Student Leader Challenges Anti-Palestinian Campus Climate at FSU
/Issues: Racial Justice, Title VI, False Accusations
In June 2020, Ahmad Daraldik made history as the first Palestinian elected as president of the Florida State University (FSU) student senate.
Following the historic vote was a campaign to remove and silence Ahmad driven by the anti-Palestinian myth that opposition to Israel’s occupation, colonization, and military violence is anti-Jewish.
In April 2021, Ahmad filed a complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights that the anti-Palestinian hostile environment at FSU violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In June 2023, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced it will investigate Florida State University over allegations of anti-Palestinian discrimination.
Summary >>
Ahmad is a Palestinian-American student at FSU who spent a considerable part of his childhood living in Palestine, particularly in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. As an adolescent, Ahmad used social media to reflect on his living conditions.
When Ahmad became FSU student senate president, students seized upon his childhood social media posts and launched a removal campaign based on the inaccurate anti-Palestinian stereotype that opposition to Israel’s oppression of Palestinians is anti-Jewish. Ahmad faced an onslaught of racist harassment and vitriol.
Ahmad became the target of a campaign of attacks and threats from within and outside the university after FSU President Thrasher publicly and falsely accused the student leader of antisemitism for discussing his personal experiences as a witness to the Israeli military’s abuse of Palestinians.
Thrasher knowingly conflated protected speech critical of Israel for its human rights violations with antisemitism, thereby putting students’ free speech rights, well-being, and futures at risk.
As anti-Palestinian lobby groups and politicians joined the fray, Ahmad was vilified, viciously cyberbullied, and made an open target of a state-wide harassment campaign.
Florida state politicians joined the chorus of attacks against Ahmad, including Florida’s Director of Emergency Management responsible for the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the following year, a disturbing environment of anti-Palestinian racism at FSU denied Ahmad equal access to campus life on the basis of his national origin.
Ahmad’s ability to complete his summer courses, his mental health, and his ability to function on a daily basis were all significantly impacted by the harassment he faced as a Palestinian, which continued through the fall 2020 and spring 2021 semesters.
University officials were well-informed of severe and pervasive anti-Palestinian harassment, but took no steps to end the harassment, prevent it from recurring, or remedy its effects. Florida State University not only dismissed the growing anti-Palestinian climate on campus, but took actions of its own to magnify it.
In April 2021, Ahmad filed a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights that the anti-Palestinian hostile environment at FSU violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In June 2023, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced it will investigate Florida State University over allegations of anti-Palestinian discrimination.
Timeline >>
June 5, 2020: Ahmad becomes the first Student Senate President of Palestinian origin at Florida State University after winning an election against two other students.
June 8, 2020: Students surface a photo of Ahmad next to a statue of Nelson Mandela with a caption expressing outrage at Israel and the occupation, claiming it disqualified him as a student leader.
June 9, 2020: Ahmad posts a video on his Facebook page sharing his experiences living under Israeli military occupation and explaining why, as a Palestinian, he objects to Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians like him and his family.
June 11, 2020: Students excavate a Facebook post Ahmad had shared as a 12-year-old living in Palestine about Israeli military violence against Palestinian children, and use it to call for his removal.
June 12, 2020: Israel advocacy student groups and off-campus anti-Palestinian organizations circulate petitions calling for Ahmad’s removal. Petitioners state that there is “no tolerance for Islamic advocacy of murder,” to “stop the Islamic hatred of Jews,” and state other Islamophobic reasons demanding his removal. Ahmad begins receiving Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian and violent messages on social media: “monkey ass piece of Arab shit,” “Senate President Ahmad Daraldik must be chastised (castrated) immediately,” and “deport him to Gaza.”
June 17, 2020: Florida State Representative Mike Caruso, who has sponsored bills censoring speech critical of Israeli policies, sends a letter to the FSU student senate to take action against Ahmad. Students attempt to vote Ahmad out of office, but the vote fails. Another petition urging Ahmad’s removal surfaces, with the first comment complaining that “a Muslim keeps his seat.”
June 17, 2020: Senior Jack Fox Keen makes a public statement during a senate proceeding discussing Ahmad stating they, Jack, do not believe it is antisemitic for Palestinians like Ahmad to criticize Israel’s oppression of Palestinians. A disgruntled student files a complaint against Jack arguing that Jack’s statement in support of Ahmad is itself antisemitic, and high-level administrators launch an investigation against Jack that could result in removal from their leadership position.
June 18, 2020: FSU releases a public statement condemning Ahmad for “anti-Israel rhetoric online.” After a few hours, FSU changes the statement to condemn Ahmad for “anti-Semitic rhetoric online.”
June 19, 2020: Off-campus anti-Palestinian groups elevate the harassment campaign, including a legal threat from StandWithUs if immediate steps to remove Ahmad from elected office are not taken. An Israeli government-funded mobile app— with ties to Israeli intelligence and military— rewards users with badges and points if they report Ahmad to the FSU administration and demand that he be punished and removed. FSU’s disciplinary office initiates an investigation of Ahmad that day.
June 20, 2020: The Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz takes time away from his primary responsibility of directing Florida’s COVID-19 response and called on FSU to remove Ahmad from his position while COVID-19 rates in Florida skyrocket and impact Ahmad’s family.
June 23, 2020: State Representative Chip LaMarca raises the possibility of withholding state funds to FSU and urges donors to withdraw funding if FSU does not remove Ahmad.
