Vermont Conversation: Dartmouth professor Annelise Orleck was arrested but not silenced

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Annelise Orleck did not expect that protecting her students would lead to attacks and arrests. Orleck is a professor of history and former chair of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. On May 1, Dartmouth President Sian Beilock called police to break up a peaceful student protest on Dartmouth Green. The students protested Israel’s war on Gaza and called on Dartmouth to divest from companies that support Israel’s military occupation. This was one of many such protests to hit university campuses.

In response to the Dartmouth students, New Hampshire State Police officers in full riot gear arrived with armored vehicles. Orleck joined other faculty and community members to stand between police and students. The 65-year-old professor was thrown to the ground and was one of 89 people arrested. Two reporters from the campus newspaper were also arrested, sparking nationwide outrage from press freedom groups.

The police attack on Professor Orleck made national headlines and the videos went viral. Orleck was charged with trespassing and was temporarily banned from parts of the Dartmouth campus. The ACLU of New Hampshire issued a statement saying, “The use of police force against protesters should never be the first resort. “Free speech and the right to demonstrate are fundamental principles of democracy and core constitutional rights.”

Dartmouth President Beilock apologized in a May 7 letter to Dartmouth students: “No one, including me, wanted to see heavily armed police officers in the heart of our campus… I am sorry for the harm this impossible decision has caused. “

Orleck has been a professor at Dartmouth for 34 years and is a renowned historian of labor, women’s issues and Jewish history. She lives in Thetford Center.

The crackdown on peaceful student protests is often described as a response to anti-Semitism. On May 7, President Biden denounced a “wild wave of anti-Semitism in America and around the world.”

“There is no place for anti-Semitism, hate speech or threats of violence of any kind on any campus in America, in any place in America,” Biden said.

“I don’t see a wild rise in anti-Semitism on this campus,” Orleck responded. “My Jewish friends who teach at Columbia don’t see this on the Columbia campus. I see some Jewish professors and students saying that the words “Free Palestine” make them uncomfortable. But I’ve been saying to people this week since I was attacked: Can we please stop ourselves from being uncomfortable with words and uncomfortable from being beaten and injured by men with guns who then drag you to prison? That’s unconfortable. That’s unsafe.”

Orleck says: “What is real is the wave of anti-Semitism that came from Trumpist America and the protesters on January 6th when they stormed the Capitol.”

“It’s a really scary moment. I am coming forward not only because I and my students were unnecessarily brutalized…but because I want to break the narrative about the protesters that is being spread in the mainstream media.”

Orleck sees the current approach as historical. “This is part of a 40-year right-wing attack on higher education as an institution that appears to be controlled by people with more progressive political ideas,” Orleck told The Vermont Conversation.

Orleck claimed that today’s student protesters are part of a “remarkable generation.”

“They feel that (the war in Gaza) is the moral issue of their time because it is a genocide. And I agree with them.”

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