The smear campaign has started.

This afternoon on April 12, I and five others (all people of color) gathered outside of Seigle Hall to peacefully protest the exclusion and erasure of Palestinian voices at an event run by Wash U Students for Israel. Although we were entirely respectful and peaceful, we were immediately harassed and threatened by the event’s organizers and attendees. The event organizers called at least six police cars despite the fact that we were only six and greatly outnumbered. When the police arrived they accused us of disrupting the event, and their hostility was unnerving. Had we been the ones to place the call, would the pro-Israel organizers have been treated in the same way?

As I was leaving the protest, I was followed by two adult event attendees and a police officer who stared at me the entire way to my car and shot intimidating glances as I tried to drive away. The police officer wrote down my name and license plate number despite the fact that I had done nothing wrong.

Following the event, Paul Felder, one of the two event organizers, posted on the event page, implicating us in making the event “unsafe.”

Unsafe for whom?

When I politely responded to the post, pointing out that it was my and my fellow protesters’ safety that was threatened, Paul [Felder] immediately deleted my comment. The irony is that when Paul protested at our pro-Palestinian event on March 19, we did not harass him, we did not threaten him, we did not call the police. We did everything in our power to ensure his freedom of speech.

As a Middle Eastern woman on Wash. U.’s campus, my perspective and existence is constantly either ignored or actively suppressed. It is ironic that I am being accused of violating the freedom of speech of others. In April 2014, a Palestinian poet was scheduled to speak on campus but Wash. U.’s administration proceeded to cancel the event at the last minute. A year later, the same thing happened when a Palestinian was invited to speak at the Missouri History Museum.

As an Iranian woman, Wash. U. would rather that I not exist. Earlier this semester, a Wash. U. student group led a campaign to lobby for a bill to “impose sanctions on the Government of Iran and Iranian persons.” The same student group petitioned Student Union for funding an event titled “Iranium.” The College of Arts & Sciences has cut the entire Persian Language department and fired the only professor of Persian in St. Louis. Wash. U. offers no courses on Iran.

As a human being, I am sickened by oppression masquerading as justice. Wash U Students for Israel invert the very concepts of freedom and human rights when they advocate for the perpetuation of military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They usurp social justice when they exploit LGBTQIA* identities for their own political interests while giving nothing in return and ignoring intersectionality. I wonder how many of the event’s attendees realize that the same U.S. politicians that advocate most strongly for Israel are also the most violently homophobic political representatives in our country. Also, what about the LGBTQIA* Palestinians?

My heart weeps for the injustice displayed today by my peers. Not only do I feel unsafe, but I feel disrespected and silenced. I expect better of people who hide behind the banner of free speech.

“The sons of Adam are limbs of each other, / Having been created of one essence. / When the calamity of time affects one limb / The other limbs cannot remain at rest. / If you have no sympathy for the troubles of others, / You are unworthy to be called by the name of a Human.”

–Saadi

Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to specify that the professor of Persian is not a professor of Persian descent, but rather a professor of the Persian language.