The U.S. student movement in solidarity with Palestine is facing ferocious repression as the Trump administration revokes student visas en masse. Masked federal agents roam around looking to snatch students and faculty off the streets and send them to jail for their activism, including their mere beliefs. One of the students targeted is Momodou Taal, a graduate student at Cornell University who led pro-Palestine activism there and was suspended twice by the university. A dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the Gambia, he joined another graduate student and a faculty member in 

 the Trump administration for allegedly violating their First and Fifth Amendment rights by punishing speech and quashing political dissent. On March 21, Taal’s lawyers were notified that the State Department had revoked Taal’s student visa after Immigration and Customs Enforcement condemned his “disruptive action” and ICE requested that he turn himself in. Instead, Taal left the country on his own terms, “free” and with his “head held high,” and continues his struggle on behalf of a free Palestine, upholding the Pan-Africanist tradition.

Taal and Hammer & Hope editor Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

 Thanks for making time to talk. Where were you when you were first politicized about Gaza in particular, and what politicized you?

 In terms of my involvement or awareness of Palestinian advocacy, the earliest recollection I have, just because I searched my name and Palestine on my Facebook and I was posting about Palestine in 2008, so I would have been 15 at the time. It’s something I’ve always kind of been aware of by way of my religion, my faith — I’m a Muslim — but also to do with a hero I looked up to, Malcolm X. My radicalization and politicization always involved Palestine because I had noticed there was a common thread, common theme between so many of the people I looked up to who spoke about Palestine. I remember in 2012, my final history paper before going to university was about Palestine as well. Ever since that moment at 15, I have constantly and continuously been deepening my knowledge about Palestine.

I’ve always had Gaza and Palestine in my mind, and it’s always been a struggle I see as the last kind of stronghold of 500 years of European colonialism. As someone who’s from the African continent and knows what colonialism has done to the continent, I see this as a crystal-clear example. Knowing that colonialism is a global system, I know that Israel is the manifestation of certain colonialism.

 How would you characterize the response from Cornell versus that of the federal administration? What explains the similarities and differences?

 Cornell is emblematic of so many other institutions right now in that they are not realizing that the capitulation to the government — they’ve been capitulating and cooperating, and saying they’re cooperating with the law — often is in contradiction with protecting their students. And it seems so far that they would rather capitulate over protecting their students. But I would say a lot of these universities are actually in lockstep with the government. If Cornell and other universities were taking a stance not to capitulate, not to give up their students, essentially, and take clear, firm stances publicly, I don’t think the federal government would have been able to get away with what they’ve gotten away with.

Cornell is letting me finish my degree remotely so far. So far, so good. That’s a good move, and these universities are trying to navigate this tense climate. The federal government is presenting a mirror to the university in this moment, to institutions, and asking them what kind of place they want to be. Universities, especially in the United States, especially in the Ivy League, have become, for all intents and purposes, businesses. The federal government has targeted that as a weakness or pressure point: They can withhold or threaten to withhold funding if universities don’t do what they want. Given that universities have such large endowments, it would be better in this moment if the universities would, rather than think about profit, think about people and think about their students in this moment, especially those who are in precarious positions.

 Earlier you mentioned both your religion and Malcolm X as a figure you learned from and look up to. Is there a connection you see between the Black struggle generally and the struggle against the genocide in Gaza? Or do you view your involvement in the struggle differently?

 It’s interesting to draw the connections. We have to constantly go back to one of Malcolm X’s last letters, from the day he died, actually: He mentioned Zionism. The official declaration that the UN adopted in 1975 that Zionism is racism was pushed by and backed by several Pan-Africanist leaders. So the struggle for Black liberation for me is inextricably linked to the struggle for Palestinian liberation, and so many of my heroes and leaders said quite emphatically that they recognize Zionism as a form of colonialism. Given that we’re still dealing with the vestiges of colonialism as a system, we recognize it for what it is and see it time and time again. For example, the police that often come back and kill Black people in the streets of the United States are trained in Israel. We find that Israel has been on the wrong side of almost every single African liberation struggle, from South Africa, from Tunisia, from Algeria. So for me, Israel has continuously been an enemy of Black people, and I’ve often held that to be pro-Black is to be anti-Zionist.

 What do you think is the potential of the student movement in the U.S. or elsewhere?

 The student movement is a sign of struggle. If we look at history, student movements have been important to the ideological struggle and keep the struggle alive in many ways. Obviously, it’s not the most important; the most important is the struggle on the ground in Gaza right now and in Greater Palestine, in historical Palestine. But student movements, mass movements have not been on the wrong side of history. This is where we are now.

 What would you say to student organizers now who are facing repression or concerned that they will be targeted, whether in the U.S., in the U.K., or on the African continent?

 I’m not the one to tell people what to do, nor to tell people how to struggle and what sacrifice they’re willing to make. But we have to sincerely have some introspection about the type of world we want to live in. Can we really live in a world in which we witness a livestream of genocide with such a level of impunity? Where every single multilateral institution is rubbished and ignored? If that’s the world we have, fundamentally, that’s the world we have to reject. And what I’ve been saying is that it’s clear that Zionism will do everything to kill. So we must do everything in our means by any means necessary to stop this.

The targeting is expected. But it depends on, for me, whether people have conviction that there will be a free Palestine in our lifetime. And if you have that conviction then you will move accordingly, and that’s how I operate, and I would hope people will have the same level of conviction as well.

 What do you say to critics who question your focus on Palestine, who argue you should be more focused on politics where you live, whether they have in mind the U.S., the U.K., or the Gambia?

 My Ph.D. is on Africa. I work on Africa. I’m a Pan-Africanist, but my Pan-Africanist struggle is a part of a global broader struggle. When we center U.S. imperialism as the primary contradiction, the destruction or the removal or the lessening of the U.S.’s ability to act imperialistically is a net positive for the colonized world. In terms of my struggle, I was in the U.S., so I focus on the U.S. I believe you should struggle wherever you are.

Momodou Taal, a Persecuted Pro-Palestine Activist at Cornell, on Black and Palestinian Solidarity

It’s morning again in America. Federal agents snatch students off the streets. The White House boasts of banishing hundreds of people to a Salvadoran prison. Head Start and domestic violence shelters await the chopping block. The Trump administration is repurposing antiracism into a grenade and lobbing it at the remnants of the welfare state. But regular people are providing the varied, creative, noncooperative opposition to the neo-fascist administrative takeover that we need.

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