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href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/trump-official-wants-students-prosecuted-israel-protests/25526">https://electronicintifada.net/content/trump-official-wants-students-prosecuted-israel-protests/25526</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Trump official wants students
prosecuted for Israel protests</h1>
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<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah">Ali
Abunimah</a></span> <span class="field
field-publisher">- </span><span class="field
field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single"
content="2018-09-19T09:42:00+00:00">19 September 2018</span></span>
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<p>The Trump administration’s top civil rights enforcer
at the US Department of Education wanted students who
did nothing but hold a noisy protest in support of
Palestinian rights to be criminally prosecuted.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kenneth-marcus">Kenneth
Marcus</a> was captured on camera during a September
2016 meeting with an undercover reporter working on Al
Jazeera’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lobby-usa">explosive
documentary</a> about the US Israel lobby.</p>
<p>The documentary has never been broadcast due to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/national-security-cited-reason-al-jazeera-nixed-israel-lobby-film/24566">censorship
by Qatar</a>, which funds Al Jazeera, following
pressure from pro-Israel organizations.</p>
<p>The above video obtained by The Electronic Intifada
is the latest <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lobby-usa">excerpt
to leak</a> from the documentary. It shows Marcus
speaking to the undercover reporter.</p>
<p>At the time, Marcus was director of the Louis D.
Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, an Israel
lobby group unaffiliated with Brandeis University. The
Brandeis Center specializes in lawfare – the use of
legal proceedings to harass and silence Israel’s
critics.</p>
<p>In that role, Marcus spearheaded the Israel lobby
strategy of filing complaints to the Department of
Education under <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/title-vi-civil-rights-act">Title
VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act</a>, claiming that
universities fail to protect Jewish students by not
cracking down on Palestine solidarity activism.</p>
<p>In June, Marcus was <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/trumps-civil-rights-enforcer-could-use-law-silence-students">confirmed</a>
as the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the
US Department of Education. This means he is now in
charge of investigating alleged violations of the
civil rights law.</p>
<p>He has quickly fulfilled the worst fears of civil
liberties defenders by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/trump-administration-moves-curb-campus-criticism-israel">reopening
a bogus complaint</a> against Rutgers University
made by the Zionist Organization of America.</p>
<p>That complaint was thrown out by the Office for Civil
Rights in 2014 for lack of evidence.</p>
<p>Marcus also informed the ZOA by letter that he has
decided to enforce an official definition of
anti-Semitism that conflates criticism of Israel and
Zionism with anti-Jewish bigotry.</p>
<p>The move, made without public discussion or
congressional notice, could have a profoundly chilling
effect on academic freedom and free speech.</p>
<h2>Demonizing campus activists</h2>
<p>In the leaked video that can be watched at the top of
this page, Marcus explains his lobby group’s strategy,
which he is now using his government position to
implement.</p>
<p>“Right now, the challenge is that there are people
who say, ‘you know what, anti-Israel politics have
nothing to do with anti-Semitism,’” Marcus states.
“What you gotta show that they’re not the same, but
they’re not entirely different either.”</p>
<p>“The goal is to have the federal government establish
a definition of anti-Semitism that is parallel to the
State Department definition,” Marcus adds.</p>
<p>The full documentary shows how Marcus’ organization
aims to demonize campus groups like Students for
Justice in Palestine (SJP) that support BDS – boycott,
divestment and sanctions – to hold Israel accountable.</p>
<p>“You have to show that they are racist hate groups,
and that they are using intimidation to get funded,
and to consistently portray them that way,” Marcus
states.</p>
<p>The so-called State Department definition of
anti-Semitism was <a
href="https://www.state.gov/s/rga/resources/267538.htm">originally
adopted in 2010</a> and updated in early 2018.</p>
<p>It is <a
href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/5ad7b4d470a6ad81ab1bb20c/1524085976920/FAQ+on+Definition+of+Antisemitism+4.18.18+.pdf">substantially
the same</a> as the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ihra-definition-anti-semitism">IHRA
definition of anti-Semitism</a> that Israel lobby
groups <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israels-bogus-definition-anti-semitism-shuts-down-free-speech/25471">pressured
the UK’s Labour Party to adopt</a> as part of their
campaign to oust leader Jeremy Corbyn and curtail
expressions of support for Palestinian rights.</p>
<p>The definition has been widely opposed for conflating
criticism of Israel and Zionism, Israel’s state
ideology, with anti-Jewish bigotry.</p>
<p>Even the definition’s <a
href="http://jkrfoundation.org/about/kenneth-s-stern/">lead
author</a>, former American Jewish Committee
executive Kenneth Stern, <a
href="http://www.jewishjournal.com/opinion/article/should_a_major_university_system_have_a_particular_definition_of_anti_semit">strongly
opposes</a> efforts to enshrine the definition in
legislation or university rule books, or to use it for
enforcement, arguing that this would <a
href="http://jkrfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Stern-Letter-links-corrected.pdf">unconstitutionally</a>
infringe on free speech.</p>
<h2>Criminal prosecution</h2>
<p>Not all the footage of Marcus obtained by Al
Jazeera’s undercover reporter has been included in the
