[2026-08-16] @MomodouTaal@twitter.com: Below I share some personal reflections about my time at Cornell University.

[2026-08-16] @EyeOnPalestine@twitter.com: I left the United States with my head held high. My exit was a refusal to become carrion for a government satiated by the blood of Gazans. In hiding, while fasting, I remembered that no sacrifice is too great for Palestine. Without a shred of regret, nor a waver in my convictions, I held then, as I do now:

I didn’t go hard enough for Palestine.

Cornell University decided that its investment in genocide weighed heavier than its commitment to its students.

During my time at Cornell, I was suspended twice, banned from campus, prevented and then prohibited from teaching, and declared persona non grata. During my time at Cornell, I was told that I could not pray my five daily prayers on campus, and that any medical appointments had to receive prior approval.

During my time at Cornell, I was effectively placed under house arrest. I was given a map dictating where I could and could not go. There was a bitter irony in protesting apartheid only to find myself subjected to its spatial logic. Eventually, I was hunted by ICE agents until I decided to leave.

At the time of my departure, life was uncertain and my future undecided. But I knew one thing: wherever life took me, I had stood on the right side of history.

Since then, I have been detained at Heathrow Airport, my devices seized and my DNA taken. My crime? Palestine.

Although I remain enrolled at Cornell, on June 10th I received an email: “Return to campus to teach or lose funding.” I cannot help but read this as a cynical attempt to deprive me further—or worse, to place me back within ICE’s reach. But I remain determined to finish. I refuse to let Cornell win.

Palestine remains the litmus test. My moral compass.

Kwame Ture once dreamed of something remarkably simple: “having coffee with my wife in South Africa; and mint tea in Palestine.”

There is something about the simplicity of that dream that has always stayed with me. To sit, to drink tea, to live freely in places where freedom had been denied. Ture's dreams remains unfulfilled. And they remain ours.

Ture was so real for that one.

Taal is interested in raising the quality of discourse around China in West Asia, and "multipolarity" (whichever of the 5 definitions people are using at the time). Taal has an interview on his podcast with Matteo Capasso here discussing China's capacity to "save the world". They discuss Israel's role within the US' strategic structure in the region without portraying the US as "corrupted". That is refreshing, but remember he has spoken at NY DSA lol. None of this matters without proscribing an effective mode of action.

They are a part of the same conversations as Radhika Desai, which is to say a network spanning from the DSA International Committee to the Valdai Club. They are either forming a coalition of progressive forces by performing occult arts upon liberal polisci brains, or sheepdogging me into listening to such nerds in the first place. I have yet to decide. I wasn't inclined to listen to Capasso based on his connections and some of the people published through Middle East Critique.

Taal's account may be under some kind of shadowbanning, based on the bugs which occur with Nitter instances trying to access his main page at posting time. The most popular online tools for checking shadowbans don't show this, so it could be an error, but I have no idea who runs those websites. Mental note to check that later.

That almost makes me cautiously optimistic. No wonder they want this guy out. He seems difficult to attack on a purely academic level. He is thorough.

EDIT: I mean look at this, it's beast moded:

Seems careful around the issue of Assad.