Civil Rights, Community Orgs Call on SFSU to Support Rabab Abdulhadi
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Palestine Legal, along with 19 other local and national civil rights, community, and educational organizations, has urged San Francisco State University to publicly defend Professor Rabab Abdulhadi against a years-long campaign of harassment, threats, and legal bullying.
In the letter, sent on Tuesday to the university’s new president, Lynn Mahoney, groups described Dr. Abdulhadi’s valuable contributions to the university, to academia and to justice-oriented communities everywhere. The letter recounts the history of politically motivated retaliation against Dr. Abdulhadi, including a July 2019 letter from an anonymous “retired NY City police detective” that warned the professor to “be careful re: your personal safety. Careful when crossing intersection, careful when walking alone at night, careful about seemingly trivial arguments with anyone… accidents will happen and if (when?) one should strike you.”
The letter was sent on behalf of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, American Friends Service Committee, ANSWER Coalition - Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, the Arab Resource & Organizing Center, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, Friends of Sabeel North America, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area, Jews for Palestinian Right of Return, Labor for Palestine, LAGAI – Queer Insurrection, the Middle East Children’s Alliance, the National Lawyers Guild, NorCal Sabeel, Palestine Legal, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism, the Tree of Life Educational Fund, and the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
The letter also describes efforts to impede Dr. Abdulhadi’s research, smear campaigns against her on the SFSU campus, a twice-dismissed federal lawsuit against her, and a campaign to censor her postings on social media, all spearheaded by right-wing Zionist organizations.
“We urge you to be mindful of this history and these tactics in your dealings related to Dr. Abdulhadi and other faculty members and students who are targeted for their identities or the political implications of their scholarship,” the letter states. “These attacks take a toll not only on Dr. Abdulhadi and the [Arab and Muslims Ethnicities and Diasporas] Studies program, but also on the university and its broader community. We urge you to be bold in your defense of Dr. Abdulhadi and in publicly supporting her in carrying out the duties she was hired to perform. Principles of academic freedom must be upheld regardless of whether the university agrees with Dr. Abdulhadi’s stance on justice in and for Palestine.”
Read the letter here.
You can support Dr. Abdulhadi’s legal defense here.