Jennifer Ruth (@jenniferruth.bsky.social)

THE PALESTINE EXCEPTION FILMMAKER JENNIFER RUTH IN ATTENDANCEUniversities are meant to be places where ideas can be argued without fear. Yet as Israel’s war on Gaza grinds on, that ideal feels increasingly fragile. Across the United States, administrators discipline students for protest, lawmakers threaten faculty, and new visa restrictions target Palestinian students. These are reminders that the space for dissent is narrowing fast,The Palestine Exception looks squarely at this crisis of academic freedom. Through archival footage and candid interviews with scholars including Judith Butler, the film follows students and professors as they demand a ceasefire and divestment from companies tied to Israel. Their movement, already the largest U.S. anti-war uprising since the 1970s, meets a swift backlash, exposing what activists call the “Palestine exception,” where speech and assembly rights end the moment Israel is named.The film resonates with today’s headlines while telling a story of campuses as both refuge and battleground, of personal and collective histories colliding, and of the stubborn insistence that a university remain a place for truth-telling, even when power wants silence.USA. 2025Directed by Jan Haaken & Jennifer Ruth,In English.Running time 70 min.Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Presented with https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/the-palestine-exception