Tolan condemns USC protest response

In an April 25 opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Homelands co-founder and senior producer Sandy Tolan condemns “the disastrous, unnecessary decisions of [University of Southern California] administrators to call in police to squelch legitimate protest and the free expression of ideas” when breaking up a student demonstration against the war in Gaza.

Tolan is a professor at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and author of two books about Palestine and Israel, The Lemon Tree and Children of the Stone.

“Universities exist to advance knowledge, independent thinking and an open exchange of ideas,” he writes. “But USC is criminalizing protest and speech with the Orwellian charge of trespassing.” 

Read the full piece here.