Free Rumeysa Ozturk

A Tufts University student named Rumeysa Ozturk was disappeared off the streets of Somerville, MA yesterday for the crime of co-writing an extremely tame op-ed last year asking her school to divest from Israel's war machine. Yes all of her "papers were in order" to be here studying. No she does not have any ties to terrorism despite the lies the government are telling.

We have already long since reached the turning point. Today they are targeting people they can more easily lie about. They will lie about any of us when it comes to it.

Ozturk has reportedly been renditioned to Louisiana – like Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil and others – despite a federal judge in Boston ordering that she remain in Massachusetts until further review.

Does the Constitution still exist?

Free Mahmoud Khalil

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

I guess that question has been asked and answered.

A protest was held last night against her kidnapping. More on that below.

Yes this kind of thing has been happening for years but this one strikes me as different somehow. Perhaps because I love the city of Somerville so much (except for the traffic and the rent prices har har) and I spent so many years there surrounded by people like Ozturk from all over simply going about their lives working and studying and trying to make their version of our shared world a slightly better place.

Watch the video of her being abducted in broad daylight by six masked and plainclothes goons. Can you imagine how frightening that must have been?

Will it be long before so many others don't have to imagine it?

Now read the op-ed she co-wrote here. It is an extremely mild request that the Tufts administration take seriously legislation passed by the student senate. Unless you consider plainly stating the truth about what is happening – and is still fucking happening as we speak to Palestine – as by default incendiary.

Yes I know many people do in fact think that. Ozturk's lawyer has said she was doxxed by the informant network Canary Mission.

These motherfuckers. All of you motherfuckers who pretended students using their free speech rights on campus were somehow a grave threat. I wonder if this sort of thing makes them feel safer? I probably don't want to know the answer to that.

None of this shit even has the pretense of “homeland security” or whatever other lies they would typically tell. It is specifically about making it illegal to protest another country’s genocide. Not violently. Not even all that aggressively. Just saying please stop the killing.

Sorry to keep flogging this one but it keeps being relevant. This is it? This is what we allowed ourselves to be destroyed for? The ability to make sure some nice lady studying at fucking Tufts can't ask Israel and the U.S. to stop killing innocent people?

Meanwhile the Trump administration is sending each other emojis in an unsecure and illegal chat (that they accidentally added an Atlantic journalist to lol) hyping each other up about the brave act of killing 50 civilians in Yemen just to get one guy they wanted to kill.

Who exactly are the violent terrorists here?

This is exactly the maddening contradiction I kept writing about back in October of 2023. What kind of violence and death it is decent to call for and what kind is beyond the pale of rules and order. The formula by which we determine whether or not a killing is either justifiable or "terrorism" being the physical distance between the aggressor and the victim. Up close is barbaric but launched from far away is reasonable.

We are going to regret this

I’m not sure what else I was expecting to see after turning on cable news for the first time in a while this morning. Of course it was a parade of warmongers espousing genocidal and eliminationist rhetoric. I certainly imagined the drum was beating while I couldn’t hear it but

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

Being made to collapse

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip,” Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant said. “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed.” “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly,” he said. “All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and

Welcome to Hell WorldLuke O’Neil

After her abduction the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement without any proof saying that Ozturk had "engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans."

“A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”

We do not need to speculate that this is bullshit because we've seen them fucking up and renditioning people for nothing already. A former soccer pro's soccer tattoos being evidence enough to have him sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador. A similar fate for a farmer who had an autism awareness tattoo in honor of his little brother.

And look at this fucking broad. Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem with her hair done and her gold fucking watch doing a content creator video at the prison in question in front of rows and rows of shirtless shaved-bald prisoners in their bunks.

Does that invoke images of anything else to you? The kind of thing we're all supposed to be intent on never letting happen again?

God this is one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. I'm going to k__ m____ man this is Verhoeven shit and we live in Hell. I can't take it anymore.

Gabriel Martins was on hand at a protest against Ozturk's disappearance in Somerville last night. Please consider a subscription to support our work here.

And consider supporting the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism as well.

Facing Fear And Trepidation, Thousands Rally In Somerville Following Student ICE Arrest

By Gabriel Martins

Some moments mark a generation. Many of us grew up seeing images of the civil rights movement and Vietnam protests, but those are distant stories we are disconnected from. This week, however, we were thrust into it ourselves.

