[News] Student Protests for Gaza Targeted by Pro-Israel Groups for Alleged Civil Rights Violations

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2023/11/16/israel-palestine-gaza-student-protests/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter>
Student Protests for Gaza Targeted by Pro-Israel Groups for Alleged Civil
Rights Violations
Schuyler Mitchell, Prem Thakker
November 16, 2023
------------------------------

In front of Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library, seven infant-sized
bundles of white cloth rested on the steps, splattered with red paint.
Behind the swaddles, plywood boards read “10,600 lives slaughtered,” “4,412
children,” and “let Gaza live,” alongside images of Palestinian flags and
olive trees.

This was the scene where Columbia students gathered
<https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/11/10/hundreds-of-pro-palestinian-students-walk-out-as-part-of-national-call-to-action-gather-for-peaceful-protest-art-installation/>
last Thursday for a “peaceful protest art installation” and demonstration
organized by the campus chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for
Justice in Palestine. Hundreds of students demanded that Columbia publicly
call for a ceasefire in Gaza, divest its endowment from corporations
complicit in Israeli apartheid, and end its academic programs in Tel Aviv.

The next day, Gerald Rosberg, chair of the Special Committee on Campus
Safety, announced Columbia had suspended its chapters of JVP and SJP
through the end of the semester, citing an “unauthorized event” that
“included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” The announcement quickly
drew widespread criticism, including from hundreds of Jewish faculty who
denounced
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSecxSdV0vmVulHzZDnNCZceciHDU-3KmeIVhfPWZcecG3TPJw/viewform>
the “vague allegations” that served as grounds for the suspensions.

But amid the backlash, StandWithUs, a self-described “non-partisan Israel
education organization,” lauded Columbia’s decision. “StandWithUs sent
several legal letters to universities like @Columbia, urging them to
immediately hold these groups accountable for the hate, fear, and
harassment they incite on campus,” the group wrote
<https://twitter.com/StandWithUs/status/1723102517809070344> on social
media. “We hope more universities will follow suit.”

Alongside Israel advocacy groups like the Brandeis Center, the
International Legal Forum, and the David Horowitz Freedom Center,
StandWithUs has spent years trying to shut down criticism of Israel on
college campuses, often by weaponizing civil rights law. The groups allege
that, while the political speech may be protected by the First Amendment,
it fosters a campus climate of antisemitism in violation of Title VI of the
Civil Rights Act, which prohibits federally funded programs from
discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin. As students
have ramped up pro-Palestinian demonstrations over the past month, Israel
advocacy groups have escalated a pressure campaign of their own.

Earlier this month, StandWithUs sent an open letter
<https://www.standwithus.com/post/standwithus-letter-to-general-counsel-and-vp-student-affairs>
to thousands of universities addressed to the general counsel and vice
president of student affairs, outlining actions colleges could take to
ensure compliance with Title VI. The group’s recommendations include
requiring student identification cards at protests, monitoring university
communication channels for “biased statements about Israel,” and
investigating student groups for ties to Hamas. The group has also sent a
surge of direct letters
<https://www.standwithus.com/news-database/categories/college-legal-issues>
urging administrators to clamp down on specific Palestine solidarity campus
events. Meanwhile, on November 9, the Brandeis Center filed two Title VI
complaints with the Department of Education against the University of
Pennsylvania and Wellesley College. (The Brandeis Center also joined forces
with the Anti-Defamation League to call on the presidents of nearly 200
universities to investigate their SJP chapters, alleging they could have
ties to Hamas that would constitute “materially supporting a foreign
terrorist organization.”)

“If you can’t win the debate because the facts aren’t in your favor, it’s
pretty sensible to try to stop it altogether.”

According to Dylan Saba, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, the groups
tend to target “pretty mundane examples of pro-Palestine expression …
because that’s precisely what these organizations are trying to get rid
of.” But as Israel’s military assault over the past month has become
“increasingly indefensible for the pro-Israel forces,” it’s spurred a new
wave of Title VI threats.

“That’s what’s motivating the strategy to try to raise the stakes of
Palestinian expression and organizing by getting universities to try to
crack down on it,” said Saba. “If you can’t win the debate because the
facts aren’t in your favor, it’s pretty sensible to try to stop it
altogether.”
Crackdown at Columbia

The Title VI crusade adds even more fuel to the recent punitive actions
against Palestine solidarity student groups.

