ASU suspends club over pro-Palestinian video
MECHA post drew police brutality comparison
Arizona State University suspended the student group MECHA de ASU after a Feb. 12 social media post compared police brutality in Arizona with U.S.backed violence toward Palestinians. Now, other student organizations are rallying to protest ASU’s decision.
Roughly two dozen people gathered on the lawn outside the student services building at ASU’s Tempe campus on Thursday to protest the suspension.
Pearse Kelly, a member of the group Students Against Apartheid, told The Arizona Republic that ASU suspended MECHA de ASU days after the club posted a video on its Instagram page drawing the comparison. The post was not visible on the group’s page as of Thursday.
Kelly said the school told MECHA de ASU it would have an update on its investigation into the post within five business days but that the club hasn’t received any word from the school as of Thursday.
“We link the suspension and investigation of MECHA to greater suppression of pro-Palestinian voices and organizations on campuses at ASU,” Kelly said.
Kelly cited the school’s last-minute decision to cancel a speaking event in November featuring U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress. Kelly also called on ASU to divest from various companies such as defense contractors Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
“ASU has an active role in supporting that genocide through its programs, through its internships and through its contracts with Zionist institutions or Zionist companies,” Kelly said. “So, we see that the next step is to restore the status of the organization for MECHA on campus.” Kelly said the suspension means MECHA members are barred from organizing events or being together on or off campus. Kelly said ASU claims it suspended MECHA de ASU for inciting violence against certain groups, but it merely called for the end of violent ideologies that promote hate speech and threatened students on campus.
“We’re trying to keep our students safe who are coming from oppressed backgrounds — including being Palestinian,” Kelly said.
ASU did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MECHA de ASU’s mission statement states, “Mechistas must take it upon themselves to organize and politicize our communities to build power to enact liberatory politics. This means not only combating the legacies of colonization such as capitalism and white supremacy, but creating a movement that centers Black, Indigenous, queer, trans and femme people.”