The Abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk
Zionist Surveillance, U.S. Fascism, and the Criminalization of Solidarity
Tufts PhD student and Fulbright Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk was abducted off the street Tuesday night by masked ICE agents in unmarked cars—a dystopian scene that played out not in some far-off dictatorship, but in Boston, Massachusetts.
Let’s be clear: this was a state-sponsored kidnapping.
Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral candidate in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts, had committed no crime. Her "offense"? Publicly supporting Palestinian liberation. She was targeted by Canary Mission, a Zionist blacklist site that doxxes students and activists—especially women and Muslims—for daring to speak out against Israeli genocide.
According to her lawyer and community advocates, Ozturk was ambushed by ICE agents on her way to Iftar. Neighbors report days of surveillance. Her visa was suddenly revoked. Tufts University has admitted it had no prior knowledge of the operation, a chilling testament to how U.S. agencies are acting unilaterally, under pressure from Zionist surveillance networks, to disappear dissidents.
Her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, has filed a habeas petition. A federal judge has ordered that ICE must give advance notice before relocating her, and justify the need for transfer—an indication that even the courts are taken aback by the brazen nature of this abduction.
But let’s not miss the bigger picture.
This is state repression, full stop.
This is what fascism looks like when it wears a Homeland Security badge.
This is the U.S. acting in service of Zionist interests, silencing Palestinian solidarity through fear and force.
We all warned this would happen.
Students have been doxxed, banned, fired, deported, and surveilled—now they’re being physically disappeared. And unless we organize around real protection and security—not just hashtags and letters—it will happen again.
We must also confront the fact that Canary Mission is not a fringe site—it is deeply connected to Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, AIPAC affiliates, and far-right Zionist donors. These surveillance networks are co-producing repression with U.S. agencies. They are not passive observers; they are co-conspirators.
The question now is not whether this was legal. The question is: how far are we willing to let fascism go before we stop pretending we live in a democracy?
Because this wasn’t just about Rumeysa. This was a test.
And every single organizing space—especially campus groups—must respond by:
Building emergency safety protocols immediately.
Creating rapid legal defense networks.
Protecting doxxed students with full institutional backing.
Never backing down from naming Zionism as a colonial, genocidal ideology.
If you’re not terrified, you’re not paying attention.
And if you’re not organizing? You’re making space for the next abduction.
Horrifying. Our fellow Americans need to wake TF up and demand an end to our government doing this in our name.
I attended the University of Florida as an undergraduate and as a graduate student from 1975-1981. Florida was a solidly Democratic state at that time (I know, hard to believe.) I had the opportunity to meet students there from all over the world. One of my best undergraduate instructors was a grad student from Libya who carefully and thoroughly explained the social and religious demographics of that country in such a way that I can recall it to this day. I felt my educational experience was greatly enriched by knowing these international students. The fact that ICE is unlawfully rounding up these students and removing them to unknown sites is simply unacceptable. It’s very encouraging that the appellate court has upheld the temporary block on Alien Enemies deportations ordered by Judge Boasberg. We cannot let up on fighting against these Gestapo tactics.