicago community members. UChicago openly welcomes anti-black and openly racist discourse, so why this sudden concern for “unlawful discrimination”? These past months, the university has proven time and again that it only views its students as disposable objects and would not hesitate to harm them when they expose the true face of the university and those who run it.
Early in the school year, the University unleashed its brutal private police force, UCPD, on its students who were rightfully protesting against the genocide. UCPD police officers pepper-sprayed, hit with batons, attempted to run over, and eventually arrested students whom the university claims to protect. As if it were not enough, the university, in cahoots with the violent Chicago Police Department, went on to racially profile and evict two students of color, Student A and Mamayan. Once again, the university acted in the opposite of what it claims to be, an environment where the so-called anti-discrimination policies are used to protect students. Similarly, it is not surprising that the university has been slow to provide support to International Students who are being threatened and targeted by the Trump regime. The link between the university and the imperialist system at home and abroad is highlighted now more than ever before. As Jesus, peace be upon his name, said “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.”
The past SJP art installation wanted to highlight the connection between the university and the imperialist military-industrial complex. By exposing the faces of the UChicago Board of Trustees, as well as unveiling their shameful investments and collaboration with Zionist and warmongering companies, the art installation took the step that the university has failed to take despite constant student protests: disclosing all the Trustees’ investments and ties with the Zionist entity. For example, one of the Trustees, Satya Nadella, currently acts as the CEO of Microsoft, which provides cloud services, AI tools, and technical support to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the IOF.
The art installation also wanted to show that the people who are profiting from bombing Palestinian homes and Yemeni marketplaces are the same people who are whitewashing their hands with propaganda wings like “The Chicago Forum for Free Inquiry and Expression”.
As the Revolutionary Panafricanist President Sekou Touré said, if the enemy is not doing anything to you, you are not doing anything”. So, when the university decides to investigate if this art installation violates its anti-discrimination policy, it is not because of any legitimate concern for justice or the safety of students. It is to stir the attention away from the people who dictate the policies of the school with their money as well as what is acceptable lawful discrimination or not. These forms of intimidation by the university only heighten students’ commitment to hold the university accountable and expose its bloody hands. What more to show that students are on the right side of history? Students have understood that when genocide is unfolding, any “observer is either a coward or a traitor”. So, Students have decided to stand up and fight back until the university will “DISCLOSE, DIVEST, and REPAIR”.
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