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palestine legal
Legal Coalition Says Chicago Police Must Protect Protest Rights at Democratic Convention
"People have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights to speech and assembly, including rallying, marching, and demonstrating," the letter says, calling on police "to respect and honor those cherished, sacrosanct rights."
Aug 16, 2024
Chicago's history of "unrestrained and indiscriminate police violence" toward anti-war protesters over recent decades—including during the Democratic National Convention of 1968—is on the minds of peace advocates and legal experts planning demonstrations for this year's DNC, kicking off next week, against U.S. support for Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.
"We are a collective of progressive local and national legal organizations, attorneys, and legal workers writing to express our grave concerns about recent actions of the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and city of Chicago to stop protestors from demonstrating at the upcoming Democratic Convention," one coalition wrote in a letter made public Friday.
"We do not want a repeat of the violence and violations committed by the CPD during the Democratic National Convention of 1968, the anti-Iraq war protest on March 20, 2003, the 2012 NATO summit, and throughout the 2020 summer of demonstrations in support [of] Black lives," the coalition wrote to Superintendent of Police Larry Snelling and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
The coalition—made up of more than a dozen groups and over 50 individuals—noted that "CPD's protest-related civil rights violations are not just historical fact; they are the present reality. During the last eight months, CPD officers have targeted people protesting for a cease-fire and justice in Palestine with violence, verbal harassment, and unnecessary arrests."
"People have a right to exercise their First Amendment rights to speech and assembly, including rallying, marching, and demonstrating," the letter stresses. "We are calling on you to respect and honor those cherished, sacrosanct rights."
The letter specifically expresses concern about "recent intimidating comments made by Superintendent Snelling about arresting peaceful protestors"; "revisions the CPD made to its mass arrest policy were publicly released on August 8"; "Corporation Counsel's efforts to punish pro-Palestinian demonstrators in pursuing convictions for misdemeanors for mere ordinance violations for obstructing traffic"; and "CPD's communication of contradictory information regarding where people will be jailed and how family members and loved ones will be able to locate them."
WBEZ reported Friday that "protest marches are planned for the first, third, and final days of the DNC, which runs from August 19 through August 22. They're focused on a myriad of issues—housing, education, policing, but the cause expected to draw most protesters is the ongoing conflict in Gaza."
As WBEZ detailed:
As the start of the convention draws near, organizers are still advocating to make space for more protesters to get their messages heard. Hatem Abudayyeh, spokesman for the Coalition to March on the DNC, a pro-Palestinian group, is continuing to push for the city to extend the route from one mile to more than two miles in length for Monday and Thursday's protests to accommodate as many demonstrators as possible.
"We've got 150 organizations that have joined the coalition from across the country. We expect to have tens of thousands of people in the streets," Abudayyeh said. "One mile is not going to be enough for everybody to be able to practice their First Amendment rights and to be able to protest the DNC."
The new letter emphasizes that "despite the CPD and city's efforts, people will demonstrate during the DNC. We urge you to follow CPD's policies by a) allowing demonstrations in public thoroughfares; b) using the least intrusive enforcement action consistent with public safety including refraining from issuing dispersal orders and/or engaging in arrests unless all other reasonably available options for restoring public safety have been exhausted; c) in the event a dispersal order is required, providing protesters with ample opportunities to leave and instructions on how those assembled can do so."
"Should enforcement action be necessary, CPD must follow its policies and state law to ensure that officers cite and release people suspected of minor offenses from the field, as opposed to arresting individuals and holding them for hours," the letter continues. "It is cruel, unnecessary, and a waste of our taxpayer money to detain protestors for hours and possibly days."
The coalition—which includes the ACLU of Illinois, First Defense Legal Aid, Law for Black Lives, Palestine Legal, and the Chicago and Loyola University Chicago chapters of the National Lawyers Guild—also warned that "we as a legal community are organized and prepared to ensure that protestors' rights are honored and respected."
"If necessary, we will hold the CPD and other law enforcement agencies accountable should they eviscerate people's constitutional rights," the letter concludes. "Please do not force us to do so."
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DOE Investigating Columbia University for Anti-Palestinian Harassment
"Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of unequal treatment, racist attacks, or being denied access to an education by their university," one lawyer said.
May 02, 2024
Palestine Legal announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Education has launched a federal investigation into "extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment" at Columbia University a week after the advocacy group filed a complaint on behalf of four students and a campus organization.
