A Kentucky legislator basically called a UK student a terrorist. It’s a new low. | Opinion
The Kentucky General Assembly astounds, amazes and horrifies on a regular basis, but it hit a new low on Tuesday when an elected representative basically called a University of Kentucky student a “terrorist” for wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf, also known as a keffiyeh.
It came at the end of a tumultuous hearing on a resolution from, need I say it? Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, the empress of reactionary right-wing garbage, to combat antisemitism on university campuses.
As opponents of the bill pointed out, this kind of legislation is more of a Trumpian crackdown on students’ First Amendment rights to criticize the Israeli government’s response after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on innocent civilians. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since then.
It is not antisemitic to criticize the Israeli government, even if Donald Trump and Tichenor think it is.
According to my colleague Alex Acquisto, near the end of the meeting, Rep. Steve Bratcher asked Logan Robertson, president of UK’s Students for Justice in Palestine, if he knew who else typically wears keffiyehs.
“Pro-Palestinian organizations within the U.S. often use it, as well as organizations that fight for Palestinian rights throughout the world, human rights,” said Robertson, who clearly knows a lot more about Middle Eastern politics than Bratcher or Tichenor.
“In other words, terrorists,” Bratcher, an Elizabethtown Republican, shot back.
“It’s not terrorist to defend human rights, sir,” Robertson said.
On the bright side, UK is clearly doing something right with its students. And it’s always fun to watch a dignified, articulate student show up a rude, overbearing legislator with facts and politeness.
But this is far more serious because of where resolutions like these are headed against the backdrop of an increasingly autocratic bent toward dissent.
Take the very ominous case of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident of the United States who is married to a U.S. citizen. He’s also a recent graduate of Columbia University, where he helped lead campus protests against high civilian casualties in Gaza.
He was arrested by ICE on March 8 and sent to a detention center in Louisiana. A federal judge in New York has stopped his deportation until he can review the legality of the case.
It’s unclear exactly what the charges are against Khalil. But it’s very clear the Trump administration is trying to punish speech they don’t like, and sending a message that even people here legally could be in trouble for also legal protest on college campuses and elsewhere.
Trump also wants free rein to let loose federal troops on protests he doesn’t like, as he threatened to do to Black Lives Matter protesters in his first administration.
For a political movement that constantly complains about censorship, it’s interesting that shutting down free speech is such a go-to for the Trump administration, and folks like Tichenor, who is part of the Kentucky-Israel caucus.
She and Bratcher at least got a good schooling from Roberson and Louisville for Palestine member Siera Hanks, who is Jewish.
“To silence criticism of the Israeli state does not make Jewish students safer,” she added.
“If your goal is to undergird suppressive legal claims against post-secondary students and academics studying Palestinian, Israeli and Jewish histories, and organizing in opposition to occupation and war crimes perpetrated by the current state of Israel, then I ask that you say that, and stop claiming that this is for our protection.”
This is about silencing universities, students, and anyone who disagrees with the Trump administration writ large and their lickspittle wannabes in places like Kentucky.
As for Bratcher, he may have thought he would get a pat on the head from Trump by bullying a college student on live TV.
Instead he showed himself to be below contempt, and the only one worthy of cancellation.
This story was originally published March 12, 2025 at 12:45 PM.