June 25, 2020: The Florida Legislature Jewish Caucus sends President Thrasher a letter calling for Ahmad to step down. Nearly a dozen legislators sign on.
July 15, 2020: At a student government meeting about a resolution adopting the IHRA redefinition of antisemitism and denouncing Ahmad, State Representative Richard Stark tells senators that “… we (Florida House of Representatives) also control the funding of the school and I am not pleased by what I am hearing tonight.” Students pass the resolution shortly after on that night. President Thrasher meets with his former colleague Rep. Stark after senate, prompting President Thrasher to send a letter to Ahmad rebuking him the next morning.
July 16, 2020: The City of Aventura adopts a resolution calling on FSU to remove Ahmad as student senate president.
Aug. 6, 2020: The City of Hallandale Beach passes a resolution urging President Thrasher to remove Ahmad. The resolution is sponsored by Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, who displayed anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic bigotry in 2019. Lima-Taub shared a post stating that Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Palestinian-Muslim congresswoman, “might blow up the Capitol.”
Aug. 12, 2020: President Thrasher issues a statement that FSU will “recognize” the controversial IHRA definition, despite pleas from Palestinian students that it would stigmatize them for sharing their family’s experiences on campus and with their peers.
July – Oct. 2020. Students misuse administrative complaint processes and petition the FSU Student Supreme Court to punish Ahmad for retaining his seat.
Nov. 9, 2020: As a result of administrative complaints against him, the Supreme Court bans Ahmad from holding office at FSU again.
Dec. 15, 2020: Palestine Legal and CAIR-FL send FSU a letter documenting the pervasive harassment targeting Ahmad and demands FSU take measures to rectify the anti-Palestinian hostile environment.
Dec. 18, 2020: FSU overturns a Student Supreme Court finding against Ahmad that led to the court banning him from student government but does so after student elections have passed and despite Ahmad’s intention to run again.
Feb. 10, 2021: Ahmad reintroduces a resolution to rescind the student senate’s adoption of IHRA believing it would make it difficult to talk about being Palestinian on campus. Students accuse Ahmad of antisemitism and one states, “this is starting to feel like a hydra— you cut off one head, two more are going to take its place,” and to “kill the beast before it multiplies.”
Feb. 23, 2021: FSU sends a report to Ahmad finding no evidence of discrimination committed by FSU employees or its affiliates, in response to three discrimination complaints Ahmad filed over the summer.
Mar. 18, 2021: Ahmad continues receiving racist, anti-Palestinian message on his social media feeds, including one who tagged him and wrote, “kill all the Muzlims, u fucking with it?? Lets go hunt and kill sum muzzlits nig.”
Apr. 13, 2021: Ahmad submits a complaint to the Office for Civil Rights that the anti-Palestinian hostile environment at FSU violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
June 9, 2023: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announces it will investigate Florida State University over allegations of anti-Palestinian discrimination.
Notable Quotes from Ahmad >>
June 9 video made by Ahmad: “I took a photo with the statue of Nelson Mandela given to my people from the people of South Africa as a symbol of hope to end the apartheid. I made the post on Instagram to release my frustrations about the situation that persecutes my family, my friends, and all those considered second-class humans in our own country.”
July 17 Discrimination Report: “All I feel is silenced and erased as FSU Palestinian Muslim Student… it’s just disheartening to see that no matter what I do the University continues to not aid or support me to please donors … please help me figure out how I can address this on the university level. I thank whomever is receiving this and hope with all my being you can be an ally to help address this systemic issue of lack of true support.”
July 23 Discrimination Report filed by Ahmad: “The lack of awareness of my lived experience and the clear stance the university has taken to go out of its way to appease the donors and state legislators who merely do not believe I should exist is abhorrent.”
Documents >>
Legal Letters and Complaints
- Title VI Complaint (Apr. 13, 2021)
- Letter From Civil Rights Organizations re: Anti-Palestinian Environment at Florida State University (Dec. 15, 2020)
- Letter in Support of Title VI Complaint Against Florida State University (November 14, 2022)
Politicians Urge Removal of Ahmad
- Letter from Representative Mike Caruso to FSU Student Senate (June 17, 2020)
- Members of the Florida Jewish Legislative Caucus release statements calling for Ahmad to step down (June 23, 2020)
- Letter from the Jewish Caucus of the Florida State Legislature to FSU President Thrasher (June 25, 2020)
- City of Aventura resolution denouncing Ahmad (July 16, 2020)
Media >>
Florida Politicians Launch Witch-hunt Against Palestinian FSU Student Senate President, Palestine Legal (July 2, 2020)
Florida lawmakers are trying to oust FSU’s Palestinian student senate president over a post he made as a 12-year-old, Mondoweiss (July 7, 2020)
A Growing Battle at FSU, Mondoweiss (July 9, 2020)
Florida officials, Israeli gov app bully Palestinian student, Electronic Intifada (Aug. 11, 2020)
CAIR-Florida, Palestine Legal Call on FSU President to Protect the Civil Rights of Palestinian Students, Apologize to Smeared Student Leader (Dec. 17, 2020)
Learn More>>
Florida has taken measures to embolden anti-Palestinian racism by passing laws targeting Palestinian rights. Several legislators involved in urging punishment against Ahmad helped to pass HB 741— an education law redefining antisemitism to silence Palestinian experiences of Israeli oppression.