"While the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) looks into all complaints it receives, it only opens a formal investigation when it determines the facts warrant a deeper look," Palestine Legal pointed out on social media. "The complaint explains how Columbia has allowed and contributed to a pervasive anti-Palestinian environment on campus—including students receiving death threats, being harassed for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxxed, harassed by [administration], suspended, locked out of campus, and more."
"Instead of protecting Palestinian and associated students when their voices are most needed to oppose an ongoing genocide, Columbia has taken actions to reinforce this hostile climate in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964," added the group.
"The law is clear, if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters—they will be at risk of losing federal funding."
Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath stressed that "the law is clear, if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters—they will be at risk of losing federal funding."
"Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of unequal treatment, racist attacks, or being denied access to an education by their university," the lawyer added.
Since the filing, which highlighted that Columbia University President Minouche Shafik invited "the New York Police Department (NYPD) onto campus for the first time in decades to arrest over 100 students who had been peacefully protesting Israel's genocide of Palestinians," the Ivy League leader has called officers back to the school for more arrests.
On Tuesday night, the NYPD "violently arrested and brutalized dozens of student protestors, some with guns drawn, using sledgehammers, batons, and flash-bang explosives," noted Palestine Legal, which represents Maryam Alwan, Deen Haleem, Daria Mateescu, and Layla Saliba as well as Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Columbia is one of many American campuses where administrators have called the police, who have behaved aggressively toward students and faculty nonviolently demonstrating to demand that their schools and the U.S. government stop supporting the Israeli assault of Gaza, which has killed at least 34,596 Palestinians in under seven months.
The Intercept revealed last week that OCR opened an investigation into the University of Massachusetts Amherst after Palestine Legal filed a complaint "on behalf of 18 UMass students who have been the target of extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment and discrimination by fellow UMass students, including receiving racial slurs, death threats and in one instance, actually being assaulted."
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—who has supported peaceful student protests and whose daughter Isra Hirsi was suspended from Columbia's Barnard College for protesting last month—highlighted the reporting on social media and some of the verbal attacks that students have endured.
OCR has opened a probe into Emory University following a complaint filed by Palestine Legal and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Georgia (CAIR-GA), according to The Guardian. The newspaper noted Thursday that complaints have also been filed about Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Emory spokesperson Laura Diamond said in a statement that the university "does not tolerate behavior or actions that threaten, harm or target individuals because of their identities or backgrounds."
CAIR-GA executive director Azka Mahmood said that she hopes the investigation into Emory helps "make sure that the systems put in place against bias are used for everyone across the board—so we can produce a comfortable, equitable place for Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students in the future."
The probes and complaints are notably being conducted and reviewed by an administration that has condemned campus protests while arming Israeli forces engaged in what the International Court of Justice has called a plausibly genocidal campaign in Gaza.
After U.S. President Joe Biden delivered brief remarks on the demonstrations Thursday morning, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and national deputy director at CAIR, said his "claim that 'dissent must never lead to disorder' defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice."
"And if President Biden is truly concerned about the conflict on college campuses," Mitchell added, "he should specifically condemn law enforcement and pro-Israel mobs for attacking students, and stop enabling the genocide in Gaza that has triggered the protests."
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Columbia Sued Over 'Retaliatory' Suspension of Pro-Palestine Student Groups
"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," said the head of the NYCLU.
Mar 12, 2024
The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of two pro-Palestine student groups at Columbia University which avocates say were illegally suspended for engaging in peaceful protests and other events protected under the First Amendment.
The suit—filed on behalf of the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—seeks the groups' reinstatement. Under pressure from people including wealthy pro-Israel donors, Columbia officials unilaterally
suspended the school's JVP and SJP chapters in November, claiming the groups repeatedly held "unauthorized" events including protests and teach-ins since October 7, when Hamas-led attacks on Israel prompted genocidal retaliation against the people of Gaza.
"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement.
"These student groups were peacefully speaking out on a critical global conflict, only to have Columbia University ignore their own longstanding, existing rules and abruptly suspend the organizations," Lieberman added. "That's retaliatory, it's targeted, and it flies in the face of the free speech principles that institutes of higher learning should be defending. Students protesting at private colleges still have the right to fair, equal treatment—and we are ready to fight that battle in court."
Maryam Alwan, an organizer with Columbia's SJP chapter, said that "Ivy League institutions should not attract students who value justice and equality if they do not want to be held accountable for the ideals that they claim to uphold."
"As a Palestinian American student, I should have the same right to speak out on my campus as everyone else—and no amount of targeted policy changes or illegitimate suspensions will prevent us from advocating for the Palestinian people," Alwan added.
