KARACHI: Writer Fatima Bhutto has made an appeal to Barnard College in light of suspensions, expulsions and threats made to students for their participation in pro-Palestine protests on campus.

Columnist and activist recalled her own time at Barnard in video shared on Instagram, recounting how she and other students were able to partake in protests on campus without facing disciplinary actions for exercising their rights. Bhutto graduated from Barnard in 2004. She majored in Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

“When I was student at Barnard second Intifada had broken out and Israeli occupation forces then, as they are now, committed grave acts of violence,” she said in video. “I went to protests on Barnard campus on Columbia campus. I went to strikes, sit-ins and teach-ins, and never once got expelled, suspended or threatened with disciplinary charges,” The New Kings of the World writer shared. Bhutto said that Barnard students today are doing what they’re doing out of enormous moral courage and clarity. “They are standing up against crime of century. This is crime of our lifetime. And all those students are acting, not out of just moral courage and clarity, but out of heart and duty to social justice.” She urged college to pardon students and drop all disciplinary actions against them in order to be on right side of history. “I’d like to ask Barnard, as graduate myself, to grant amnesty to all student protesters, to drop disciplinary charges, to reverse suspensions, and to stop expulsions. Barnard, if it wants to be on right side of history has to protect its students and protect those students who are fighting for just world for all people and all Palestinians,” she concluded.