VICTORY: The First Circuit just ruled that pro-Palestinian slogans, encampments and criticism of Zionism is protected by the First Amendment -- tossing out a Zionist complaint targeting pro-Palestinian organizing at @MIT! What the court found: Slogans such as From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free, intifada revolution, and calling Israel's actions a genocide -- and more -- do not target Jewish or Israeli students on the basis of their identity...

VICTORY: Yesterday, a federal judge concluded the Trump admin "used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities, and did so in a way that runs afoul of the APA, the First Amendment and Title VI." This echoes what we and others have said for years, that anti-Palestinian groups falsely and disingenuously leverage antisemitism as a smear to suppress political expression supporting Palestinian rights and liberation.

In Harvard's lawsuit trying to restore $3 billion in federal funding cut by the Trump administration, Palestine Legal is contesting both Trump's unlawful demands of Harvard, as well as Harvard’s discrimination against Palestinian students and their allies. We filed a "friend of the court" brief representing our client, the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), which Harvard has suspended and sanctioned.

THREAD: Today, the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing to call for investigations into the First Amendment protected activities of university students who courageously organized for over 15 months to bring an end to Israel's genocide in Gaza. Today's Senate hearing relies on the false conflation of support for Palestinian rights with antisemitism. This conflation allows for anti-Palestinian and anti-democratic actors to pretend to care about Jewish safety, while they really silence advocates for Palestinian freedom.

THREAD: In a dangerous escalation of repression, New York University (@nyuniversity) announced new student conduct policies last week that appear to prohibit criticism of Zionism. Here’s what you need to know. If implemented, these policies risk creating a hostile environment for Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish students and severely curtail the free expression of all students.

Today, the heads of UCLA, Rutgers and Northwestern testified in yet another McCarthyite congressional hearing over the Gaza Solidarity encampments and the speech activity of students and faculty advocating for Palestinian rights on campus (🧵) These McCarthyist witch-hunts in the form of congressional hearings have justified state and institutional repression targeting students and faculty for protesting an ongoing genocide that has killed over 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

🚨 BREAKING: Today @EDcivilrights announced @Columbia is under federal investigation for anti-Palestinian racism, including by inviting NYPD officers in riot gear to arrest Palestinian and associated students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 🧵 Palestine Legal is representing four students and the student group @ColumbiaSJP, who have all been the target of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow students, professors, and/or Columbia administrators.

ALERT: We’ve received several reports of the FBI visiting activists in response to their social media posts criticizing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. We want you to #KnowYourRights if approached by federal law enforcement (🧵 thread) The FBI’s discriminatory targeting of people who speak up for Palestinian rights on social media is an attempt to silence popular criticism of Israel. You have a right to speak up against genocide. You have a right to refuse to speak to FBI agents without an attorney present.

🚨 A Palestinian American student writes "free Palestine" messages across the UIC campus and is stalked by a @thisisUIC employee, who called police to handcuff and arrest in her classroom. Watch the explosive story here: cbsnews.com/chicago/news/u… She was held in a cell for hours while the university tried to charge her with a felony, which the Cook County attorney rejected before ultimately dismissing criminal charges.

🧵THREAD: The federal government has launched a long-overdue investigation into anti-Palestinian racism at @thisisUIC. As an institution that prides itself on diversity, UIC should be ashamed of its treatment of Palestinians and their allies. For years, @SJPUIC has called on @uicpublichealth to end its partnership with @JUFChicago, an organization with a documented history of funding anti-Muslim hate groups. jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/upl…

THREAD: As the US-backed Israeli bombardment of Gaza reaches unfathomable proportions, so has the war of repression here: since Oct. 7th we’ve received 1000+ reports from people targeted for Palestine advocacy in all arenas—but it’s not stopping the upsurge in solidarity. 1/14 The lead national story has been Congress hauling in college presidents in a McCarthyist display & passing a resolution equating antisemitism and anti-zionism, which is used to justify censoring any speech critical of Israel’s human rights violations. slate.com/news-and-polit…

THREAD: Are you a Palestinian student or a student who speaks out for Palestinian rights who has faced anti-Palestinian hate or racism? HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW 🧵 REPORT IT! We've gotten a tsunami of requests for help from STUDENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY whose schools are discriminating against them and failing to protect students against BIGOTED anti-Palestinian racism, from fellow students and even professors. This includes DEATH THREATS

