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Princeton University Issues New Guidance on Free Expression, Assembly Under Shadow of Anti-Israel Protests
People walk past Princeton University’s Nassau Hall in Princeton, New Jersey. REUTERS/Dominick Reuter
Princeton University has issued new guidance on free speech and assembly, notifying its students of what is expected of them amid an election year and a polarizing Israel-Hamas war that continues to set off anti-Jewish incidents on college campuses across the US.
“While Princeton does not regulate the content of speech, it may reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of expression to ensure that it does not disrupt the ordinary activities of the university,” the university says on a newly unveiled “Protests and Free Expression” website. “The university also enforces rules prohibiting discrimination and harassment. A wide range of protest activity is allowed, but protests must not create a hostile environment (or otherwise violate the law), or significantly disrupt university operations and events.”
The guidance covers a range of activities undertaken by anti-Zionist protesters on college campuses last year, which included illegal occupations of administrative buildings, unannounced “sit-ins,” and the circulation of antisemitic conspiracies about Israel which distorted the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and falsely accused the Israeli government of committing a genocide of Palestinians.
Princeton students committed many of these offenses during spring semester, according to the Daily Princetonian, with activists taking over first the McCosh Courtyard and then Clio Hall before settling on the Cannon Green section of campus, where they erected a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” The paper added that Princeton president Christopher Eisgruber’s administration was sterner in opposing the encampment than his Ivy League counterparts, stating early on that arrests would follow unheeded orders to clear the area.
Ultimately, he negotiated a settlement with the protesters, agreeing to consider divesting from Israel but refusing to boycott the Jewish state or amnesty any protesters who were arrested or disciplined for breaking the rules — punishments which, the paper said on Sunday, have not been overturned.
One of the who students whom campus police arrested in April, Aditi Rao, told The Daily Princetonian, that the university’s new guidance is “crazy,” adding, “Where else does one protest the institution than the home of the institution itself?”
She continued, “I think what the university is quite evidently attempting to do right now is to, for the 16 or so students that it knows are still viable organizers in the movements, create an easy reason for further disciplining.”
Eisgruber has also reportedly hinted that the university may adopt “institutional neutrality,” a policy of refraining from issuing statements on contentious political issues. During a speech which marked the beginning of the new academic year, he said, according to the Princetonian, “It’s not the job of a university or a university president to validate your opinions or to tell students or faculty members what to think about the issues of the day.”
However, experts have told The Algemeiner that while institutional neutrality would ostensibly lessen the extent to which universities promote anti-Israel bias, it may lead to an abdication of their duty to advocate principles which hold together the fabric of Western civilization and protect the academy from ideas which undermine the pursuit of truth.
When John Hopkins University adopted institutional neutrality in August, National Association of Scholars (NAS) president Peter Wood said the policy “empowers the mob by giving activists of popular causes the assurance that the university’s officials will not get in their way.”
He continued, “The ideal has proved delusional, and as a weapon it is easily used against reform as for it. We must call for universities to espouse substantive ideals of truth, liberty, and citizenship, even though they cut directly against the ideological commitments of many of higher education’s administrators and faculty members. This is a challenging task. But Hamas’s massacre of Israelis [on Oct. 7] has stripped us of many illusions … We must say forthrightly what virtues we wish our universities to champion. And if we wish our universities to fight once more on the side of the angels, the swiftest way to that goal is to teach them how to speak with courage by speaking so ourselves.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Princeton University Issues New Guidance on Free Expression, Assembly Under Shadow of Anti-Israel Protests first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.