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<h1 id="page-title">Palestine Legal and CCR Release
First-of-Its-Kind Report Documenting Efforts to Silence U.S.
Supporters of Palestinian Rights</h1>
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<p><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:press@ccrjustice.org">press@ccrjustice.org</a><br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/palestine-legal-and-ccr-release-first-its-kind-report-documenting">https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/palestine-legal-and-ccr-release-first-its-kind-report-documenting</a></small></small></b><br>
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<p><em>Palestine Legal Responded to Nearly 300 Incidents in
2014-2015; 85 Percent Targeted Students and Scholars on
More Than 65 College Campuses</em></p>
<p>September 30, 2015 - A new report, “<a
href="https://ccrjustice.org/the-palestine-exception">The
Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under
Attack in the US</a>,” released today by <a
target="_blank" href="http://palestinelegal.org/">Palestine
Legal</a> and the <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/">Center
for Constitutional Rights</a> (CCR), documents for the
first time the widespread and growing suppression of
Palestinian human rights advocacy in the United States. An <a
target="_blank"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIni_3TYg-A">accompanying
video</a> features students and scholars discussing the
backlash they have experienced for engaging in Palestine
advocacy.</p>
<p>Palestine Legal, a nonprofit organization dedicated to
protecting the civil rights of people in the U.S. who speak
out for Palestinian freedom, responded to nearly 300
incidents over an 18-month period. Eighty-five percent of
the incidents—which included baseless legal complaints,
administrative disciplinary actions, firings, harassment,
and false accusations of terrorism and antisemitism—targeted
students and scholars across the country. Driven by a
network of Israel advocacy organizations, these efforts
target the movement for Palestinian rights in the U.S.,
which has grown significantly over the last decade.</p>
<p>“In the U.S. we have free speech rights that are meant to
protect those who challenge the status quo, yet some groups
who defend Israel’s policies are attempting to strip those
protections from Palestinian rights activists,” explains
Dima Khalidi, Palestine Legal’s founding director and
cooperating counsel with the Center for Constitutional
Rights. “The tactics being used across the country to
silence one side of a debate undermine both First Amendment
and democratic principles.”</p>
<p>The report includes dozens of case studies, as well as
testimony from advocates who have been targeted for their
speech. Professor Steven Salaita, whose tenured faculty
position was terminated by the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign over personal tweets criticizing Israel’s
2014 assault on Gaza, says in the report: “When I got that
email I was just destroyed. I was crushed. Everything had
been arranged for our move. Our son...had been enrolled in a
daycare in Urbana, on campus in fact.... We were left
without health insurance.... and so we were constantly
worried about what would happen if the need for medical
attention arose.”</p>
<p>“Attacks like the one I experienced are an attempt to place
a high price on student advocacy for Palestinian freedom,”
said Rahim Kurwa, a doctoral candidate at UCLA who is quoted
in the report. “Even if they fail to shut down your
activism, they can frighten, intimidate, and wear you down.
It often feels like anti-Palestinian groups try to make an
example out of us in order to discourage other students from
joining the movement.”</p>
<p>The report also outlines a notable increase in federal and
state legislative efforts to condemn or restrict advocacy
for Palestinian human rights, including legislation that
conflates criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitism.</p>
<p>“Whether by suing volunteer food co-op board members for
boycotting Israeli goods, firing a tenured professor for
tweeting about Gaza, or punishing students for taking action
on behalf of Palestinian rights, efforts to silence
criticism of Israel's human rights violations are widespread
and organized,” said Maria LaHood, deputy legal director of
the Center for Constitutional Rights. “But the U.S. movement
for Palestinian rights will not be silenced―in fact, it
continues to grow despite increasing intimidation.”</p>
<p><strong>Summary of key findings</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>In 2014, Palestine Legal responded to over 150 incidents
of censorship, punishment or other burdening of advocacy
for Palestinian rights. In the first six months of 2015
alone, Palestine Legal responded to 140 such incidents.
During this 18-month period, Palestine Legal received more
than 100 requests for legal assistance.</li>
<li>The overwhelming majority of these incidents—85
percent—targeted students and scholars, a reaction to the
increasingly central role universities play in the
movement for Palestinian rights.</li>
<li>Common documented tactics used against advocates for
Palestinian rights across the country include: false and
inflammatory accusations of antisemitism and support for
terrorism; racial slurs and death threats; threats to
academic freedom; cancellations of events and suspension
of student organizations; lawsuits and legal threats;
legislation; and criminal investigations and prosecutions.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Recommendations</strong></p>
<p>The report urges universities to review policies to ensure
they protect academic freedom and to hear concerns from
students targeted by these attacks that are in many cases
leading to lasting emotional, financial, and professional
repercussions.</p>
<p>It also urges Congress, state legislatures, and government
agencies to clearly distinguish between criticism of Israeli
policies and antisemitism in their definitions, policies and
legislation.</p>
<p>Another report on the silencing of speech related to
Israel/Palestine was released today by Jewish Voice for
Peace, one of the fastest-growing Jewish membership
organizations in America. “<em>Stifling Dissent: How
Israel’s Defenders Use False Charges of Anti-Semitism to
Limit the Debate over Israel on Campus</em>” documents
efforts by Israel advocacy organizations to shut down debate
over Israeli policies on campuses. You can read the full
report <a target="_blank" href="http://stiflingdissent.org">here</a>.</p>
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