[News] A Pro-Israel Lawyer Is Weaponizing Public Records Law Against Palestinian Activists

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://theintercept.com/2021/03/06/palestine-israel-students-ucla-public-records/
A
Pro-Israel Lawyer Is Weaponizing Public Records Law Against Palestinian
Activists
Alex Kane - March 6, 2021
------------------------------

*Kanwalroop Singh had* just finished presenting at the 2018 Students for
Justice in Palestine conference
<https://dailybruin.com/2018/11/18/national-students-for-justice-in-palestine-conference-goes-on-despite-on-campus-protest>
at the University of California, Los Angeles when a student journalist
asked her for an interview.

Singh, a Sikh American who at the time was a law student at UCLA, agreed.
She spoke
<https://femmagazine.com/reflecting-on-the-2018-students-for-justice-in-palestine-conference/>
to a student-run feminist magazine about her workshop on the Palestinian
and Kashmiri struggles for justice at the conference, which brought
together students from across the country to strategize on how to advance
the campus movement for Palestinian human rights.

“I didn’t think about the consequences. I thought, ‘It shouldn’t be a
problem. It’s a small feminist magazine,’” said Singh.

A few days after the article was published, while looking herself up on
Google as she applied for jobs, she noticed that she had a profile on Canary
Mission
<https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/>,
a website that blacklists Palestinian rights activists by creating dossiers
on them and labeling them anti-Semites and supporters of terrorism. The
profile contained links to all her social media accounts and noted that she
had led a workshop at the 2018 conference, which Canary Mission claimed
“celebr[ated] violence.”

Most of the other 65 presenters at the conference had feared being
similarly blacklisted and did not want to face online harassment, denial of
jobs, and being banned by Israeli authorities from entering
Israel-Palestine. Canary Mission’s impact is by now well documented
<https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/>:
Students say that it has harmed their mental health and impeded their
desire to get more involved in the Palestinian rights movement. In some
cases, FBI agents have relied on information compiled by Canary Mission
while questioning activists
<https://theintercept.com/2018/06/24/students-for-justice-in-palestine-fbi-sjp/>,
and Palestinian
Americans have been denied entry to visit Israel-Palestine because
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-said-to-use-canary-mission-blacklist-to-bar-visitors/>of
their Canary Mission profiles.

[image: Law-School-Photo-UCLA]

Kanwalroop Singh photographed on the UCLA campus, then a student, in 2017.

Photo: Courtesy Kanwalroop Singh

In the lead-up to the 2018 conference, which had drawn scrutiny from
elected officials and law enforcement, Students for Justice in Palestine,
or SJP, activists asked UCLA’s administration to keep the names of
presenters anonymous. UCLA agreed, and for the most part, their anonymity
held.

Now the students’ anonymity is at risk, thanks to a public records lawsuit
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/6014444ec532025118705edd/1611940951321/2019.8.22+Abrams+Complaint.pdf>
filed by right-wing Israel advocate and attorney David Abrams
<https://palestinelegal.org/who-is-david-abrams>, who runs a group called
the Zionist Advocacy Center. Abrams
<https://inthesetimes.com/features/BDS-movement-Israel-Palestine-activists-boycott-occupation.html>
is also a registered foreign agent
<https://efile.fara.gov/docs/6676-Exhibit-AB-20201129-6.pdf> for an Israeli
government-backed legal organization which has helped file lawsuits against
<https://www.facebook.com/ZionistAdvocacyCenter/posts/2114364732211056>city
<https://www.facebook.com/ZionistAdvocacyCenter/posts/2114364732211056>
governments
<https://www.facebook.com/ZionistAdvocacyCenter/posts/2114364732211056>
that have criticized Israel and against Palestinian rights activists
<https://www.972mag.com/jnf-lawsuit-us-campaign-palestinian-rights/>. The
case is set to be decided after oral arguments in the Los Angeles County
Superior Court take place on March 11, though both sides expect
<https://www.facebook.com/ZionistAdvocacyCenter/posts/2723121004668756> an
appeal, whatever the judge’s decision.

“Canary Mission is well resourced and good at what it’s trying to do, which
is ruin the lives of people who speak about Palestine.”

The lawsuit is a test case for whether right-wing Israel advocates can
exploit public records laws meant to promote government accountability in
order to undermine the Palestinian rights movement by erasing activists’
anonymity. In filing the lawsuit, Abrams has joined the ranks of those who
exploit public records laws against their ideological opponents, a tool
that has hit climate scientists, labor studies departments, abortion
clinics, and agricultural researchers, among others. Because they are
public institutions, public universities are subject to such requests.

