Legal Community Call to Protect Palestine Advocates

Hundreds of Legal Community Members Demand Action To Stop Racist Targeting of Palestine Advocates and Safeguard Fundamental Rights 

October 19, 2023

As legal organizations and professionals, we are alarmed by the surge in anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic racism and attacks threatening communities across the U.S. as Israel wages a brutal war on Gaza. We urge all elected officials, institutional leaders and decision makers in all arenas to take urgent special measures to ensure the protection of fundamental constitutional, civil and human rights of people calling for Palestinian freedom.

The total dehumanization of Palestinians by Israel, fueled by misinformation campaigns relying on Islamophobic and racist tropes, and echoed by U.S. officials and amplified by news networks,1 has created an alarming and dangerous situation for Palestinians and their allies in the U.S. Israel is making clear its genocidal intentions in Gaza – completely cutting off food, water, electricity and fuel to the over 2 million Palestinians held hostage in a tiny enclave that has been under a brutal 16-year Israeli siege and has suffered five (now six) major Israeli bombardments over that period that have decimated its infrastructure and killed thousands.[2] Israeli officials have called the Palestinians who live there – half of them children – “human animals,”[3] and warned Palestinians to evacuate from one part of Gaza to another, only to bomb them as they fled, presaging a repeat of the ethnic cleansing that took place in 1948.[4]

Elected officials in the U.S. have declared full-throated support for Israel and its war on Gaza, refusing to condemn or call for a stop to Israel’s indiscriminate bombardments that have killed hundreds of children, and echoing Israel’s genocidal language – effectively giving a greenlight to Israel’s war crimes.[5] Domestically, elected officials have irresponsibly accused protesters for Palestinian rights of antisemitism and support for terrorism,[6] and called for the mobilization of law enforcement resources to police them, contributing to racist fear-mongering.[7] This portends a dangerous reignition of “War on Terror” policies that led to extreme state repression and constitutional rights violations against Arab, Muslim and other communities of color.[8]

Institutional leaders are likewise issuing racist condemnations of Palestinians and those standing in solidarity with them, ignoring or even sanctioning the unfolding genocide in Gaza and focusing solely on the impact on Israelis.[9] Such statements not only foment anti-Palestinian sentiment and dehumanization, but also entirely ignore the history and daily violence experienced by Palestinians through nearly eight decades of colonial oppression.

Palestine Legal, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and other signatories are fielding hundreds of requests for support and protection from racist attacks and government targeting. These are the direct result of virulent anti-Palestinian rhetoric from Israel, echoed by our own elected officials as well as institutional and community leaders. The barrage of extreme attacks that Palestinians and their allies in the U.S. are facing for speaking out for Palestinian rights include:

• Violent assaults against Palestinian and allied protesters and communities, including the stabbing death of a 6-year old Palestinian boy and injury of his mother in Illinois[10];
• Severe doxing and harassment of students and individuals who sign statements in support of Palestine, tweet their sympathy, or otherwise stand in solidarity with Palestinians[11];
• Incitement to violence by Israel supporters and even elected officials[12];
• Employment consequences for people who express solidarity with Palestinians or criticize Israel’s actions[13];
• Censorship on social media platforms of Palestinian voices, including news outlets reporting on Palestine[14];
• Bullying and discrimination against students in K-12 schools[15];
• University censorship, condemnation and discrimination against students organizing for Palestine[16];
• Dangerous accusations of “antisemitism” and “support for terrorism” and calls for investigations, surveillance and censorship against Palestine advocates[17];
• Legislative initiatives displaying anti-Palestinian racism, including declaring the ineligibility for U.S. visas and inadmissibility of people holding Palestinian Authority-issued passports[18];
• Law enforcement visits to Palestinian and Muslim community members, abuse, arrest, and trumped up charges for speaking out and protesting for Palestinian rights.[19]

The hundreds of incidents happening across the country signal a much broader effort to criminalize dissent, justify censorship, and incite anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim harassment, doxing and vigilantism against Palestinians and their allies.

This is not a new phenomenon, but it is escalating at terrifying speed.

Over the last decade and more, Palestinians and their allies in the U.S. have gained significant traction in growing support for justice in Palestine in the face of relentless Israeli violations of human rights and international law. Over the same decade, Palestine Legal has documented extensive efforts by Israel and its lobby to attack the growing movement for Palestinian rights using tactics such as frivolous lawsuits, calls for criminalization, smear campaigns against individuals, legislation punishing peaceful boycotts, and baseless claims of discrimination based on student organizing for Palestine.[20] Lawmakers and public institutions have facilitated Israel’s repression machine by acquiescing to pressure to censor and punish Palestinians and their allies, and have engaged in anti-Palestinian discrimination in the process.[21]

This has mirrored a broader trend in the U.S. towards the dismantling of fundamental constitutional rights to dissent, protest, and boycott.[22] Lawmakers and officials, pushed by right-wing groups, have advanced legislation undermining social justice movements, including laws aimed at curtailing academic freedom to teach about systemic racism[23]; criminalizing Black Lives Matter protests and Indigenous and environmentalist protests against pipelines[24]; and punishing social justice boycott and divestment movements, including for Palestinian rights.[25] Surveillance, infiltration, disinformation, harassing lawsuits, and right-wing doxing have been deployed by government and private forces against justice movements.[26] The attack against movements and the criminalization of protest, most recently and starkly displayed by the extreme criminal charges against activists who opposed the razing of an Atlanta forest to build a militarized police complex,[27] is becoming normalized.

