Amid the ongoing war over Israel and Palestine, several American-Palestinian med students have conducted their own protests in their respective universities. One of them, from Emory University in Georgia, however, has revealed that she suffered a rather dehumanizing suspension from the university officials, partly over a debate on why it’s wrong to send university doctors to help the Israeli army.
Umaymah Mohammad, 28, was several years into her medicine course at Emory University when Israel retaliated against Palestine for the Hamas-led attack back in 2023. Because of the war, Umaymah has chosen to lead the anti-genocide protests in her university and even criticized the Emory faculty for sending a med-school professor as a volunteer doctor for the Israeli military.
“One of the professors of medicine we have at Emory recently went to serve as a volunteer medic participated in aiding and abetting a genocide, in aiding and abetting the destruction of the healthcare system in Gaza and the murder of over 400 healthcare workers, and is now back at Emory so-called ‘teaching’ medical students and residents how to take care of patients,” argues Umaymah Mohammad, thanks to The Guardian’s transcripts.
According to Emory, however, this criticism has led to her suspension. Umaymah was even called for a university hearing in November 2024, where several professors testified for her expulsion, since the professor who was sent to Israel spoke up against her. While Umaymah didn’t name the professor during an interview with the Democracy Now! group, the faculty still felt threatened by the med student’s allegations regarding the service to Israel.
“They wanted me to never be able to practice medicine … [and] one was spitting across the table, his face red, yelling a lot. Who are you to decide what’s a genocide?” recalled Umaymah Mohammad.
Umaymah didn’t get expelled, but she was suspended for one academic year. The committee on Emory cited violation of the school’s code of conduct as one of the primary reasons why they chose to punish Umaymah, even though the school’s very own open-expression committee stated that the medical student was protected by Emory’s own free expression policy.
Umaymah Mohammad is set to return to the campus this spring. She has one year left on her sociology PhD, whereafter she’ll be returning to her MD program, which has been delayed by one year.
It’s Not Just Emory Banning Anti-Genocide Sentiments
It appears Umaymah Mohammad’s case was not an isolated incident on US soil since two other professors experienced a similar treatment from their university. Law professor Katherine Franke of Columbia University in New York and Dr. Rupa Marya of the University of California were essentially booted out of their respective universities for expressing concern about the presence of Israeli Defence Forces soldiers on their campuses.
Some of the Israeli students fresh out of military service were even allegedly harassing Palestinian students in the aforementioned US universities. The actions of the university officials and the presence of Israeli military on their campuses have partly led to the growth of groups such as Doctors Against Genocide, and one of their goals is to lobby US lawmakers to help Gaza, Palestine, with medical aid.
