The Milpitas Beat’s editorial staff wishes to sound a note of alarm around the recent arrest and detainment of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University.
Öztürk co-authored an opinion-editorial that directed criticism toward Israel’s war in Gaza, calling upon Tufts to divest from any companies with ties to the Jewish state. Her op-ed can be read here.
In March, ICE agents surrounded Öztürk outside her Somerville, Massachusetts, home and transported her to Louisiana, where she was held pending deportation. Her student visa was revoked by the U.S. State Department, the stated reason of which for doing so was her op-ed.
Mercifully, she was granted bail by a federal judge, who ordered her to be released from ICE custody. The judge highlighted concerns about Öztürk’s First Amendment rights. Soon she was released from custody, and Tufts announced that it would help her with housing as she continued her classwork there.
Although the U.S. justice system intervened in this case, it was a chilling instance of the Trump administration cracking down on Free Speech rights under the guise of protecting liberty by fighting terrorism. No evidence ties Öztürk materially to any Hamas activities. Although her position and arguments might frustrate, offend, or disturb some of us, under the First Amendment, she should be fully entitled to maintain and express them.
The Milpitas Beat has published multiple op-eds about Israel and Gaza, as well as multiple interviews with Palestinians living in the battered state. None of our coverage has taken the hard pro-Gaza stance of Öztürk’s piece; which is to say, we do not entirely or necessarily agree with her. We do maintain, however, that her right to hold and express these views should be absolute in the United States of America.
As publishers of opinion-editorials, The Beat witnesses firsthand on an ongoing basis how even mild or seemingly uncontroversial opinions can draw irritation and even ire from our readers. However, we maintain that the voicing of opinions creates the preconditions for the dialogue that helps to shape and nurture our society. No topic is more ripe for debate and high emotion than the war between Israel and Gaza. As such, it must be spoken about. And written about. There must be dialogue. And that dialogue must be open to all perspectives, including and especially the ones that test our preconceived notions.
These values are the ones on which America was founded.
To suppress speech in the name of freedom is to lose both.
The action described, and many others, demonstrate the fascist and dictatorial behavior of the Republican administration. If we don’t push back now, we may risk being disappeared for pushing back later.
BTW, it should be clear to all by now that Israel is committing genocide.
“fascist, dictatorial, disappeared, genocide” Note the adjectives used, designed to inflame the emotions and avoid logic, all without citing proof.
The uprising in LA should be treated as the beginning of violent revolution. The right answer, assuming you want to end this type of action, isn’t 2,000 National Guardsmen.
You have to respond in larger numbers with overwhelming force. Isolate the problematic area, detain everyone in the area. Hold them until they are cleared of involvement. Those found to have involvement are removed from society.
Local officials have declined to enforce the law. That is how you get this problem, tolerance of incivility, tolerance of violence, tolerance of extreme violence. It will end in revolution.
The local officials in LA and other cities declining to fulfill the duties of their office must be removed from office. They must be held personally responsible for the great damage to our society which they have gleefully invited. It is their gross criminal negligence in office that harms the rest of us.
For cities which have knowingly elected leadership like Karen Bass should be cut off from all federal funding. If that does not sufficiently dampen their enthusiasm, physically cut the revolutionary areas off from the balance of the country.
LA is a sanctuary city and California is a sanctuary state. That these jurisdictions have knowingly elected openly anti-American leadership is confirmation of the intent of the residents. We are approaching the moment when we must decide.
There should have been martial law immediately after ‘protestors’ were seen on an overpass throwing large blocks of concrete and boulders down on LE that had to hide underneath the overpass. At least one officer was hit. He could have easily been killed. Vehicles were wrecked. Many, but not all of those protestors are out to do great violence and maybe cause death make no mistake. Karen Bass and Gov. Newsom should be investigated and possibly brought up on charges of willful grievous and highly dangerous malfeasance to the citizens they were elected for and supposed to protect. One only need to take a look at the Marxist Karen Bass and her affiliations with Cuba in the 70s to know where she stands now. She carries this nasty luggage, but she does gladly to this very day. It shapes her very meaning, has nurtured her purpose. She has zero business being the mayor of one of largest metro areas in the country. She should be kicked to the curb and hard by the voters.