Abstract
This chapter is based on ethnographic research in Silicon Valley about post-9/11 Muslim American youth activism and coalitions linking Arab, South Asian, and Afghan American college students. The chapter explores not only how campus activism related to Palestine is the object of intense repression, but also the site of cross-racial, pan-Islamic, and transnational solidarities. The experience of Palestine solidarity activism and the exceptional silencing of the Palestinian narrative in the USA, including in educational contexts, produces what the author calls ‘Palestinianization’ for Arab as well as non-Arab Americans. Furthermore, the inadmissibility of Palestinian rights as human rights forces youth to confront the limitations of liberal human and civil rights and explore alternative political paradigms.
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Notes
- 1.
‘Amnesty: U.S, Europe Shielding Israel Over Gaza War Crimes’, Haaretz, 27 May 2010. http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/amnesty-u-s-europe-shielding-israelover-gaza-war-crimes-1.292505.
- 2.
See reports compiled by Palestine Solidarity Legal Support: http://palestinelegalsupport.org/news-and-updates/news-updates-archive/.
- 3.
Ali Abunimah, ‘Climate of Fear Silencing Palestinian, Muslim Students at UC Campuses, Rights Groups Warn’, Electronic Intifada, 4 December 2012. http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/climate-fear-silencing-palestinian-muslim-students-university-california-rights.
- 4.
The 1964 Civil Rights Act can now be used to deem illegal criticism of Israel as expressions of the ‘new anti-Semitism’ on college campuses and deny federal funding to universities (Barrows-Friedman 2014, p. 98).
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Maira, S. (2017). ‘Uncivil’ Activism: Arab, South Asian, and Afghan American Youth Politics after 9/11. In: Mac an Ghaill, M., Haywood, C. (eds) Muslim Students, Education and Neoliberalism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56921-9_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56921-9_7
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