Kenyon Students for Justice in Palestine (KSJP) has updated its constitution to formalize a procedure for removing members from its email distribution list (dis-list). Before this change, on Sept. 20, KSJP removed three students from its dis-list without notifying them. Now, Article III, Section F of its constitution states: “Anyone removed from KSJP private communication channels will be notified and given the ability to reinstate their membership to said channels by requesting an appeals meeting with two or more officers.”
In an interview with the Collegian, KSJP President Benji Rothman ’26 shared the reasoning behind certain students’ removal from KSJP’s dis-list. “We’ve seen a few people who signed up to be on our dis-list and who had published open opinions that were sympathetic to conservative causes or people that seemed as if they were for a type of debate that might invite prying eyes,” Rothman said. “Our dis-list discusses a lot of internal things. … If somebody saw that, decided to post it on Twitter [or] Reddit … then they could say, ‘Guys, counter protest at Gambier on this date.’ Then you get a blood bath.”
“There’s nothing personal about [someone’s] removal from the organization. It is based on our belief in [their] ability to compartmentalize,” Rothman said. KSJP decided to remove certain students from its dis-list in an attempt to protect its members’ safety. Rothman expressed concern about possible action taken against KSJP members who could be more vulnerable to legal attacks, including international students who could be deported. Rothman specifically cited the actions of the current presidential administration toward student organizers as well as widespread initiatives to doxx pro-Palestinian activists, such as the Canary Mission website, as reasons for concern.
“It’s very easy for somebody to just be privy to our private messages and then just share that with others, and we have no clue who it’s going to be. You know, we are living in a time where our peers increasingly serve as extensions of a surveillance state. They can report us, and especially our most vulnerable members,” Rothman said. “I’m not trying to silence anybody. I’m trying to protect my people. I need to protect my people. I need to take drastic action quickly, and that action is basically to make sure that any further information that we share privately wouldn’t be spread.”
One of the students removed for certain political opinions was Collegian Opinions Assistant Robbie Lifson ’27. After reading his article encouraging nuance during discussions about the killing of Charlie Kirk, KSJP deemed Lifson a possible threat to their organization. Lifson had not previously been involved with KSJP and did not recall ever signing up for its dis-list. Additionally, his article did not mention Israel or Palestine; it called on Kenyon students to “push themselves to find middle ground with people they typically disagree with.”
“I think if they were to have read my article and concluded that I am the type of person to doxx — I’m not familiar with what that process is — but I would say they misinterpreted what I meant to say,” Lifson said in an interview with the Collegian. “Conflating me with conservatism is incorrect. As an extension of that, the idea of labeling anyone who supports free speech or the free exchange of ideas as ‘conservative’ or as ‘a potential danger’ to any cause at all is wildly inaccurate and harmful to American civic culture, any civil discourse, any community you’re in.”
Rothman emphasized KSJP’s goal “to provide direct action and aid Palestinians domestically and abroad,” stating, “We’re a humanitarian aid organization … We’ve never advertised ourselves as a place of debate. And Robbie’s article felt like it was inviting debate. And not about our issue but about an issue which is in the same nerve cluster as our issue.”
Rothman explained that as an organization at a private college, KSJP is allowed to remove people from its dis-list based on any variety of reasons, including the things they say. Lifson agrees and does not feel disenfranchised due to his exclusion from KSJP’s dis-list. “I think it’s well within their right to decide who is and isn’t on their dis-list,” Lifson explained. “It’s such a meaningless act for the amount of explanation they have to provide for it.”
KSJP did not initially reach out to Lifson to inform him of his removal from their dis-list or to discuss his article. “At the time of the opinion piece coming out, we had no official policy, but we have since added one to our constitution. Moving forward, any student we decide to be a risk to those members will be notified and have a meeting with two or more officers. If they are found to be a risk to our organization, they will be notified of their removal from our dis-list and not allowed at future meetings,” said an active KSJP member, who asked to remain anonymous. “Our top priority is keeping our vulnerable students (i.e. international and otherwise marginalized) safe.”