A failure to stand up now and uphold fundamental First Amendment rights and anti-discrimination laws and to stop the criminalization of dissent and the racist targeting of Palestinian and allied communities will only accelerate the erosion of the very protections that make dissent – and therefore democracy – possible. A failure to stand up against the virulent anti-Palestinian rhetoric will put whole communities in danger and fuel broader repression against them.

We therefore call on all government and elected officials and institutional decision makers to urgently protect the civil and constitutional rights of people who are calling for Palestinian freedom by:

• Affirming the humanity and dignity of Palestinians and condemning the dehumanization of Palestinians and allied communities;
• Affirming First Amendment and free speech rights to protest and organize for Palestinian rights and freedom;
• Rejecting calls to condemn, monitor, or punish groups protesting for Palestinian rights, and publicly condemning incitement to violence and racist rhetoric against Palestinians and their allies;
• Ensuring the safety of protesters and communities from violent attacks by pro-Israel agitators;
• Rejecting demands to investigate, punish or fire employees or students for their statements in solidarity with Palestinians or critical of Israel;
• Ceasing and denouncing efforts to conflate advocacy for Palestinian rights with “support for terrorism,” and opposing surveillance, criminal investigations and sanctions against Palestine advocates;
• Rejecting attempts to push a distorted definition of antisemitism that aims to censor criticism of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights by falsely labeling it anti-Jewish;
• Providing resources to students, employees and constituents who are being doxed, threatened and harassed for their political views on Palestine, including but not limited to digital security services, reputation management services and community protection;
• Ensuring that students, employees and constituents have the resources and support services they need to deal not only with the grief and trauma of a genocidal bombardment of Gaza and severe attacks on Palestinians throughout Palestine, but also of the negation of their humanity, their experiences, and their rights in the media, by their institutions, and by government officials.

It is incumbent upon us as legal professionals to ensure that dissent on a matter of such domestic and international significance is protected, and to prevent the racist targeting of communities based on their ethnic, racial and religious identities and political views. We urge you to put the imperative of safeguarding constitutional and civil rights above any political pressure to doubly victimize Palestinians and their allies for calling for freedom and justice.

Header photo credit: Sarah-Ji, Love + Struggle Photos

Signatories 

Individuals and Law Offices  

Notes 

[1] Alice Speri, ‘Beheaded Babies’ report spread wide and fast - but Israel military won’t confirm it, The Intercept, Oct. 11, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/israel-hamas-disinformation; Mondoweiss, U.S. networks are committing journalistic malpractice by only posting reporters in Israel, Oct. 12, 2023, https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/u-s-networks-are-committing-journalistic-malpractice-by-only-posting-reporters-in-israel).

[2] Dalal Iriqat, Gaza: The caged context, &Institute for Palestine Studies*, Oct. 13, 2023, https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1654395.

[3] See Sanjana Karanth, Israeli Defense Minister Announces Siege On Gaza To Fight ‘Human Animals,’ Huffington Post, Oct. 9. 2023, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/israel-defense-minister-human-animals-gaza-palestine_n_6524220ae4b09f4b8d412e0a.

[4] See, e.g., Paul Brown & Jemimah Herd, Strike on civilian convoy fleeing Gaza: What we know from verified video, BBC, Oct. 16, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67114281; AlJazeera, Palestinians fleeing Gaza’s north face air attacks in southern Khan Younis, Oct. 14, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/10/14/palestinians-who-fled-to-khan-younis-still-under-israeli-airstrikes; AlJazeera, ‘We reject the forced displacement’ in Gaza: Abbas tells Blinken in Jordan, Oct. 13, 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/13/abbas-blinken-jordan.

