Palestine Legal Urges Dept. of Education to End Extreme Delay into First-Ever Anti-Palestinian Discrimination Complaint

PALESTINIAN-AMERICAN FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY STUDENT AHMAD DARALDIK. (CREDIT: AHMAD DARALDIK)

Yesterday, Palestine Legal sent a letter urging  the Department of Education to immediately open an investigation into Palestinian student Ahmad Daraldik’s civil rights complaint against Florida State University, which was filed over 19 months ago, on April 9, 2021.

The 22-page complaint, the first of its kind alleging a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on the basis of Palestinian national origin, described the severe and pervasive anti-Palestinian hostile environment Ahmad faced after he was elected student senate president in 2020.

“This delay exceeds the Office for Civil Rights’ (OCR) internal benchmark to resolve a complaint within 180 days of receipt by a factor of three – and we have received no explanation or justification as to why” said the letter, sent on Monday to OCR. “As you are well aware, Ahmad faced a months-long campaign of racist anti-Palestinian harassment and cyberbullying – including by FSU actors – after he publicly and proudly came out as a Palestinian in 2020.”

The letter notes that Palestine Legal has documented over 2000 incidents of suppression of U.S. based Palestine advocacy since 2014 and that one “key complaint, that comes up again and again, is how people who speak up for Palestinian rights are censored, punished or otherwise treated differently because the human rights of people they wish to advance – Palestinians – belong to a group disfavored by powerful actors.”

Unlike pro-Israel advocates, Palestinians do not have a bevy of politicians and lobby groups petitioning the government and college campuses on their behalf. OCR has acted with great speed when opening or otherwise making a determination into Title VI complaints targeting speech supporting Palestinian rights. These complaints were resolved anywhere between one and eight months. In stark contrast, Ahmad’s complaint has remained in limbo for over nineteen months.

“OCR needs to do its job and open an investigation into FSU’s unlawful anti-Palestinian hostile environment,” said senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath. “It is frankly shameful that this has taken so long. What message does this send to other young Palestinians, like Ahmad, who want to be able to acknowledge their heritage and still get a college education?”

For more on Ahmad’s case, see our case page “Student Leader Challenges Anti-Palestinian Campus Climate at FSU”.