Trump's Supercharged Attacks on Student Activism for Palestine Follows 50% Increase in Suppression Last Year
/CONTACT: Palestine Legal Media, media@palestinelegal.org
Chicago, IL, April 15th, 2025 – Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization supporting the movement for Palestinian freedom in the U.S., received over 2,000 requests for legal support last year, a 55% increase from 2023, and a 600% increase from 2022. About two-thirds of reports of people targeted for their Palestine-related advocacy that Palestine Legal received in 2024 were campus-related, including over 100 reports at K-12 institutions.
The report comes as the Trump administration threatens and implements sweeping actions against Palestine protestors on college campuses, including deportations, federal investigations, and withholding hundreds of millions in funding from universities.
"Trump's extreme and authoritarian tactics, including abducting and deporting international students because of their protected speech and advocacy for Palestinian rights, are a desperate attempt to silence a movement that is successfully shifting public opinion to oppose US support for Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," said Dima Khalidi, Executive Director of Palestine Legal. "The report underscores how racism against Palestinians was at the core of the widespread crackdown on student activists, and how it paved the path for Trump’s wild overreaches. But it also shows how at every turn, students and other activists have continued to defy the crackdowns to make their voices heard about an urgent moral crisis.”
Palestine Legal's new report demonstrates how universities and other institutions helped lay the groundwork for Trump's supercharged attacks on political speech that defies his agenda. House Republicans have even recently called on colleges, including Columbia, Pomona, and Bowdoin College, to turn over student disciplinary records to Congress.
The report details major trends in repression on campuses and beyond, including brutal police crackdowns, floods of university disciplinary cases against students, faculty and staff, as well as high rates of employment discrimination and retaliation for people speaking out in their workplace, doxing, harassment, physical violence against Palestinians and allies, and more.
Palestine Legal is currently tracking a trend of schools adopting new disciplinary processes with few due process protections and little to no transparency to suppress pro-Palestine speech. Impacted students and legal experts say it’s an effort to appease Trump and right-wing donors. At Columbia, a new shadowy disciplinary committee targeted Mahmoud Khalil before he was unlawfully abducted by ICE agents. At the University of Chicago, a new disciplinary process blocks faculty judges from meeting accused students and has resulted in the suspension of an Arab senior and full-ride Odyssey scholar Manuel Rivera for two years for the vague and Orwellian offense of “going against the spirit of the student handbook.”
“Schools like the University of Chicago have spent the last year arresting, surveilling, and even evicting us from student housing, all for protesting Israel’s horrific genocide in Gaza and their investment in it,” said University of Chicago student Manuel Rivera. “These universities pride themselves on the freedoms of speech and protest. They should protect these fundamental pillars, not attack, punish, and silence students to appease the federal government and right-wing donors.”
The report also highlights stories of resilience where student activists across the US have defied university crackdowns and other attempts to silence their activism for Palestine. This escalating suppression of the Palestine movement is a response to its success in shifting public opinion in support of Palestinian rights and against Israel's oppression. A Pew Research poll released last week revealed that more than half of US adults (53%) have an unfavorable view of Israel, a significant increase from 42% in March 2022.
Click here to read Palestine Legal’s 2024 report, “A New Generation for Liberation: Historic Student Protests Defy University Crackdowns.”
About Palestine Legal: Founded in 2012, Palestine Legal is an organization dedicated to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of people in the US who speak out for Palestinian freedom. Palestine Legal is the only legal organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to supporting the movement for Palestinian rights. Our attorneys are based in Chicago, New York City and the Bay Area, and our work spans all 50 states and Washington D.C.
Contact us at media@palestinelegal.org for comment from Palestine Legal attorneys, experts, and students.