[5]See Eric Levitz, The U.S. is giving Israel permission for war crimes, New York Magazine, Oct. 13, 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/the-u-s-is-giving-israel-permission-for-war-crimes.html; Press Briefing, U.S. Dep’t of State, Oct. 10, 2023, https://video.state.gov/detail/videos/top-stories/video/6338801203112/department-of-state-daily-press-briefing---october-10-2023?autoStart=true; Matt Ber, ‘Eliminate,’ ‘eradicate,’ ‘level’: U.S. politicians escalate rhetoric against Hamas, Politico, Oct. 11, 2023, https://www.politico.com/newsletters/national-security-daily/2023/10/11/eliminate-eradicate-level-u-s-politicians-escalate-rhetoric-against-hamas-00120909; Brett Wilkins, ‘Level the place,’ declares Lindsey Graham as Israel does exactly that to Gaza, Information Clearing House, Oct. 12, 2023, https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/10/12/level-the-place-declares-lindsey-graham-as-israel-does-exactly-that-to-gaza/#.

[6] Eric Adams [@NYCMayor], “At a moment when innocent people are being slaughtered and children kidnapped in Israel, it is disgusting that this group of extremists would show support for terrorism. I reject this. New York City rejects this. Do not use our streets to spread your hate.,” X, Oct. 8, 2023, https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1711121143585731008.

[7] See, e.g., Joseph Biden [@POTUS], “. . .In cities across the country, local and federal law enforcement partners are closely monitoring for any domestic threats in connection with the horrific terrorist attacks in Israel,” X, October 10, 2023, https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1711744505743810672; Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman, US law enforcement steps up security ahead of expected Mideast protests, Reuters, Oct. 12, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-law-enforcement-steps-up-security-ahead-expected-mideast-protests-2023-10-13.

[8] See, e.g., The Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility Project, et al., Mapping Muslims: NYPD Spying and its Impact on Muslim Americans (2013), https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59134566e58c623970f2cd48/t/5cfd8de47e01750001c0859b/1560120808092/Mapping-Muslims.pdf.

[9] See, e.g., Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, University of Floria president releases strong pro-Israel statement, blasts ‘elite academia’, Fox News, Oct. 11, 2023, https://www.foxnews.com/us/university-florida-president-releases-strong-pro-israel-statement-blasts-elite-academia.

[10] See, e.g., Beth Lawrence, et al., Chicago area landlord accused of killing boy, 6, stabbing woman because they were Muslim, CBS News, October 15, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/plainfield-township-stabbing-woman-child-will-county/; Elijah Westbrook, NYPD: Group waving Israeli flags accused of attacking 3 men in possible anti-Palestinian hate crime in Brooklyn, CBS News, Oct. 12, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/nypd-group-waving-israeli-flags-attacked-man-who-yelled-free-palestine.

[11] See, e.g., Ramishah Maruf, For Palestinian Americans and activists, doxxing is nothing new, CNN, Oct. 15, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/15/business/palestinian-americans-activists-doxxing/index.html; Ivana Saric and Mark Deehan, Harvard student group members doxxed after Pro-Palestine letter, Axios, Oct. 12, 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/10/12/harvard-students-doxxed-israel-palestine.

[12] Council Member Arrested for Bringing Gun to Protest Against Pro-Palestinian Campus Rally, The City, Oct. 13, 2023, https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/10/13/23915609/inna-vernikov-gun-arrest-brookl-college-palestinian-israel-protest; Middle East Eye, Pro-Israel demonstrators in New York explicitly call for killing all Palestinians and Arabs, Oct. 10, 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGup5iLjUi8.

[13] See, e.g., Mike Wendling, Three law students who backed Israel letters lose job offers, BBC, Oct. 18, 2023, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67152271; Martha McHardy, Sports reporter fired for saying Philadelphia 76ers’ pro-Israel post ‘sucks,’ Independent, October 10, 2023, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/phillyvoice-reporter-76ers-israel-hamas-attack-b2427177.html; Vimal Patel and Anemona Hartocollis, N.Y.U. Law Student Sends Anti-Israel Message and Loses a Job Offer, The New York Times, Oct. 11, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/11/us/nyu-law-harvard-hamas-israel.html.

[14] Prem Thakker, Sam Biddle, TikTok, Instagram Target Outlet Covering Israel-Palestine Amid Siege on Gaza, The Intercept, Oct. 11, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/10/11/tiktok-instagram-israel-palestine/; The Cradle, Meta 'taking steps' to censor support for Palestinian resistance, Oct. 13, 2023, https://new.thecradle.co/articles/meta-taking-steps-to-censor-support-for-palestinian-resistance.

[15] Michael Abeyta, Cherry Creek students concerned with bullying following the war in Israel, CBS Colorado, Oct. 12, 2023, https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-cherry-creek-students-concerned-bullying-following-war-israel/.

[16] Bianca Quilantan, Middle East crisis pushes Education Department to curb campus protests, Politico, Oct. 12, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/12/pressure-mounts-on-education-department-to-penalize-antisemitism-on-campus-00121174; Madina Toure, Top American colleges seek to quell anti-Israel sentiment in wake of Hamas attacks, PoliticoPro, Oct. 10, 2023, https://subscriber.politicopro.com/article/2023/10/anti-israel-sentiment-college-campuses-00120853.

