Sereen Haddad is a bright young woman. At 20 years old, she just finished a four-year degree in psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in only three years, earning the highest honors along the way. Yet, despite her accomplishments, she still can’t graduate. Her diploma is being withheld by the university, “not because I didn’t complete the requirements”, she told me, “but because I stood up for Palestinian life.”
Haddad, who is Palestinian American, had been raising awareness on her campus about the Palestinian fight for freedom as part of her university’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The struggle is also personal for her. With roots in Gaza, she has lost more than 200 members of her extended family to Israel’s war.
She was part of a group of VCU students and supporters who attempted to set up an encampment in April 2024. The university called in the police that same night. Protestors were pepper sprayed and brutalized, and 13 were arrested. Haddad was not charged, but she was taken to the hospital “because of the head trauma that I endured”, she told me. “I was bleeding. I was bruised. Cuts everywhere. The police slammed me down on the concrete, like, six different times.”
But last year’s attempted encampment wasn’t even the reason Haddad’s degree is being withheld. This year’s peaceful memorial of it was. And how that scenario played out, with the university and campus police constantly changing the rules, illustrates something worrisome far beyond the leafy confines of an American campus.
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Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians in Gaza early on Friday, while a hospital said another 20 people died in shootings while waiting for aid.
An 83-year-old retired priest has been arrested for defying a newly enforced ban on pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action, just hours after the group was formally outlawed by the UK government.
President Trump is enacting a mass deportation campaign promised to be the largest in U.S. history. New data is giving a clearer picture of exactly what that looks like: at least 56,000 immigrants are being held in ICE detention.
The Israeli military intensified strikes throughout Gaza on Friday, even as President Trump signaled that talks about a potential 60-day ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas were close.
