Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identitiesLondon, United Kingdom – Khadija* was just seven weeks into her degree when she received an early-morning phone call from her university, King’s College London, that left her scared and confused.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe then-18-year-old was told she had made “inappropriate and offensive remarks” about one of her lecturers, who had served in the Israeli army. Over the next five months she would go through a disciplinary process that would see her banned from attending the lecturer’s classes and ordered to write a 2,000-word “reflective” essay. She would also be considered for referral to the UK government’s “counterterrorism” programme, Prevent, which rights groups have criticised for disproportionately targeting Muslims and lacking transparency.This all took place last year after the teenager posted in a pro-Gaza student WhatsApp group, saying she had come across her lecturer’s public LinkedIn profile and felt “sick” to discover they had spent four years in the Israeli army and had reposted and liked content defending Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.At that time, Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had killed at least 67,194 people.Other students responded with protest suggestions, such as attending their lectures wearing Palestinian scarves or carrying flags, questioning the academic “intellectually” about Gaza, and showing images of slaughtered infants on the projector, according to messages seen by Al Jazeera and …
