Palestine Legal and UNC SJP Demand Investigation into Anti-Palestinian Racism

On Friday, April 5, Palestine Legal filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) urging an immediate investigation into UNC-Chapel Hill’s systemic pattern of discriminatory treatment against Palestinian students and their allies. 

The complaint was filed on behalf of a faculty member and a graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill who work closely with UNC’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (UNC SJP), a student organization that advocates for Palestinian human rights and equality. The complaint outlines a pattern of UNC’s disparate treatment against Palestinian students, as the university administration 1) immediately provided support to Israeli students, but failed to extend the same resources to Palestinian students, even after meeting with student leaders who voiced concerns about the lack of resources; 2) failed to protect students who have faced pervasive anti-Palestinian racism, including bullying and harassment; and 3) acquiesced to the Board of Trustees’ and state politicians’ racist crusade against UNC SJP. 

“UNC-Chapel Hill has long prided itself as the ‘University of the People,’ but such a slogan apparently does not encompass Palestinian students and their allies. Instead, UNC has condoned anti-Palestinian racism and harassment while simultaneously ignoring requests for equal access to resources for its Palestinian students who are watching a genocide of their people unfold before their eyes,” said Sunny Osment, a second-year law student at UNC-Chapel Hill and an intern with Palestine Legal who worked on the complaint. “Beyond going against its proclaimed values, UNC is breaking the law: Palestinian students and their allies have a right to access the same educational resources as their peers.” 

“Students should not have to choose between their education and their ability to speak out against genocide. By cracking down on Palestine activism at the behest of racist trustees and politicians, UNC-Chapel Hill is trying to force Palestinian students into this unfair choice,” explained senior staff attorney Zoha Khalili. “We urge the Department of Education to investigate and to tell UNC-Chapel Hill that it must treat all of its students fairly instead of prioritizing some over others.”

Read the complaint here.

Stay up to date with UNC SJP on their Instagram.