Cameron Jones, a JVP organizer at the school, argued that "Columbia must protect all Jewish students and voices, not just those adhering to a specific political belief."
"The university's decision to suspend a Jewish group sets a concerning precedent for safeguarding free speech on college campuses," Jones added. "It not only took away our rights as a club, but told us that our university does not support or respect anti-Zionist Jews or their beliefs."
Palestine Legal staff attorney Radhika Sainath noted that "for decades, Columbia students have been at the forefront of speaking out against segregation, war, and apartheid and SJP and JVP sit squarely in this tradition."
"It is precisely because these principled students pose a threat to the status quo that they are being targeted for McCarthyist censorship, but the law does not allow it," Sainath asserted. "Universities must abide by their own rules and may not punish student groups speaking out for Palestinian rights in the moment when they are most essential—even if donors and lobby groups complain."
"For decades, Columbia students have been at the forefront of speaking out against segregation, war, and apartheid and SJP and JVP sit squarely in this tradition."
The Columbia suspensions came amid a nationwide campus crackdown on criticizing Israel or advocating for Palestinian rights. Some students have fought back. In November, the University of Florida SJP chapter sued state education officials and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over their move to deactivate the group over its support for Palestinians' legally enshrined right to resist Israeli occupation, apartheid, and other crimes.
Conversely, five Jewish students and two organizations last month sued Columbia and Barnard College alleging "particularly severe and pervasive" campus antisemitism, while a Jewish student at Columbia's School of Social Work filed a separate discrimination lawsuit last month.
There has been a dramatic increase in reports acts of both antisemitism and Islamophbia on U.S. campuses and in wider society since October 7.
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University of Florida Pro-Palestine Group Sues DeSantis Over Deactivation
"This attack on free speech is dangerous," said the head of Florida's ACLU. "Today it is pro-Palestinian students, tomorrow it could be any other group the governor dislikes."
Nov 16, 2023
The University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on Thursday sued state education officials and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over their move to deactivate the group for its support of Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, apartheid, and other crimes.
The
lawsuit—which was filed by the ACLU of Florida and Palestine Legal—seeks a preliminary injunction to block State University of Florida System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues' deactivation order, issued last month after Students for Justice in Palestine's (SJP) national body declared support for Palestinian "resistance" to Israel's war on Gaza.
SJP also asserted that the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed around 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers was "not unprovoked" and said that Israel's "apartheid, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate bombing, arbitrary detention, destruction of infrastructure, [and] 75 years of settler-colonialism are provocations."
"Florida's deactivation order against a Palestinian rights student group for exercising its free speech and association rights is a clear First Amendment violation," Hina Shamsi, director of ACLU's National Security Project, said in a statement.
"We hope our client's brave decision to challenge state officials' attempt to restrict student speech sends the strong message that censorship in our schools is unconstitutional," Shamsi added. "There should be no question that independent political advocacy—no matter its viewpoint—is fully constitutionally protected."
Howard Simon, interim executive director at the ACLU of Florida, said:
If Florida officials think silencing pro-Palestinian students protects the Jewish community—or anyone—they're wrong. This attack on free speech is dangerous. Today it is pro-Palestinian students, tomorrow it could be any other group the governor dislikes.
We recognize colleges are contending with how to manage increased threats and rising tensions on their campuses while keeping students safe—and we take the weight and complexity of these challenges seriously. But it is precisely in times of heightened crisis and fear that government officials, including Gov. DeSantis and Chancellor Rodrigues, must remain steadfast in their obligations to respect free speech, open debate, and peaceful dissent on campus.
The U.F. SJP chapter asserted that "as students on a public college campus, we have every right to engage in human rights advocacy and promote public awareness and activism for a just and reasonable solution to the Palestine-Israel conflict."
"We know we have First Amendment rights in school and we're bringing this lawsuit to make sure the government doesn't silence us or others like us," the group added.
DeSantis—a longshot 2024 GOP presidential contender—stridently
touts Florida as "the freest state in these United States" and a place "where woke goes to die."
The new lawsuit comes amid a nationwide campus crackdown on students and groups advocating for Palestinian rights and protesting what many experts call a genocidal Israeli war that has left more than 40,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing.
Officials have attempted to justify targeting pro-Palestine groups by pointing to the dramatic rise in reported antisemitic activity on campuses. However, Jewish-led groups including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow have been among the most targeted organizations.
At Columbia University in New York, both SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace were suspended, prompting hundreds of students and faculty to protest both in the streets and in open letters condemning the move.
