University of Massachusetts Amherst Under Federal Investigation for Anti-Palestinian Hostile Environment

Palestinian, Arab, and allied students who filed a civil rights complaint against UMass Amherst are represented by Palestine Legal

CONTACT: Danya Zituni, Palestine Legal | media@palestinelegal.org | (312) 547-0766

Amherst, MA, April 24, 2024 – On April 16th, 2024, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it has opened a formal investigation into Palestine Legal’s complaint against the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst alleging a hostile anti-Palestinian environment in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

OCR will examine whether UMass stood by while a hostile environment for Palestinian and Arab students rapidly swelled on campus and whether the university’s actions reinforced this hostile climate in violation of Title VI. 

While OCR looks into all complaints it receives, it only opens a formal investigation when it determines the facts warrant a deeper look. 

The complaint was filed on behalf of a group of UMass students, several of whom have been the target of extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment by fellow UMass students on campus and online using UMass Amherst-related social media handles, including receiving racial slurs, death threats, and in one instance, actually being assaulted. 

Despite repeat notice and formal complaints to over a dozen administrators, UMass has failed to act on these reports – instead, UMass has taken actions to reinforce this hostile climate in violation of Title VI.

The complaint explains how UMass admin has engaged in repeated, egregious acts of anti-Palestinian racism. Since Oct 7th, the administration has deployed law enforcement to arrest over 57 Arab and Palestinian students and their allies for engaging in a peaceful campus sit-in, opted to pursue criminal charges, posted their home addresses online even after the shooting of three Palestinian students in nearby Burlington, VT, subjected students to campus disciplinary charges, and denied some of them education opportunities in the form of study abroad. 

Furthermore, throughout the period of the most intense harassment and discriminatory treatment on campus, high-level UMass administrators were actively communicating with anti-Palestinian groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, and joined a coalition of universities taking a public stand in favor of Israel.

“The law is clear, if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters – they will be at risk of losing federal funding”, said senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath. “Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of harassment or being denied access to an education by their university.”

“The hostility, racism, and harassment that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students are facing at UMass for taking a principled stance against Israel’s genocide in Gaza has failed to silence us,” said one of the complainants, Ruya Hazeyen. “We filed this complaint to help ensure that no other students who speak out for Palestinian freedom and divestment from genocide are punished or harassed.” 

BACKGROUNDER:

Palestine Legal’s complaint asks OCR to bring UMass in compliance with Title VI by taking several remedial measures, including ensuring that Palestinian students, students perceived to be Palestinian and Arab students have equal access to educational opportunities at UMass; ending its discriminatory investigations and criminal charges of Palestinian students, Arab students, Students for Justice in Palestine, Dissenters, faculty, staff, and student groups who advocate for Palestinian rights or criticize Israel or the political ideology of Zionism; creating mechanisms that seriously address Palestinian and associated students’ reports and concerns; and refusing to adopt enforce or rely on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition (IHRA) or its contemporary examples to identify or combat antisemitism.

The discrimination, harassment, stereotyping, disparate treatment, and racial profiling described in the complaint are not isolated instances but are the product of both deep-rooted, dehumanizing bigotry against Palestinians and decades-long systematic efforts by anti-Palestinian groups and their allies to suppress advocacy for Palestinian rights on college campuses.  

Palestine Legal has documented trends in repression based on the over 2200 incidents of suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy the organization responded to between 2014 and 2022, many involving harassment and censorship attempts by university administrations and right-wing organizations aimed at intimidating Palestinians and their supporters into silence and inaction. Since October 7th alone, the organization has received reports of over 1,800 incidents, over five times the number we received in all of 2022, reflecting an exponential rise in anti-Palestinian repression across the US.

Contact us if you are interested in reporting about this incident.