Since the start of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, students at Columbia have
organized numerous protests, vigils, and rallies in a show of support for
civilians in Gaza. As part of a nationwide “Shut it Down for Palestine”
walkout on November 9, SJP and JVP arranged an art installation and rally.

One day later, the groups were suspended for the unauthorized event and
“threatening rhetoric and intimidation,” making them ineligible to hold
campus events or receive school funding for the remainder of the term.

While university policy requires students to obtain a permit 10 days before
an event, violations of policy usually result in a disciplinary proceeding
against individual students, not an outright suspension of an entire
organization, according to Katherine Franke, a law professor at Columbia
University who has been serving as a faculty advocate for the sanctioned
students.

Franke noted that the organizations were suspended by a newly formed group,
the Special Committee on Campus Safety, which was created with no advance
notice and did not go through the standard University Senate Executive
Committee approval process. Columbia’s website does not contain any mention
of the Special Committee before the November 10 announcement
<https://news.columbia.edu/news/statement-gerald-rosberg-chair-special-committee-campus-safety>,
which did not elaborate on the new committee’s members or purview.

“We don’t know who’s on it, who created it, what its authority is, under
what rules is it operating.”

“We don’t know who’s on it, who created it, what its authority is, under
what rules is it operating,” said Franke. Franke has asked Rosberg, the
chair of the Special Committee, for more information about the new group
and the specific rhetoric that led to SJP and JVP’s sanctioning. She says
she has not received a response.

Additionally, internet archives show Columbia quietly updated its student
group event policy some time between June 12 and October 20 to include new
language around the sanctioning of student organizations “for failure to
obtain event approval and/or not abiding by terms of an approved event.”

“They edited the student conduct rules without any consultation with the
groups that normally are required to be consulted,” said Franke.

Columbia University did not respond to a request for comment.

During her 25-year tenure, Franke noted she’s seen “a lot of
demonstrations,” from the Iraq War to 9/11. “All manner of things have been
debated, protested, and the university’s structure was able to handle it,”
she said. “But somehow, they had to create — without any consultation with
any of the responsible governing bodies — a whole new way of dealing with
these issues.”

Columbia is one of three private universities that have now sanctioned
their SJP chapters in an unprecedented cascade of crackdowns on student
organizing around Palestine solidarity.

Earlier this month, Brandeis University announced an outright and total ban
on its SJP chapter, claiming the group “openly supports Hamas.” On Tuesday,
George Washington University suspended its SJP chapter from hosting
on-campus events for three months.

Roz Rothstein, co-founder and CEO of StandWithUs, wrote in a statement to
The Intercept that after the group sent letters to thousands of
universities, “many responded privately thanking us for the letter or, in
the days after receiving it, taking concrete action on their campuses, such
as Columbia, Brandeis, and GWU banning SJP for the rest of the semester.”

She added, “Other schools have notified us that they have launched
independent investigations or task forces to address antisemitism. We look
forward to seeing the results of those inquiries.”
[image: Demonstrators rally at a "All out for Gaza" protest at Columbia
University in New York on November 15, 2023. Israel has vowed to eradicate
Hamas in retaliation for the attacks of October 7, which killed 1,200
people, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials. The
Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says the death toll from the military
offensive has now topped 11,500, including thousands of children. (Photo by
Bryan R. Smith / AFP) (Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)]

Demonstrators rally at a “All Out for Gaza” protest at Columbia University
in New York on Nov. 15, 2023.
Photo: Bryan R. Smith/AFP via Getty Images Changing Standards

At Pomona College in Claremont, California, student organizers have also
been challenged by a shifting web of guidelines. Samson Zhang, an editor of
a student publication focused on leftist campus organizing called Claremont
Undercurrents, noted that new policies seemed to arise
<https://www.claremontundercurrents.com/hundreds-of-claremont-students-mobilized-for-palestine-protests-in-the-past-month-heres-a-timeline/>
in direct response to specific Palestine solidarity campus actions.

In one instance, 150 students attended a vigil at the student services
center. “It was very intentionally organized so that no club claimed it,
and the messaging was that it was organized by everybody and nobody,” said
Zhang. “That happened Friday, and by Monday they sent out an email with a
new demonstration policy that an event is only compliant with the student
code of conduct if there’s a specific student club that it’s registered
under.”

And, on November 7 — the day before a planned divestment protest — Pomona
President Gabi Starr sent a letter to students and alumni with a reminder
of campus demonstration rules. Claremont Undercurrents reported
<https://www.instagram.com/p/CzaznQUusiA/?img_index=1> that one day before
Starr’s email blast, StandWithUs sent her a letter
<https://www.standwithus.com/post/pomona-letter-re-nov-9-event> expressing
concern over the event. The letter urged the administration to take
immediate action “to prevent discriminatory treatment of Jewish and Israeli
students” and specifically noted that the administration has “the right to
prohibit masks worn for the purpose of concealing identity.” Starr’s email
similarly states that “masks that prevent recognition of individuals pose a
challenge to the ability to maintain campus codes of conduct,” adding that
students may be asked to remove them.

In response to inquiries
<https://tsl.news/over-400-students-protest-picket-to-shut-down-for-pomona-divestment-from-israel/>
from The Student Life, a campus newspaper, Pomona’s spokesperson said
Starr’s mention of masks “was in response to significant concerns related
to our own campus — not in response to any outside organization.”

StandWithUs has targeted Pomona before. In April 2021, the Associated
Students of Pomona College voted
<https://tsl.news/aspc-divestment-bill-sparks-pushback/> to ban the use of
student government funds on items or companies that “knowingly support the
Israeli occupation of Palestine” — a move that triggered a swift
condemnation <https://tsl.news/aspc-divestment-bill-sparks-pushback/> from
Starr. That same day, StandWithUs sent a letter praising Starr for her
statement and calling on her to use “whatever means at your disposal to
invalidate this resolution.” Every student government representative that
voted in favor of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions resolution that
year was then doxxed on Canary Mission, a secretive website that posts
public blacklists
<https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/>
of Palestinian rights organizers.

One year prior, in February 2020, the David Horowitz Freedom Center wrote
<https://tsl.news/pitzer-pomona-claremont-college-david-horowitz-lawsuit-anti-semitism/>
to Starr and Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver, claiming that the
colleges had violated Title VI by fostering “pervasive, college-sponsored
anti-semitism.” The Southern Policy Law Center has classified
<https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/david-horowitz>
Horowitz as an extremist, noting that “the Freedom Center has launched a
network of projects giving anti-Muslim voices and radical ideologies a
platform to project hate and misinformation.”
“Political Cudgel”

A core ask from groups like the David Horowitz Freedom Center and
StandWithUs is that university policies adopt the International Holocaust
Remembrance Association, or IHRA, working definition
<https://www.standwithus.com/ihra> of antisemitism, which critics say
<https://www.noihra.ca/> falsely equates broad criticism of Israel with
antisemitism. The IHRA definition found new footing in 2019, when
then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/trump-era-antisemitism-policy-expected-fuel-flood-student-lawsuits-uni-rcna123668>
instructing federal agencies to “consider” the IHRA definition in Title VI
enforcement.

“IHRA expressly recognizes that criticism of Israel, similar to criticism
of other countries, is not antisemitic,” wrote Rothstein of StandWithUs.
“And it recognizes that some rhetoric and actions related to Israel do
cross the line into bigotry.”

By eliding meaningful differences between critique of Israel and Jewish
discrimination, said Saba of Palestine Legal, the groups warp claims of
antisemitism into a “political cudgel” to be wielded against students
voicing solidarity with Palestine.

The Brandeis Center’s recent Title VI complaint
<https://brandeiscenter.com/brandeis-center-files-two-title-vi-civil-rights-complaints-with-the-u-s-department-of-education-addressing-growing-discrimination-and-hostility-against-jewish-students-at-the-university-of-pennsylvan/>
against the University of Pennsylvania conflates disparate events as
uniform examples of campus antisemitism. The letter notes recent disturbing
attacks against Hillel, a Jewish student organization, including bomb
threats and an instance in which a Penn student vandalized the Hillel
building and yelled “fuck the Jews.” But the letter also highlights Penn’s
“Palestine Writes” literature festival, condemning the September event’s
inclusion of speakers “known for their aggressive stance against the Jewish
State.”

