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Purdue student news organization removes pro-Palestinian students’ identities

Last Updated 6 days by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — The Exponent, a student-run Purdue news organization, scrubs all names, images, and references to pro-Palestinian students in the wake of President Trump’s executive orders.

Jan. 29, Trump signed an executive order aimed to curtail antisemitism on college campuses. Speaking in reference to pro-Palestinian protests on school campuses across the country, the executive order says, “Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities … and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault.”

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Trump’s executive order will “marshal all federal resources” to start investigations, and punishments reaching up to deportation of noncitizens and revoking student visas for international students, into students who attended pro-Palestinian protests.

The Exponent “refuses to be a party to such a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of potentially hundreds of Purdue students,” the editorial staff said in the announcement. “That’s why, to protect the identities of pro-Palestinian students, we are removing the names, images and likeness of every such student from our website published since Oct. 7, 2023.”

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The organization pledged to refrain from publishing pro-Palestinian student identities “until this autocratic attack on free speech is overturned.”

The Exponent raised concerns with the Trump administration’s accompanying fact sheet to the executive order.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you. I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before,” the fact sheet says.

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In response to Trump, the editorial staff at The Exponent wrote, “When letters of visa revocation arrive in these students’ mailboxes and federal agents come to Purdue’s campus, no distinction will be made between ‘pro-jihadist’ and pro-Palestinian. Pro-ceasefire will continue to be conflated with ‘antisemitic.’ Anti-war can only now mean ‘pro-Hamas.’”

The Exponent pledges to continue reporting on pro-Palestinian protests, but without revealing identities. If you’ve been identified as a pro-Palestinian student, and The Exponent has not yet removed your likeness, they ask you to contact editor@purdueexponent.org.