Cornell Student Facing Deportation Felt Drawn to Protest

Momodou Taal, the British-Gambian Ph.D.student who faces possible deportation for his pro-Palestinian activism at Cornell, said he never envisioned becoming embroiled in an American protest movement when he arrived on campus in 2022.He had been mostly content to study, teach and work on his dissertation, a look at sovereignty and political economy in Guinea.Even so, politics ran in his family — he is the great-grandson of Gambia’s first president, Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara — and he has been interested in the Palestinian cause since he was a teenager.He studied Arabic and Sharia law in Cairo.

And when war broke out in Gaza, Mr.Taal, 31, found himself increasingly drawn to the protests on Cornell’s campus, he said in a phone interview this week.On the day of the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023, Mr.

Taal posted online, “Glory to the Resistance.” Cornell suspended him twice for his activities in the year that followed.When dozens of tents went up on the campus lawn as part of an effort to get the school to divest its holdings in companies supporting the conflict, he was among the group’s leaders who refused to disband for two weeks.Later, he was suspended for participating in an unruly protest.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe....