CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

“Their Chaos is Our Peace”: Fighting Zionist Repression in Texas and Beyond

Idris Robinson, giving his talk “How It Might Should Be Done.”

Last month, on March 24, Idris Robinson, a philosophy professor at Texas State University, filed a lawsuit against the university for wrongful termination and for violating his right to free speech. The University had decided not to renew Robinson’s tenure-track contract – despite his stellar academic reviews – after Zionists pressured the school. The Zionists were playing the same broken record: Robinson was “antisemitic,” and a glorifier of “terrorism,” for supporting the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Robinson became a target after giving a talk entitled “Strategic Lessons from the Palestinian resistance” at a public library in Asheville, NC on June 29, 2024 (as part of an anarchist book fair). While Robinson spoke, a confrontation started between Zionist agitators, who came to film the event, and some audience members. It later turned into a scuffle. Robinson wasn’t present for the scuffle (he had been escorted from the room, as noted in the lawsuit). He also did not speak at the event as a Texas State employee. Yet one year later, Zionist agitators managed to spin a narrative and get Robinson fired. As we will see, a closer look at the evidence – including newly released security camera footage – shows that they were the real aggressors.

Robinson’s story fits into a sadly familiar pattern of people losing their academic jobs over Palestine. Faculty members at several universities have been fired, suspended, or pushed out for supporting Palestinian liberation, including Steven Salaita at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2014), Maura Finkelstein at Muhlenberg College (2024), Jodi Dean at Hobart and William Smith Colleges (2024), Jairo Fúnez-Flores at Texas Tech University (2024), Lara Sheehi at George Washington University (2024), Eric Cheyfitz at Cornell University (2025), and Sang Hea Kil at San José State University (2025), among others. Students, who are often in a more precarious position than faculty, have also been expelled, censured, and in some instances kidnapped and jailed by ICE. All these cases are strikingly similar, with university administrators eagerly punishing those who challenge Zionism (or leaving them to be punished by other authorities).

Taken together, these cases are about much more than fighting censorship. They are also a test of whether our own networks of solidarity can support those facing repression. The systematic nature of the repression should also make us rethink the usual defenses of targeted individuals based on liberal ideals of free speech and “academic freedom.” As colonial and white supremacist institutions, universities were never meant to allow inquiry that is aligned with liberation. Anticolonial speech has always had a cost, and some are paying it.

A Scuffle at the Library

Idris Robinson is a philosopher whose work is informed by, and meant to enhance, liberation struggles. Since 2022 he has been teaching at Texas State University (where he is the only Black philosophy professor). Robinson’s talk in Asheville focused on lessons to be learned from the achievements of the Palestinian resistance. This discussion took place at the height of a still-ongoing genocide in Gaza, as Palestinian fighters resisted the Israeli army with bravery and tactical brilliance.

As Robinson spoke, audience members identified three Zionist agitators (two of whom are Jewish) who were filming the event. The audience confronted them, and a scuffle broke out. The crowd moved from the library conference room to the hallway and eventually outside. Robinson left the room before things escalated, and none of those present witnessed him participating in any physical confrontation.

The Asheville incident has been widely framed as a violent “antisemitic” attack. The Anti-Defamation League, a Zionist counterinsurgency organization, included the incident in its bogus “antisemitism map” with the description: “Jewish individuals were harassed and assaulted at an anti-Israel event at a library.” Multiple media outlets also incorrectly reported that one of the Zionist agitators is a “Holocaust survivor”........

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