True. An indian muslim friend of mine is doing his Masters + Doctorate in Israel. His fiancée also got into the same program. Two-three years back, he was quite excited to go and study there and went full of optimism and hope to Israel. Last year, he came down for a week to get married. But he was so anxious about going back to Israel because of the open visreal hatred that some Israelis now have of Palestinians, and his own anguish and anger of the brutality of the genocide in Gaza. He felt frustrated that he was not doing anything about it. We commiserated with each other on how powerless such things can make us feel. And while I am politically active about it in my own country (anti-war protests), my advise to him was not to do anything about it, or to say anything about it while he was in Israel. To follow the golden rule of not discussing religion or politics with anyone, or even post anything about it on social media. To not even talk about it on phone when he spoke with any of us. And to just focus on his program, his newly married life, and if possible to get out of Israel as soon as he can. And that's what he has decided to do - focus on spirituality than politics, while he and his wife also explore options to transfer somewhere to Europe and continue their education.

See, "free speech", right to protest, and all the other rights that democracy entails is all fine and dandy - until you are a foreigner in another country. For all purposes, a foreigner is often a second-class citizen with fewer rights. And no country (democracy or otherwise) I know of tolerates any sort of political activity by foreigners. Indeed, many countries explicitly state so when issuing a visa that any kind of political activity can result in your immediate deportation.

That said, I am somewhat surprised that Donald Trump and the Republicans haven't learnt the political lessons on how Biden's unabashed support, and even defence, of the ongoing genocide in Gaza by the Israeli-right lunatics in power cost Biden (Kamala Harris, and the Democrats) the US Presidency ( https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/89703 ). There was deep resentment against Biden / Kamala Harris due to the harsh crackdown on campus protests ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/college-camp... ). And the fact that political tensions on this issue is still simmering means that even a single political mistake by the Trump administration could be the spark that ignites this issue in a manner that even the media wouldn't be able to cover it up under the guise of "anti-semitism" or "support for terrorism" or "foreign incitement".

> my advise to him was not to do anything about it, or to say anything about it while he was in Israel.

That’s a good advice. You’re a good friend. The universities’ international students affairs office should be telling these students the same. Yeah, let citizen students protest. If they break a rule, they’ll get a ticket or a slap on the wrist, international students get sent home and significantly lower their chances of getting another visa.