In November 2022, the International Legal Forum, an Israel-based
organization dedicated to “fighting legal battles against terror,
antisemitism, and de-legitimization of Israel,” filed a Title VI complaint
<https://www.ilfngo.org/berkeleyclaim> against the University of
California, Berkeley School of Law, after nine student groups banned
supporters of Zionism from speaking at their events. In its complaint, the
group wrote, “Zionism is an integral and indispensable part of Jewish
identity.”

Since its founding in 2001, StandWithUs, which is registered as a nonprofit
under the name “Israel Emergency Alliance,” has launched efforts to oppose
<http://www.librariansforfairness.org/default.asp> “anti-Israel bias” in
libraries, supported
<https://jewishjournal.com/news/united-states/315860/missouri-legislature-passes-anti-bds-bill/>
anti-BDS laws, and encouraged supporters to buy
<https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-apr-13-me-divest13-story.html>
Caterpillar stock amid scrutiny over the construction company’s role in
Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes
<https://theintercept.com/2022/07/13/israel-rachel-corrie-shireen-abu-akleh-killings/>.
The group recruits annual student fellows to serve as pro-Israel activists
on American campuses nationwide and once invited Elvis Costello on a VIP
trip in an attempt to convince the singer to change his mind about
canceling concerts in Israel.

Last year, StandWithUs filed a Title VI complaint
<https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/16/george-washington-university-professor-antisemitism-palestine-dc>
against George Washington University, after assistant professor of clinical
psychology Lara Sheehi hosted a brown-bag lunch with a Palestinian
professor, leading to a pressure campaign and an internal investigation
that turned up nothing. “Many of the statements the complaint alleges were
made by Dr. Sheehi were, according to those who heard them, either
inaccurate or taken out of context and misrepresented,” the university said
in a summary
<https://president.gwu.edu/summary-findings-independent-investigation-crowell-moring-llp>
of its findings at the time, adding that Sheehi had “denounced antisemitism
as a real and present danger” in classroom discussion. StandWithUs refuted
this characterization. In February, Palestine Legal filed its own
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/gw-title-vi-complaint> Title VI complaint
against GWU for a “hostile environment of anti-Palestinian racism,” which
cites the Sheehi case among others.

“The byproduct of all of this is that you have now a lot of obfuscation
about what the meaning of antisemitism is and what constitutes
antisemitism, which is very dangerous for Jewish students on campus,” said
Saba. “It makes it much more difficult to be able to identify and work to
eliminate real instances of antisemitism and threats to Jewish students,
which tend to come from the political right.”

“It makes it much more difficult to be able to identify and work to
eliminate real instances of antisemitism and threats to Jewish students.”

Meanwhile, many members of the Jewish community are resisting these groups’
efforts to conflate Judaism and Zionism, noting that their faith inspires
resistance to injustice, not blanket support for a regime.

“A lot of institutions across the country, and also at the university, have
pushed this idea of a hegemonic Jewish community that all shares the same
political beliefs,” said Rafi Ash, a Brown University sophomore who was one
of 20 Jewish students arrested during a November sit-in at an
administrative building organized by BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now. “We all
have been kind of disturbed by the ways in which a Jewish identity has been
twisted in a way that makes it political.”

While the Department of Education is expected
<https://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/trump-era-antisemitism-policy-expected-fuel-flood-student-lawsuits-uni-rcna123668>
to field a new influx of Title VI complaints from organizations
representing Jewish students, Saba noted that groups like Palestine Legal
have also filed complaints regarding instances of anti-Palestinian,
anti-Arab, and Islamophobic discrimination on campuses. The Department of
Education has never made a finding of antisemitic or anti-Palestinian
discrimination in any of its investigations so far, though that could soon
change as the Israel–Hamas war puts Title VI in the limelight
<https://www.axios.com/2023/11/08/title-vi-college-israel-hamas-war>. The
American Civil Liberties Union has begun to take legal action
<https://twitter.com/ACLU/status/1725246675390755182?s=20> over the First
Amendment rights of Palestinian solidarity protesters.

“We are in touch with many, many, many student groups across the country,
and we are seeing a pattern of heightened scrutiny and suppression,” said
Saba. “Fortunately, despite the mass suppressive effort, students are
continuing to organize, continuing to speak out, and are refusing to be
silenced. We’re seeing one of the largest upsurges in pro-Palestine
organizing and demonstration that we’ve ever seen.”
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