More than a thousand people gathered for an emergency rally on Powder House Square near Tufts University yesterday. Together, they demanded the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and graduate student who was arrested by ICE on Tuesday. Recently doxxed on Canary Mission, a blacklist website that targets pro-Palestinian activists, the 30-year-old Ozturk was sent to Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, with her captors possibly ignoring a federal judge’s decision to detain her in the Bay State.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday that Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” They did not specify what actions led to the arrest, which people in the area said came after several days of agents in unmarked vehicles surveilling Ozturk’s block.

Video from the scene of her capture shows Ozturk screaming as agents in plainclothes and masks approached her. One agent, dressed in a hoodie, removed her backpack and grabbed her by the wrists. Ozturk was then placed in an unmarked SUV with her hands behind her back, making her the latest high-profile pawn since the Trump administration’s promise to crack down on pro-Palestinian activists. This arrest, of a grad student and caught on camera, was especially disturbing, and spurred people from the Tufts campus and beyond to respond.

“It’s time to get trained and get organized,” one person yelled into a microphone at the Wednesday event. “This whole system has to go!”

Speaking to the crowd, organizers focused on individual rights and further advocacy. James Walkingstick, a Mexican-American museum worker who attended the rally, came to show his support “not for the injustices we’re seeing today, but to protect our freedoms for the future.” “I come from a long line of immigrants,” he said. “My family is indigenous, and we’ve been here for generations and generations, so I’m inclined to want to protect our people.” 

Another speaker informed activists about their rights, urging them to “shut the fuck up” when approached by law enforcement. They urged protestors to visit lucemass.org, a resource for demonstrators that has a defense hotline which warns people of ICE in their communities.

Antuan Castro Del Rio, a naturalized citizen and activist carrying a large Palestinian flag, said he wanted to establish a presence due to Ozturk’s arrest: “Justice is something that people ignore until it happens in the neighborhood. … No one thought this would happen in a school in Massachusetts.”

Castro Del Rio said it is important to demand justice for immigrants, and to denounce injustices committed by the Trump administration and ICE. “This is an infringement on the civil liberties of people,” he added. “Infringing on the civil liberties of anyone is infringing on the civil liberties of every single person.”

Castro Del Rio has been in the US for 23 years and was naturalized in 2013. He said while he doesn’t have fears about his citizenship status, he does fear for his community. “I don’t have fears for my citizenship, but … I do have fears for activists who become really active.” 

He continued, “Let’s not forget that where we were standing is the land of the Massachusett tribe and the Wampanoag tribe, people that lived here 12,500 years before any European colonizer set foot on these lands. So everyone, absolutely everyone, unless you’re part of the tribes, is an immigrant. No one is illegal on stolen land.”

Nearby, a staff member from MIT arrived with a group of about 50 people including other university workers, faculty, and grad students. He said they showed up because of the assault on students in the Boston area. “What we see happening at Tufts,” said the staffer, who chose to remain anonymous due to fears of employer retaliation. “That could happen at MIT tomorrow or the next day.”

The MIT staff member added that faculty has mostly been complacent and afraid to speak out. Part of that fear stems from what happened to MIT professor Michel DeGraff, who was prohibited from teaching a proposed course about the Israel-Palestine conflict in November. At the rally, the MIT employee said it hasn’t been safe for students or members of the public to gather on their campus.

“We’ve witnessed police brutality brought against students at MIT,” he said. “They allow people to come in and photograph them and monitor them that are reporting to extremist organizations targeting them. But at the same time, that’s not going to stop anybody.”

Madhura Sengupta, a counselor who works with college students in the Boston area, said that she was distraught by the actions of the federal government in Somerville this week. “I think … people feeling like, There’s nothing I can do about, is something that the government and the systems in power want,” she said. “I don’t feel comfortable just sitting back and allowing things to happen without at least showing up.”

As the sun set, volunteers handed out dates to those breaking their Ramadan fast. Cheers, rage, and confusion filled the air. Looking around, Sengupta said that people are nervous and scared: “A lot of my students are undocumented or just struggling to survive in this society. … I feel like it just matters to me to try to show up for them and support them any way I can.”

Organizers planned another rally for tonight, at Somerville City Hall at 6pm. They expect an even larger presence than on Wednesday.

This article is syndicated by the MassWire news service of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.