By Claire Bernish (ANTIMEDIA): Like many other students on campus at George Washington University, Ramie Abounaja wanted to display pride in his heritage by hanging a flag from his dorm window; but a visit from campus police demanding its removal made apparent Abounaja had discovered the single exception to the university’s self-congratulatory diversity policy: Palestinian pride.
“Being a first generation American, I am grateful for everything America stands for and everything it has offered my family,” Abounaja penned in a letter to campus officials. “I have experienced my family’s hardship abroad only through their stories, known history, and the few pictures that remain. I am proud of my Palestinian heritage, as anyone would be, and as Americans, we are able to share our pride, to learn and to teach people about different cultures, especially in a university setting.”
Three weeks after purchasing the Palestinian flag to display outside his window — which Abounaja decided to do after he’d “seen dozens of different banners and flags hung outside other residential campus living spaces” during his three years at GW — campus police told him the department had received “many complaints.” They said they would not leave his room until the flag was taken down.
Though civil rights groups jumped at the obvious violation of Abounaja’s free speech, the fact that this flag is Palestinian — while a number of other flags still hung from campus windows after this incident — belies the stern message students and administrators around the country have unexpectedly encountered: Don’t criticize Israel, even if you’re not actually criticizing Israel at all.
Abounaja, though taken aback, immediately complied with the officer’s request — no questions asked — even though he felt “victimized and criminalized in front of [his] roommates.” But a few minutes later, the campus cop returned, stating his boss “required that he make a report” — telling Abounaja that over the course of his lifelong career, he’d never had “to deal with something such as this.”
Astonishingly, Abounaja’s inexplicable ordeal wasn’t over. The following day, he received a letter about his “behavior” leading to the officer’s visit. The notice came from Sarah Dahnke of the Graduate Fellow Office of Student Rights & Responsibilities, and it appeared to border on intimidation. She stated:
“According to the [GW University Police Department] report, you were found to have had a flag hanging out of your window. This letter serves as a warning that this behavior is a violation of the ‘Code of Student Conduct’ and/or the Residential Community Conduct Guidelines. As a member of the larger residential community we hope that you will be respectful of your peers and be aware of your behavior. The act of an individual has a profound impact on the community. Subsequent reports naming you as subject may result in disciplinary action taken by the University.”
Palestine Legal has taken serious interest in this case, writing to GW a response to the Dahnke’s letter that, in part, pointed out how GW’s treatment would be a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding — should the issue not be addressed sufficiently. “It is clear,” Palestine Legal’s letter stated, “as reflected by comments from the police officer, that Mr. Abounaja was questioned, censored and sanctioned because some people complained about his flag, presumably because they do not like Palestinians or because they disagree with the viewpoint expressed.”
Though the university retracted its letter on Wednesday, attorney Radhika Sainath of Palestine Legal said the“issue still hasn’t been resolved. They still haven’t issued any sort of clarification to their policy. The de facto policy of banning Palestinian flags still remains because it’s still not clear whether or not people can hang flags because of the message of the flag or the origin of the flag-holder.”
Despite expunging the incident from Abounaja’s record, the lack of formal apology essentially means the university hasn’t acknowledged the error in having a campus officer show up at his dorm, humiliating him.
In his letter to GW school administrators, Abounaja described his experience:
“I felt like I was being singled-out, because of my heritage and the viewpoint of my speech, for something I’ve seen dozens of students, fraternities and other student groups do in my three years at GW. But to be criminalized in front of my roommate and have others around the hall open their doors to see what was happening was uncalled for and unexpected.”
He further described having extreme difficulties focusing on final exams from the stress and humiliation surrounding the university’s actions.
“It’s not like he’s asking for a million dollars,” Sainath said, according to the Washingtonian. “He’s just asking for an apology and to be treated like any other student on campus.”
A petition demanding a formal apology from the university for “selectively disciplining” the Palestinian-American has been started. It can be found here.
“While a Palestinian flag may spark complaints because of longstanding issues regarding Israel’s decades long occupation” of Palestine and complete suppression of its self-determination, the attorney’s letter stated,“complaints by some who are opposed to the message a flag conveys cannot justify its removal when other flags hang freely. Different messages cannot be treated in a disparate manner based on how much controversy they may provoke […] At a time when Islamophobic and anti-Arab sentiment is on the rise in the United States, GW’s censorship and harassment of Mr. Abounaja is particularly concerning.”