“It’s targeting not action by the government but actions by private actors.
It’s not trying to examine the workings of government, which is why public
record laws exist,” said Zoha Khalili, staff attorney at Palestine Legal, a
group that defends the free speech rights of Palestinian rights advocates.
“It’s just private information about private individuals privately renting
space on campus.”

The case also serves as a stark reminder of what often gets ignored amid
the national debate over “cancel culture” and free speech: Palestinian
rights activists are perhaps the most likely
<https://theintercept.com/2020/10/04/israel-palestine-blacklists-canary-mission/>
to suffer consequences for their political views.

“Canary Mission is well resourced and good at what it’s trying to do, which
is ruin the lives of people who speak about Palestine,” said Singh, the
former law student. “Because of that, it’s even scarier and more important
that people’s anonymity be protected so they’re able to live their lives
and learn about the things they want to learn about and speak about the
things they want to speak about.”

*In the run-up* to the SJP gathering, UCLA was bombarded with calls by
Israel advocates to get the gathering canceled.

In October 2018, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., sent a letter
<https://www.thefire.org/rep-brad-sherman-letter-to-the-university-of-california-los-angeles-october-11-2018/>
to UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, expressing concern over a conference he
claimed would promote anti-Semitism and warning that allowing the
conference to go forward may be in violation of a federal law prohibiting
federally funded educational institutions from engaging in discrimination.
(Sherman claimed that because the conference was only letting in a select
group of SJP members, it would exclude Jewish students, though Jewish SJP
members did attend the gathering.)

In November, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to call on UCLA
<https://dailybruin.com/2018/11/08/la-city-council-calls-on-ucla-to-cancel-students-for-justice-in-palestine-event>
to nix the conference.

Abrams joined the pressure campaign on November 6, when he sent a letter to
UCLA claiming
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/60147c11dafefd7835352594/1611955219894/UCLA+to+petitioner+1114.pdf>that
the university risked its federal funding if it allowed the conference to
go ahead because, he alleged, SJP had connections to federally designated
terrorist organizations.

As the lobbying campaign intensified, the UCLA Police Department shared
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/6014506e55b13a3653574c69/1611944051287/UCLAPD112.pdf>
a list of “possible speakers” at the conference with the FBI, even though
the department did not yet know who the speakers would be. In a memo
prepared by the police department and released as a result of the public
records lawsuit against UCLA, the police noted that the FBI had
investigated “several of the figures” due to their “high profile activism
and ties to Palestinian groups.” The police department also noted that “no
charges were filed and there are no active investigations.” After the UCLA
police received a list of confirmed speakers, the department again
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/601450afae488176c6ebc3f9/1611944119059/UCLAPD1113.pdf>
shared a list of names with the FBI and checked to see if conference
speakers’ names were on the U.N. Security Council’s sanctions list and the
U.S. Treasury Department’s “Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked
Persons” list. None of the conference speakers’ names showed up on those
lists, and the UCLA police again noted that “there are no open
investigations regarding SJP, the speakers, panelists and workshop
leaders.” The UCLA Police Department declined to comment on its outreach to
the FBI, citing pending litigation.

The intense scrutiny led conference organizers to adopt strict security
measures. Attendees were told not to throw name tags in the trash to reduce
the risk of opponents finding out who they were. To move between buildings
on campus, students walked together for protection and covered their faces.
On the last day of the conference, about 100 pro-Israel activists rallied
outside the conference, and one Israel advocate, holding an Israeli flag,
interrupted the conference and hopped on stage before being shouted down.

“It was pretty bizarre,” said Irom Thockchom, a member of UCLA’s SJP
chapter, who helped organize the conference. “At one point, protesters
surrounded my car as I was driving to the venue to drop off supplies. They
were taking pictures of me and some other people who were in the car,
including an elderly Palestinian woman in the car who said, ‘This feels
like Palestine.’”

[image: Members of the Jewish community and their allies protest
anti-Semitism and the upcoming National Students for Justice in Palestine
conference at the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California on November 6,
2018. The Los Angeles City Council called on UCLA to cancel the NSJP
conference over fears that it will promote anti-Semitism. (Photo by Ronen
Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images)]

Protestors are seen on the UCLA campus ahead of the the National Students
for Justice in Palestine conference in in Los Angeles, Calif., on November
6, 2018.

Photo: Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images

*Prior to the* event, on November 15, Abrams filed a public records request
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/60147bb834e2b3477bd1b4e8/1611955129020/Petitionerrequest.pdf>
asking for emails and contracts related to the planning of the conference,
in addition to the names of all the presenters. After UCLA began to release
some nonspeaker-related documents to Abrams, he amended his public records
request to solely focus on the speakers’ names, which UCLA declined
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/60147be9ae488176c6f1776a/1611955177754/UCLAdenial.pdf>to
provide.

