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Suspending Student Protesters Would Be a Palestine Exception to Free Speech

We find no evidence that the current encampment has been any more disruptive than earlier protests. Previous protests have gone on longer. They have been more disruptive. They have employed the same methods — loud chants, controversial signs, tents — in exactly the same places. Indeed, a good case can be made that the latest generation of student protesters have been unusually restrained. And yet only today’s student protesters face a mass suspension. Such disproportionate penalties for relatively minor rule violations break sharply with more than 50 years of Harvard practice. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is an instance of “the Palestine exception”— a markedly lower tolerance for pro-Palestinian speech than for other speech.