THREAD: Across the US, people advocating for Palestinian rights are facing a wave of McCarthyite backlash targeting their livelihoods and careers. In the last 2 weeks, Palestine Legal has responded to over 260 such incidents. Here’s what we’re seeing. 🧵 We have spoken to people being fired from their jobs for sharing social media posts or signing statements that support Palestinian human rights, including the revocation of our client Ryna Workman’s job offer from corporate law firm Winston & Strawn, LLP. theintercept.com/2023/10/16/pro…

Palestine Legal stands with Fatima Mohammed, @CUNYLaw’s peer-elected commencement speaker, in the face of a racist, anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic harassment campaign exacerbated by public officials over her comments in support of Palestinian freedom and justice for all. 🧵 Yesterday, CUNY’s Board of Trustees and chancellor issued a statement condemning Mohammed’s speech as “hate speech,” a false accusation that flies in the face of the university’s First Amendment obligations and Mohammed’s principled words: www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2023/…

After months of Israel advocacy groups calling on the White House to adopt the distorted IHRA definition of antisemitism, today even the staunchly pro-Israel Biden administration declined to do so. Why? Because IHRA is wrong, useless, and clearly unconstitutional. Zionist advocates like Ken Marcus have churned out op-eds as a way to build external pressure demanding how crucial it is for the Biden admin to embrace IHRA and no other definition.

Tell the American Bar Association (@ABAesq): Controversial IHRA definition that targets advocacy for Palestinian rights should have no part in resolution on antisemitism! #RejectIHRA 40+ Civil and Human Rights Groups including @ACLU, @FMEP, @theCCR, @NLGnews, @adc, and @CAIRNational are calling on @ABAesq to remove reference to the controversial IHRA definition in a proposed resolution on antisemitism: aclu.org/letter/letter-…

Today we listened to a federal appeals court as they heard oral arguments in a lawsuit brought by the Israeli quasi-govt org Jewish National Fund alleging our partners at @USCPR_ , one of the oldest & largest Palestine solidarity orgs in the US, supports "terrorism". (🧵 1/9) This lawsuit was rightfully dismissed in March 2021. The U.S. federal judge who dismissed it described JNF's arguments as "to say the least, not persuasive." Why? It’s based on a wild legal theory with no grounding in reality.

What are the accusations in JNF v. US Campaign for Pal Rights based on?

The dangerous claims that support for boycotts is prohibited, and that because @USCPR_ expressed support for the Great March of Return, it’s responsible for “terrorist kites” launched during the March. The facts are: @USCPR_ is a grassroots org working for freedom & justice for Palestinians – collectively, through constitutionally-protected boycotts, public awareness raising campaigns, and other tactics. They are one of the oldest & largest Palestine solidarity orgs in the US.

How do Israel’s proxy orgs in the U.S. use baseless lawsuits to try and *crush* the Palestinian freedom movement?

Tune in to the latest in lawfare: Jewish National Fund (JNF) v. US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, oral arguments TOMORROW!

🎥 Link: bit.ly/USCPRArguments… JNF’s lawsuit aims to shut down Palestine advocacy work of @USCPR_ by making “terrorism” claims so flimsy that a federal judge dismissed them, calling them “to say the least, unpersuasive”. But the plaintiffs appealed & @theCCR is arguing in court tomorrow to dismiss it for good.

We are reassured to see @EDcivilrights do the right thing: #RejectIHRA, and focus on rising threats of bigotry & racist attacks by white supremacists. Antisemitism is frightening, esp. with the rise of rightwing nationalism & white supremacy, it must be fought in all forms. (🧵) A new @EDcivilrights fact sheet describes protections covering students who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, or of another religious group.

The Berkeley Law Palestine solidarity bylaw is in the news again.

An Israeli govt funded group partnered with a Florida-based attorney to file a complaint demanding a federal investigation into @UCBerkeley for allowing this solidarity action.

Here’s what you should know: 🧵 The complaint is wrong on both the law and the facts. It claims to represent the interests of Jewish students, but the lawyers who filed the complaint have no apparent ties to the @UCBerkeley community. So what do they want?