. . . if not reprehensible.
Source
“Being a first generation American, I am grateful for everything America stands for and everything it has offered my family,” Abounaja penned in a letter to campus officials. “I have experienced my family’s hardship abroad only through their stories, known history, and the few pictures that remain. I am proud of my Palestinian heritage, as anyone would be, and as Americans, we are able to share our pride, to learn and to teach people about different cultures, especially in a university setting.”Three weeks after purchasing the Palestinian flag to display outside his window — which Abounaja decided to do after he’d “seen dozens of different banners and flags hung outside other residential campus living spaces” during his three years at GW — campus police told him the department had received “many complaints.” They said they would not leave his room until the flag was taken down.
Though civil rights groups jumped at the obvious violation of Abounaja’s free speech, the fact that this flag is Palestinian — while a number of other flags still hung from campus windows after this incident — belies the stern message students and administrators around the country have unexpectedly encountered: Don’t criticize Israel, even if you’re not actually criticizing Israel at all.
Abounaja, though taken aback, immediately complied with the officer’s request — no questions asked — even though he felt “victimized and criminalized in front of [his] roommates.” But a few minutes later, the campus cop returned, stating his boss “required that he make a report” — telling Abounaja that over the course of his lifelong career, he’d never had “to deal with something such as this.”
Astonishingly, Abounaja’s inexplicable ordeal wasn’t over. The following day, he received a letter about his “behavior” leading to the officer’s visit. The notice came from Sarah Dahnke of the Graduate Fellow Office of Student Rights & Responsibilities, and it appeared to border on intimidation. She stated:
“According to the [GW University Police Department] report, you were found to have had a flag hanging out of your window. This letter serves as a warning that this behavior is a violation of the ‘Code of Student Conduct’ and/or the Residential Community Conduct Guidelines. As a member of the larger residential community we hope that you will be respectful of your peers and be aware of your behavior. The act of an individual has a profound impact on the community. Subsequent reports naming you as subject may result in disciplinary action taken by the University.”
Palestine Legal has taken serious interest in this case, writing to GW a response to the Dahnke’s letter that, in part, pointed out how GW’s treatment would be a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act — which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin by institutions receiving federal funding — should the issue not be addressed sufficiently. “It is clear,” Palestine Legal’s letter stated, “as reflected by comments from the police officer, that Mr. Abounaja was questioned, censored and sanctioned because some people complained about his flag, presumably because they do not like Palestinians or because they disagree with the viewpoint expressed.”
Though the university retracted its letter on Wednesday, attorney Radhika Sainath of Palestine Legal said the“issue still hasn’t been resolved. They still haven’t issued any sort of clarification to their policy. The de facto policy of banning Palestinian flags still remains because it’s still not clear whether or not people can hang flags because of the message of the flag or the origin of the flag-holder.”
Despite expunging the incident from Abounaja’s record, the lack of formal apology essentially means the university hasn’t acknowledged the error in having a campus officer show up at his dorm, humiliating him.
In his letter to GW school administrators, Abounaja described his experience:
“I felt like I was being singled-out, because of my heritage and the viewpoint of my speech, for something I’ve seen dozens of students, fraternities and other student groups do in my three years at GW. But to be criminalized in front of my roommate and have others around the hall open their doors to see what was happening was uncalled for and unexpected.”
He further described having extreme difficulties focusing on final exams from the stress and humiliation surrounding the university’s actions.
“It’s not like he’s asking for a million dollars,” Sainath said, according to the Washingtonian. “He’s just asking for an apology and to be treated like any other student on campus.”
A petition demanding a formal apology from the university for “selectively disciplining” the Palestinian-American has been started. It can be found here.
“While a Palestinian flag may spark complaints because of longstanding issues regarding Israel’s decades long occupation” of Palestine and complete suppression of its self-determination, the attorney’s letter stated,“complaints by some who are opposed to the message a flag conveys cannot justify its removal when other flags hang freely. Different messages cannot be treated in a disparate manner based on how much controversy they may provoke […] At a time when Islamophobic and anti-Arab sentiment is on the rise in the United States, GW’s censorship and harassment of Mr. Abounaja is particularly concerning.”
. . . if not reprehensible.
Source
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