In August 2019, Abrams sued
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/6014444ec532025118705edd/1611940951321/2019.8.22+Abrams+Complaint.pdf>
UCLA for refusing to hand over the names, arguing that the public should
know if terror-tied activists were present at a conference at a public
university subject to freedom of information requests. UCLA declined to
comment on the case to The Intercept because of the continuing litigation.

UCLA’s lawyers have made three arguments against releasing the names of the
presenters to Abrams. First, because UCLA collected the names as part of a
police investigation, the university argues
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/601e10b838c3983f4b829d1f/1612583122291/University%27s+Oppo+to+WOM.pdf>
that
they are exempt from disclosure under the California Public Records Act,
which includes a carve-out for investigative files. More substantively, the
university is also arguing that disclosing the names would violate SJP’s
constitutional right to shield its members’ names from public disclosure.
In making that argument, UCLA’s lawyers cited a 1958 case
<https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/68/naacp-v-alabama> in which
the Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment protected the NAACP’s
right to refuse to hand over the names of its members to the state of
Alabama, which was aggressively investigating the civil rights group. The
third argument hinges on the balancing act called for by the California
Public Records Act between public interest and potential harm: The
university argues that its interest in protecting the students’ free speech
and association rights outweighs any potential public interest in releasing
their names. The university also argues Abrams has failed to establish that
there is a public interest in disclosure.

Because UCLA has already released some documents to Abrams on the SJP
conference, civil liberties lawyers who support UCLA’s position say the
university has already fulfilled its transparency obligations under the law.

“Government transparency interests can and have been served here, and
Abrams got the info he’s entitled to,” said Glenn Katon, litigation
director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus, a group
that, alongside Palestine Legal, has intervened
<https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/601e0f31dbf6cd75be4372c5/1612582721761/2021.2.5+Intervenors.pdf>
in the lawsuit against UCLA on behalf of the anonymous SJP presenters.

In court filings, Abrams, who did not respond to The Intercept’s request
for comment on his lawsuit, says he does not work for Canary Mission. But
civil liberties lawyers and activists fear that if the names of SJP
presenters are in his hands, he would release them publicly.

“Abrams’s game is to try to get the names of people that he can send to
Canary Mission,” to further intimidation of “people who are activists
against Israeli government policies,” Katon said.

Abrams is the most prolific user of anti-terror laws to target Palestinian
rights advocates in the U.S.

Abrams is the most prolific
<https://fmep.org/resource/surprising-new-battleground-war-palestinian-rights-local-courthouse/>
user of anti-terror laws to target Palestinian rights advocates in the U.S.
In recent years, Abrams has asked the IRS to revoke Doctors Without
Borders’ nonprofit status and has sued Oxfam and the Carter Center, all
over claims that the respected human rights organizations have links to
Palestinian militant groups.

“David seems to have adopted the role of ‘lawfare’ innovator, working to
exploit and repurpose U.S. laws in every way he can think of to target
those he views as anti-Israel, with the goal of deterring them and others
from challenging Israeli policies or supporting Palestinians rights,” said
Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.

In recent years, a range
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/09/13/professor-who-advocates-israel-boycott-latest-face-demands-records-about-her-career>
of scholars who have written on or organized around Palestine have been hit
<https://mesana.org/advocacy/task-force-on-civil-and-human-rights/2019/11/20/memo-on-public-records-harassment-and-defense>
by expansive public records requests from pro-Israel advocates seeking
private correspondence and travel records. The scholars say that the
requests are aimed at embarrassing them and deterring them from doing work
on Palestine.

“I view these requests as forms of harassment and also as a way to gain
information about how [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions] groups do their
work,” said Cynthia Franklin, an English professor at the University of
Hawaiʻi at Mānoa who has been the subject of records requests by a
pro-Israel activist. “They’re invasive, and they’re meant to instill fear.”

The UCLA case, though, poses a new kind of threat because the targets are
not accomplished scholars but students trying to enter the professional
world for the first time.

“This invites the kind of chill that is implicated in McCarthy-era cases,
turning over lists of organizations’ members to see if they’re Reds,” said
Claudia Polsky, the director of UC Berkeley’s Environmental Law Clinic and
the author of a UCLA Law Review article
<https://www.uclalawreview.org/open-records-shuttered-labs-ending-political-harassment-of-public-university-researchers/>
examining the abuse of public records laws. “That’s how you chill First
Amendment rights — you make people afraid to show up and speak their minds.”
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