Jewish Voice for Peace at Cornell strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s newly issued executive order, Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, and calls on Cornell University to protect international students, staff and faculty whose visa statuses are threatened by the proclamation. This order does not protect Jewish students. Instead, it seeks to silence anti-Zionist speech on campuses and in communities across the United States. With specific reference to campus activities of the last year, the order implies that the protest and divestment movement is inherently harmful to Jewish students. As Jewish students, faculty and alumni actively involved in a cross-national movement, we reject that pro-Palestinian activism is anti-semitism.

The executive order calls for universities to “monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff.” Under the pretense of “combating anti-Semitism,” this executive order targets non-citizen anti-war organizers and activists, furthering a broader anti-immigrant agenda. We refuse to stand by as Jews are used as pawns in this right-wing authoritarian regime. We particularly stand with our friend and ally, graduate student Momodou Taal. As a prominent voice in the pro-Palestine movement at Cornell, Momodou has

© Cornell Daily Sun