[17] See, e.g., supra notes 6 & 7; Luke Tress, Jewish groups demand US schools defund pro-Palestinian group for lauding Hamas attack, Times of Israel, Oct. 14, 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-groups-demand-us-schools-defund-pro-palestinian-group-for-lauding-hamas-attack/; Johanna Alonso et al., A day of tension and protests on campus, Inside Higher Ed, Oct. 13, 2023, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/free-speech/2023/10/13/tension-over-israel-hamas-war-grows-college-campuses.

[18] See, e.g., H.R. 5959, 118th Cong. (2023), https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/5959 (titled “To make ineligible for visas, admission, or parole aliens that are holders of passports issued by the Palestinian Authority” and introduced Oct. 13, 2023).

[19] See, e.g., Prem Thakker and Daniel Boguslaw, FBI targets Muslims and Palesitnians in wake of Hamas attack, civil rights advocates warn, The Intercept, Oct. 13, 2023, https://theintercept.com/2023/10/13/palestinians-muslims-fbi/; @notcishet, Oct. 12, 2023, X, “a Black trans jewish woman was arrested by the nypd for giving a zionist a papercut and now the new york times, the new york post and the columbia spectator are spreading LIES about her “assaulting an israeli student with a stick.” pls help us spread the truth,” https://twitter.com/notcishet/status/1712619737417499063.

[20] See Palestine Legal and The Center for Constitutional Rights, The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack, 2015, available at https://palestinelegal.org/the-palestine-exception; Palestine Legal, Year-in-Review: Bolder and More Resilient Palestine Advocacy Resists Growing Backlash, 2022, https://palestinelegal.org/2022-report.

[21] Radhika Sainath, The Anti-Palestinian censorship machine runs on racism, Jacobin, April 1, 2023, https://jacobin.com/2023/04/palestinian-racism-discrimination-antisemitism-definition-ihra-bds.

[22] The Center for Constitutional Rights, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, et al., How the “War on Terror” has Metastasized to Suppress Dissent, https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2023/09/ICCPR%20Terrorism%20Frame%20Shadow%20Report%209.12.23.pdf; The Center for Constitutional Rights et al., ALEC Attacks, 2019, https://www.alecattacks.org.

[23] Peter Greene, Teacher Anti-CRT Bills Coast To Coast: A State By State Guide, Forbes, Feb. 16, 2022, https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2022/02/16/teacher-anti-crt-bills-coast-to-coast-a-state-by-state-guide.

[24] See, e.g., International Center for Non-Profit Law, Analysis of US Anti-Protest Bills, https://www.icnl.org/post/news/analysis-of-anti-protest-bills?location=&status=&issue=&date=; Hillary Beaumont, Revealed: pipeline company paid Minnesota police for arresting and surveilling protesters, The Guardian, Oct. 5, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/oct/05/line-3-pipeline-enbridge-paid-police-arrest-protesters; Nina Lakhani, ‘I’m not the guilty one’: the water protector facing jail time for trying to stop a pipeline, The Guardian Aug. 27, 2023, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/27/climate-activist-mylene-vialard-line-3-pipeline-protest-climate-activism-crackdown.

[25] Palestine Legal, Legislation targeting advocacy for Palestinian rights, https://legislation.palestinelegal.org/; Foundation for Middle East Peace, Free Speech-Quashing Laws Based on Israel-Focused Anti-Boycott Laws, https://fmep.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/BDS-Laws-as-Template-for-Laws-on-Other-Issues.pdf; Meg Cunningham, Model legislation targets banks that divest from fossil fuel companies, ABC News, Dec. 22, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/model-legislation-targets-banks-divest-fossil-fuel-companies/story?id=81865813; Erika Bolstad, Boycotting the Boycotters: In Oil-Friendly States, New Bills Aim to Block Divestment from Fossil Fuels, In These Times, Mar. 19, 2021, https://inthesetimes.com/article/fossil-fuel-divestment-ban-texas-north-dakota-oil.

[26] See, e.g., Chip Gibbons, Still Spying on Dissent: The Enduring Problem of First Amendment Abuse, 2019, https://www.rightsanddissent.org/fbi-spying/; Alleen Brown, In the mercenaries’ own words: Documents detail Tigerswan infiltration of Standing Rock, The Intercept, Nov. 15, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/11/15/standing-rock-tigerswan-infiltrator-documents/; Micah Lee, How right-wing extremists stalk, dox, and harass their enemies, The Intercept, Sept. 6, 2017, https://theintercept.com/2017/09/06/how-right-wing-extremists-stalk-dox-and-harass-their-enemies.

[27] Zohra Ahmed and Elizabeth Taxel, How Georgia indicted a movement, The Nation, Sept. 12, 2023, https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cop-city-indictment-atlanta.