Federally detained Columbia University agitator Mahmoud Khalil’s case is “not about free speech,” a Jewish student told The Post — after his school, Cornell, was the latest to be caught up in disruptive, anti-Israel protests.
Sam Friedman, a 21-year-old junior at Cornell’s College of Engineering, was at the Ithaca, New York, campus’ Bailey Hall on Monday night when a mob shouted down the Israeli and Palestinian speakers who had gathered for the event entitled “Pathways to Peace.”
But despite the hosts’ noble intentions, and the participation of both sides in the conflict, including former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former prime minister of the Palestinian authority, Salam Fayyad, Monday’s talk quickly descended into chaos.
“I’m a big free speech advocate. I think free speech is really important, and what these people did at Cornell is the opposite of free speech,” Friedman told The Post. “They intentionally blocked people from speaking freely.”
The organizers of the protests and walk-outs at Cornell, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), now face suspension as a registered campus group, the college’s interim president, Michael Kotlikoff confirmed.
It comes as fury has erupted on many campuses across the US following the arrest of Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil on Saturday by ICE agents for his role in anti-Israel campus protests where sick flyers glorifying Hamas were distributed.
The Trump administration believes the US has legal justification to deport Khalil, 30, a green card-holding Palestinian who received his graduate degree from the Ivy League school in December.
It’s a position Friedman supports.
“In the case of Khalil being deported, this is not about free speech, it’s about material support for terrorism,” Friedman said. “It’s not about free speech when you’re vandalizing and destroying stuff.”
This week, Cornell University was one of six Ivy League universities featured on a list of more than 60 colleges under scrutiny from Trump’s Department of Education for alleged rampant antisemitism.
Other elite institutions named and shamed include Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton and Yale — as well as local schools Rutgers, Rutgers-Newark, Sarah Lawrence, three branches of the State University of New York, The New School and Wellesley.
Friedman was “not surprised” by the announcement of the probe into campus antisemitism at Cornell, where he said there has been an unavoidable sense of “tension” since the sickening Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.
“I wouldn’t say I was particularly surprised. You know, it’s a little disappointing, and to be fair, at Cornell, it’s not been as bad as what we’ve seen at Columbia in particular, but I think across the board it’s really been the elite schools that we’ve seen problems at, and we’ve seen those problems at Cornell too,” Friedman said.
“There’s always tension, like you don’t really know what’s gonna happen,” he went on. “It’s not been as bad as at Columbia, where they’re destroying buildings and blocking people from going to class, but you might wake up one day, go to class, and see there is “Free Palestine” graffiti or vandalism.
“There was a sculpture of A.D. White, one of the founders of the university, that was completely covered in red paint and graffiti.
“You go to a normal everyday event and it’s interrupted with screaming and yelling… It’s this constant tension.”
And he dismissed the claims of those protesting in support of Khalil who say his arrest and possible deportation are in violation of his First Amendment rights of freedom of speech.
“That argument is completely ridiculous for a few reasons, the most obvious being that these students that are suddenly huge champions of the First Amendment and free speech weren’t saying this before.
“You look just a few years ago and there were students who were accepted into Harvard and had their applications rescinded because they had a group chat with a meme that was considered offensive language, and that was sufficient for them to be kicked out.
“So this idea that they’re now free speech warriors is totally just a façade to protect what they’re doing, and most of what’s happening is not a free speech issue.”
Cornell has reaffirmed that the activists who disrupted Monday’s event now face suspension after 17 were arrested.
“The hundreds of members of the Cornell community who came to Bailey Hall to listen, learn, and respectfully debate experienced an evening of information, introspection, and critical self-examination,” Interim President Kotlikoff said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the event was marred by disappointing disruptions. The ability of speakers to present opinions and ideas, and to engage in thoughtful dialogue with the university community, is critical to the educational process and fundamental to university life. Individuals attempting to shout down speakers and disrupt dialogue seriously compromise our values. Those who disrupted the Pathways to Peace event were swiftly removed.
