An international student and instructor at Cornell University is down to his final appeal to remain on campus and in the country, facing deportation after participating in a protest against Israel’s war in Gaza last week. On September 18th, British-Gambian PhD candidate and instructor Momodou Taal joined a group of around 100 students in their demonstration at a career fair on campus featuring military contractors, namely Boeing and L3Harris, that are profiting from the United States’ support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 40,000 people in less than a year.
The University has claimed that the protestors “forced their way” into the career fair on campus and displayed “menacing behavior.” A video of the protest shows a group of students blocking the booths for the military contractors – beating drums, pots, pans, and cymbals to disrupt the event – but no aggressive or violent behavior that might directly endanger or intimidate those around them. The University has claimed that there were “medical complaints of hearing loss” after the event.
Taal had already been suspended during the spring semester, when he helped organize the formation of a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus. At no point in that process or this one now has he been accused of violent or antisemitic behavior. No other students were reprimanded for last week’s protest. In an editorial published yesterday, the Cornell Daily Sun said the Taal was “unjustly punished” by the university. The article also indicated that the school “may well have buckled to outside pressure” in suspending him, noting that Taal has been the subject of an intense write-in campaign pressing the Ivy League institution’s leaders to punish him for his political activities.
This second suspension puts Taal, an Africana Studies PhD, at risk of having his F-1 visa revoked, which would force him to leave the country with immediate effect. Explaining his situation on Twitter, Taal stated that his initial appeal to the VP of student and campus life, Ryan Lombardi, was rejected “after one business day” which, for Taal, indicated that his case was “being hastily handled without due process.” The PhD candidate went on to note a “change in tone” from the Ivy League school regarding his appeals, but that his next and last possibility to do so is to contact the provost by the end of today.
Taal’s case comes as American universities continue to crack down on student protest movements across the country opposing their schools’ support for the state of Israel through investments. Such actions have predictably picked up with the start of the fall semester, having briefly diminished over the summer. Just yesterday, 4 students were arrested after protesting at another career fair featuring military contractors at Temple University.
