Legal Resources for Activists Advocating for Palestine Across the U.S.

With rising anti-Palestinian attacks, particularly on university campuses, we’ve got your back.

If you need legal support, please contact us through our webform.

While the Israeli government continues its indiscriminate bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza and appears to be setting the stage for a second Nakba, racists and Islamophobes in the United States have sought to silence and punish Palestinians and their allies for speaking out in solidarity with Palestine.

Palestine Legal has received an unprecedented surge in requests for legal support over the past week. Activists and community members have been doxxed, threatened, investigated, censored, questioned, fired, and even assaulted simply because of their views, while government officials appear to be mobilizing law enforcement resources against them for their speech activities.

While we work to respond to these requests, here are resources to prepare for and resist backlash against your activism, including contact information for other organizations responding to this unprecedented backlash.

Know your rights for students

• Use our template letter to demand that your school take action to protect students who support Palestine.

• Check out the National Lawyer’s Guild’s Know Your Rights for Campus Protests.

• Watch our senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath’s Know Your Rights talk for student Palestine activists on the Electronic Intifada podcast below:

Protect yourself from doxing and online smear campaigns

It is impossible to eliminate all risk of online harassment, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself and mitigate harms.

Guidance for the present moment from National Students for Justice in Palestine:

See more on instagram.

Guides on online privacy and digital hygiene to prevent doxxing:

• Equality Labs’ Anti-Doxing Guide for Activists Facing Attacks  

• Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Doxxing: Tips To Protect Yourself Online & How to Minimize Harm 

• PEN America’s Online Harassment Field Manual

• Electronic Frontier Foundation's Surveillance Self-Defense

If you have already been doxxed, check out Digital Defense Guide for the Doxxed for steps you can take to mitigate the harm.

Because of recent efforts to pressure employers to fire Palestinians and others who speak out in solidarity with Palestine, be especially mindful of sharing employer information on social media sites, including LinkedIn.

Social media sites and hosting providers often prohibit online harassment in their terms of use, so if you find yourself or another person targeted by one of these sites, be sure to report the violation and encourage others to do so. Also report online hate speech, incitement, smear campaigns and more to 7amleh here. 

Know your rights at work

• The Council on American-Islamic Relations has released guidance on employee rights in the workplace

• If you are working together with colleagues to change the way your employer addresses the issue of Palestine in the workplace, you may have additional protections under federal law.

Protest & organize safely

• Our Know Your Rights resources for students

• National Lawyers Guild’s Know Your Rights for Protestors

• CUNY CLEAR’s Infiltration at Protests & Online

• NLG-SF’s Be Bold Be Smart: How to Keep Each Other Safe in the Face of Increased State Repression 

• Contact your local chapter of the National Lawyer’s Guild in advance of protests to request legal observers or to find out if they have a legal support hotline available during your protest. Links for Chicago, NYC, and Los Angeles.

Know your rights when dealing with law enforcement

Activists across the country are reporting increased police presence at protests and on university campus due to racist fear-mongering by pro-Israel groups and government officials. Aggressive attacks by Zionists against Palestine solidarity protestors have in several instances resulted in Palestinians or their allies being arrested or questioned by law enforcement. We urge community members NOT to talk to law enforcement without a lawyer present. We have also heard from travelers who have be subjected to unnecessary and invasive questioning when entering the country after travel to the Middle East. Be sure to check out CUNY CLEAR’s guide to know what questions you don’t have to answer.

• Our advisory from 2021 on law enforcement visits to Palestine activists 

• Center for Constitutional Rights’ If an Agent Knocks

• National Lawyers Guild’s You Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement Encounters 

• CUNY CLEAR’s Flying While Muslim

Reporting backlash and additional legal support

In addition to requesting legal support from Palestine Legal, you can also reach out to:

• American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee to report incidents involving students (both K-12 and on college campuses)

• 7amleh to report social media censorship, hate speech, smear campaigns, hacking, and more

• Council on American-Islamic Relations to file civil rights complaints

• CUNY’s CLEAR Clinic for support and representation responding to law enforcement visits, travel issues, and charitable giving advice.

Additional resources:

• Palestinian Feminist Collective’s Palestine Digital Action Toolkit

• Check out this 2021 piece from Yousef Munayyer by on the meaning of the phrase “From the River to the Sea”

• Follow IMEU for updates and media coverage and support

• US Campaign for Palestinian Rights for action alerts and other resources

• Al-AwdaNY’s How Do We Talk About Palestine Now? ...Rebutting Zionist Narratives (video)

• Visualizing Palestine’s graphics to contextualize current events

• Council on American Islamic Relations' How to Respond When Your School/University or Employer Release a Biased Statement about Israel and Palestine

• Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Guidance for Students Targeted in Response to Palestine Rights Advocacy

• Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Guidance to U.S. Employees in Response to Islamophobic and Anti-Palestinian Rhetoric in the Workplace  

• If you are interested in donating to Gaza through unvetted channels, but are concerned about legal risks, see these resources from the Muslim Legal Fund of America

• Our interactive guide on efforts to redefine antisemitism to silence advocacy for Palestinian rights