Dear Josie,

Earlier this week we shared that Palestine Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint against Northwestern Law, demanding an immediate investigation into the months-long, hostile anti-Palestinian environment. Read & share our press release below!

Next week, tune into an expansive conversation about U.S. material support laws and their impact on our movements hosted by the American Bar Association (ABA) Criminal Justice Section, featuring Palestine Legal Director Dima Khalidi! Find the link to register below.

Plus, we share our statement on the McCarthyist congressional hearing with Columbia University President Shafik. The hearing evidenced the hostile anti-Palestinian environment at Columbia University perpetuated by university leadership and administration. Read the full statement below! 

We also encourage you to follow and support the brave student organizers in Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) and sign onto their petition calling on Columbia to immediately cease the repression of supporters of Palestinian rights on campus.

Lastly, we share some of our recent media coverage in Teen Vogue and Inside Higher Ed, about the escalating campus crackdowns on Palestine protests, and our work challenging the suppression in support of student organizers. Read both articles below. 

In solidarity,

Danya Zituni
Communications Manager

Palestine Legal is representing four Northwestern Law students who have each been the target of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow students, professors, and Northwestern Law administrators.

Given the severe doxing, harassment, violence, employment consequences and more that Palestinians and their supporters are facing on campus and nationwide, the students wish to be anonymous due to fear of retaliation for filing the complaint.

One of the complainants has tragically endured the loss of 130 family members in Gaza since October 7, with an additional six taken as hostages by the Israeli military.

As a result of the anti-Palestinian environment they faced, the students have missed classes and limited their time on campus out of fear for their physical safety.

“Northwestern Law has failed its Palestinian students at a time where they are in most need of institutional support as they advocate for Palestinian lives in the face of a genocide. If the law school refuses to care about its Palestinian students, we call on federal civil rights officials to ensure their rights are protected,” said Palestine Legal’s Michael Ratner Justice Fellow, Rifqa Falaneh.

Chairwoman Foxx, members of Congress, and Columbia’s leadership failed to acknowledge or address the McCarthyist repression and anti-Palestinian violence and harassment targeting the rights and safety of Palestinian students and their allies. 

While Columbia President Shafik acknowledged “the war in Gaza” is a larger story of Palestinian displacement, this context of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is not reflected in Columbia’s racist enforcement of policies that criminalize students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

Shafik testified that the uni brought the NYPD and FBI to campus demonstrations for the first time in 50 years, rewrote university rules and “beefed up” their enforcement, which has led to the McCarthyist targeting and discipline of students and faculty.

This has included suspending student groups Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace – for which we sued Columbia along with NYCLU – and suspending and evicting students from their housing.

“Over the past few weeks, several student protesters have received criminal charges, expulsions, suspensions, and campus bans due to their involvement in protests for Palestine. 

The apparent suppression on campuses, while currently intensifying, isn’t new or recent: For the past several years, the organization Palestine Legal has represented and supported student organizers facing similar backlash. A representative for Palestine Legal tells Teen Vogue that, since October, the group has received 'over 720 reports of suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy on campuses across the country.'

The students who speak with Teen Vogue say they have no plans to stop advocating for a ceasefire and for Palestine. 'We stand unwavering in our demands, and we know that the things that have historically toppled apartheid states is pressure from institutions, like academic institutions,' says student organizer Amanda Dym."

“In some ways, the actions of the students and the college administrators resemble campus climates during the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam War and the apartheid era in South Africa, among other eras of social upheaval. What has changed, however, is the pressure politicians and donors now exert on college leaders to support a particular viewpoint.
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'By tying up dozens of students with burdensome disciplinary proceedings, the students are effectively prevented from pursuing their original aim,' Porell said. 'The students at Vanderbilt were extremely confident that their resolution would pass, but now their energy is diverted elsewhere, which is exactly what the University wants.'"