Pal Legal to Dep’t of Ed.: Investigate Anti-Palestinian Racism at Florida State

For nearly a year, Florida State University student leader Ahmad Daraldik has been the target of rampant anti-Palestinian racism, which his school has not only tolerated but amplified, as detailed in a new federal complaint. 

On Tuesday, April 13, Palestine Legal filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights demanding an immediate investigation into a hostile environment of anti-Palestinian racism that continues to fester at FSU.

The complaint explains that the university not only stood by while a hostile environment ballooned on campus, but that it took actions of its own to reinforce implicit and explicit forms of anti-Palestinian racism. 

Though the hostile environment at FSU has threatened Ahmad’s mental health, his ability to complete his courses, and his ability to function on a daily basis, he is determined to stand strong. “I am a Palestinian-Muslim American. These are things that make me who I am. Things that allow me to see the world from different perspectives and for what it truly is,” Ahmad explained. “I will not change my views on reality to comfort someone who has not lived through what I had to.”

Tuesday’s filing is the first complaint of its kind alleging discrimination against a student based on Palestinian national origin. 

“It’s time to speak out about racism against Palestinians as the status quo,” said Michael Ratner Justice Fellow Amira Mattar. “We’re demanding that the federal government hold Florida state to account because we must put an end to the erasure, dismissal, and intentional distortion of Palestinian voices.”

Anti-Palestinian Harassment

In June 2020, Ahmad was elected as the first Palestinian-Muslim student senate president at FSU. Almost immediately, Ahmad faced a cruel and bigoted harassment campaign attempting to shame him for sharing his experiences as a Palestinian. Anti-Palestinian groups, and an app with ties to the Israeli government, seized on social media posts he made as a child living in Palestine and more recent posts reacting to his experience under Israeli occupation.

Those who attacked Ahmad made no secret of the anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim sentiments that fueled their hatred, with messages like “you stupid Palestinians,” “deport him to Gaza,” “dumb ass monkey ass piece of Arab shit,” “dirty ass towel heads,” and “Ahmad Daraldik should be chastised (castrated) immediately and sent to a Muslim country of his choice.”

Powerful state politicians joined the fray, deepening the hostile anti-Palestinian environment for Ahmad, including by threatening the university's funding and sending letters to student senators urging his removal.

Florida State’s Failures

As the attacks against Ahmad grew, the university refused to support Ahmad. Instead, FSU President John Thrasher issued a public statement characterizing Ahmad’s old posts as antisemitic. This gave an official seal of approval to the bigoted anti-Palestinian stereotype that Palestinians who relate and react to experiences of violence and oppression at the hands of the Israeli state are inspired by anti-Jewish animus. 

Both President Thrasher and the student senate have further bolstered this bigotry by adopting a distorted definition of antisemitism as official campus policy.

The university also opened a student conduct investigation into Jack Keen, a fellow student who spoke out in support of Ahmad. While the investigation cleared Jack of wrongdoing, it sent a chilling message to students who support Ahmad that they, too, could be dragged into a spiral of false accusations and charges.

After multiple complaints from Ahmad, as well as a demand letter from Palestine Legal outlining the university’s violations of Ahmad’s civil rights, FSU hired an outside firm that issued a flawed and cursory report of its investigation denying that FSU’s actions were discriminatory.

FSU’s actions take place against a backdrop of anti-Palestinian sentiment in Florida government where lawmakers have proposed 19 measures targeting advocacy for Palestinian rights.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act

Institutions that receive federal financial assistance are prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin. Universities that fail to remedy a “hostile environment” on campus could lose federal financial assistance if they’re found to be in violation of anti-discrimination laws.

Though pro-Israel groups have long been filing Title VI complaints alleging a hostile antisemitic environment in an effort to censor Palestine advocacy on campuses, these complaints have largely failed because OCR has recognized that such advocacy is protected First Amendment activity.

The complaint against FSU makes clear that the harassment Ahmad faced “went well beyond protected political speech and debate.” Rather, it targeted Ahmad for expressing his core Palestinian identity:

It should be clear that Palestinians who assert that they do in fact exist, oppose their oppression and call for their equality and freedom, are not attacking anyone else’s safety when they share their views and experiences. Rather, Ahmad and Palestinians like Ahmad, who courageously reject Israel’s discriminatory practices and dehumanizing narratives in the face of erasure are doing so because their humanity is at stake, and as such these attacks strike at the core of Palestinian identity.

While Ahmad’s experiences of anti-Palestinian harassment are by no means unique, his complaint is likely the first to challenge such harassment on campus under federal civil rights laws.

Tuesday’s complaint supplements an earlier document Palestine Legal filed on April 9 providing notice to OCR about an anti-Palestinian hostile environment at FSU.

Since 2014, Palestine Legal has responded to over 1700 incidents of suppression of Palestine advocacy, many involving harassment campaigns against individuals like Ahmad aimed at intimidating Palestinians and their allies into silence and inaction.

If you have experienced anti-Palestinian harassment for advocating for Palestinian freedom, contact Palestine Legal here.

To see the complaint and a summary and timeline of Ahmad’s case, see our case page here.