"Throughout history, students have been central actors in ending segregation, war, and apartheid—and Students for Justice in Palestine sits squarely in that tradition," Palestine Legal founder and director Dima Khalidi said in a statement. "It is precisely because these principled students pose a challenge to the status quo that they are being targeted with McCarthyist censorship, but the First Amendment simply does not allow for it."
"As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza unfolds, we can't let elected officials and university leaders stigmatize groups speaking out for Palestinian human rights," Khalidi added. "The voices of SJP chapters are more important than ever."
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In 'Disgraceful' Assault on Free Speech, DeSantis Bans Pro-Palestinian Student Group
"How is this not a blatant First Amendment violation?" asked one incredulous law professor.
Oct 25, 2023
In what critics are calling the latest attack on academic freedom by the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the head of the state's public universities on Tuesday ordered the systemwide "deactivation" of a student group over its solidarity with the Palestinian people, who are suffering what many experts have described as a "genocidal" Israeli war.
State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues sent a letter to the presidents of the state's 12 public universities accusing Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) of condoning "terrorism" after the group's national body declared support for Palestinian "resistance" to Israel's war on Gaza and stated that "Palestinian students in exile are part of this movement, not in solidarity" with it.
The group also stated that the Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and soldiers was "not unprovoked" and that Israeli "apartheid, ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate bombing, arbitrary detention, destruction of infrastructure, [and] 75 years of settler-colonialism are provocations."
Rodrigues noted that it is a felony under Florida law to "knowingly provide material support... to a designated foreign terrorist organization," an apparent reference to Hamas—which the U.S., Israel, and other nations consider a terror group. However, many Palestinians and people throughout the Muslim world—including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan—view Hamas as a national liberation group.
While there is no mention of Hamas in National SJP's declaration, it does hail Operation al-Aqsa Flood—the name of the Hamas-led attack on Israel—as "a historic win for the Palestinian resistance" to Israeli oppression.
"Based on the National SJP's support of terrorism, in consultation with Gov. DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated,” Rodrigues wrote in his letter.
The chancellor said the State University System and DeSantis administration would continue working "to ensure we are all using all tools at our disposal to crack down on campus demonstrations that delve beyond protected First Amendment speech into harmful support for terrorist groups."
According to the Tampa Bay Times, there are at least five active SJP chapters at the state's public universities: University of Florida (UF), Florida State University, University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, and Florida International University.
The UF SJP chapter blasted Rodrigues' "disgraceful" order to deactivate the group.
"Gov. DeSantis continues to disrespect American values such as freedom of speech to extend his political power," the group said in a statement. "To bend the law in this manner shows the utmost disrespect not only to any pro-Palestinian organization, but also to anyone who truly cares for political freedom and freedom of speech."
The legal aid group Palestine Legal called the pending SJP deactivations "a blatant attack on students' First Amendment rights" that "will be challenged in court."
DeSantis' recent attacks on higher education include packing college boards of trustees with right-wing allies inimical to the interests of minority and marginalized students; banning state funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and critical race theory education; forcing tenured professors to undergo spot reviews; prohibiting courses that teach "identity politics" or that "systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege" are inherent in U.S. society; and signing the so-called "Stop WOKE Act" in an effort to combat "wokeness as a form of cultural Marxism."
At the K-12 level, DeSantis has signed a so-called "Don't Say Gay or Trans" law to prohibit educators from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity; rejected an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for allegedly violating the Stop WOKE Act; backed a state history curriculum that teaches slavery was "beneficial" to Black people; and required that every book in public school classrooms be vetted by a state-trained "media specialist."
DeSantis—a longshot 2024 GOP presidential contender—stridently
touts Florida as "the freest state in these United States" and a place "where woke goes to die."
Florida's crackdown on SJP comes as Israeli forces ramp up airstrikes and artillery bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip ahead of an expected major ground invasion. According to the Palestine Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks have killed at least 6,400 people—including more than 2,500 children—and wounded upward of 17,000 others while destroying over 177,000 homes and displacing around 1.4 million Gazans.
The ministry also said that 104 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 2,000 others wounded in attacks by Israeli soldiers and settler-colonists in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
One of Israel's leading Holocaust scholars has
called the relentless and indiscriminate Israeli assault on Gaza a "textbook case of genocide."
Earlier this month, UF president Ben Sasse—a former Republican U.S. senator representing Nebraska— lambasted students protesting Israeli crimes in Palestine as "abject idiots."
UF SJP retorted that "a campus where our students are insulted for standing against a genocide is a campus that facilitates an environment of racism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian sentiment."
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