censored documentary.</p>
<p>A transcript of the full meeting seen by The
Electronic Intifada shows that Marcus also spoke about
a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-are-university-heads-racing-slander-protesters/17061">May
2016 protest</a> at the University of California,
Irvine.</p>
<p>The UC Irvine protest sparked accusations that
students from groups including Students for Justice in
Palestine had harassed, threatened and intimidated
attendees at a campus film screening and discussion
featuring a panel of Israeli soldiers.</p>
<p>The screening was co-sponsored by <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/students-supporting-israel">Students
Supporting Israel</a>, a chapter of a campus
organization <a
href="https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/students-supporting-israel-a-milstein-family-foundation-partner-shares-its-story/">funded</a>
by anti-Palestinian financier <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/adam-milstein">Adam
Milstein</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier leaked footage from the censored Al Jazeera
documentary <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/censored-film-names-adam-milstein-canary-mission-funder/25356">published
by The Electronic Intifada</a> names Milstein as the
secret funder of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/canary-mission">Canary
Mission</a>, the anonymous website that smears and
harasses student activists, especially from Students
for Justice in Palestine.</p>
<p>But after a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/uc-irvine-clears-students-pro-israel-groups-accusations">three-month
investigation</a>, UC Irvine issued a <a
href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/548748b1e4b083fc03ebf70e/t/57bcc2b3579fb3227fe1b030/1471988465936/SJP_August_18_2016_1.pdf">58-page
report</a> concluding that the most troubling
allegations against the Palestine solidarity activists
were untrue.</p>
<h2>False accusations</h2>
<p>Pro-Israel groups had claimed falsely that the
protesters had blocked the exits to the screening room
and denied people entry.</p>
<p>The investigation found that the doors were held shut
from the inside, keeping out Students for Justice in
Palestine members and at least one pro-Israel student.</p>
<p>As The Electronic Intifada <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/uc-irvine-clears-students-pro-israel-groups-accusations">reported</a>
at the time, the university investigation refuted
claims made by Students Supporting Israel, the Orange
County Hillel chapter, the Zionist Organization of
America and Marcus’ Brandeis Center which tried to
paint the protesters as threats to Jewish students on
campus.</p>
<p>One of the most serious allegations Marcus repeats in
the Al Jazeera transcript is that “a Jewish pro-Israel
student was chased across campus when they saw that
she was one of the pro-Israel students, and had to
hide in a kitchen until security could come.”</p>
<p>But this lurid claim was also refuted by the
university’s investigation. By her own account, that
student had been denied access to the screening room
because the door was being held shut from inside.</p>
<p>The students who allegedly “chased” her were simply
trying to find another way into the screening room,
the investigation concluded. In their effort to do so
they entered an adjacent room several minutes after
the pro-Israel student did and “were not chasing” her,
the report states.</p>
<p>The only charge that the university substantiated was
that the student protest had “more likely than not”
generated so much noise as to disrupt the viewing of
the film, a documentary about Israeli soldiers.</p>
<p>Making noise is inherent to speech and protest. But
administrators found the protesters in violation of
one policy on student conduct: “Obstruction or
disruption of teaching, research, administration,
disciplinary procedures, or other university
activities.”</p>
<p>As a sanction, the university gave Students for
Justice in Palestine a warning and an assignment to
host an educational event.</p>
<p>Marcus told the undercover reporter that this
sanction was “not enough.”</p>
<p>“I’d like to see the students prosecuted, but the DA
[district attorney] has not been amenable,” Marcus
said.</p>
<p>“But we’ll keep pushing them so that if we don’t get
these students prosecuted this time, we’ll get the DA
at least sensitized to the issue and [they] should
know that there will be pressure on them next time.”</p>
<p>During the investigation, the Brandeis Center, the
Zionist Organization of America and other pro-Israel
groups wrote to UC Irvine administrators to find the
protesters in violation of codes of conduct and to
urge them to refer the incident to the Orange County
District Attorney’s office for criminal prosecution.</p>
<p>The Zionist Organization of America cited as
precedent the 2011 <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/irvine-11-sentenced-community-service-no-jailtime-attorneys-prepare">convictions</a>
of the Irvine 11 students for protesting a speech by
Michael Oren when he was Israel’s ambassador in the
United States. While the students could have faced
prison time for disruption of a public meeting, they
were sentenced to community service.</p>
<p>But as noted, Marcus spoke to Al Jazeera’s undercover
reporter in September 2016 – more than a month after
the UC Irvine investigation debunked the serious
accusations against Students for Justice in Palestine
members over the film screening protest.</p>
<p>Yet Marcus continued to advance false accusations and
insist that students who did nothing more than hold a
campus protest in support of Palestinian rights should
face the full weight of the American criminal legal
system.</p>
<p>Students across the United States now face the
perverse and dangerous situation where the most senior
federal official entrusted with protecting their civil
rights may use his position – in the interests of a
foreign state – to press for their criminal
prosecution merely for exercising their First
Amendment rights.</p>
<p><em>Asa Winstanley contributed research.</em></p>
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