Harvard Must Not Be Pressured To Violate Civil Rights of Palestinian Students to Get Back Billions from Trump

Palestine Legal's argument in the Harvard lawsuit against Trump revoking over $3 billion in federal funding

CONTACT: Palestine Legal Media, media@palestinelegal.org

Tuesday June 10th, 2025 — Today Palestine Legal announced the filing of a "friend of the court" brief on behalf of the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) in Harvard University's lawsuit against the Trump Administration's revocation of over $3 billion in federal funding and research grants.

The Trump administration suspended billions in Harvard's funding on the false pretense that the university fostered a "hostile environment of antisemitism" by allowing students to speak out against Israel's genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. To restore their funding, Harvard is in part arguing it has taken steps to address antisemitism — but these actions have included extreme censorship of pro-Palestinian speech, which risks violating Palestinian and associated students' civil rights.

The brief states Harvard University has taken several actions that pose a serious risk to the civil rights of Palestinian and associated students, whose rights are protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The university administration suspended and sanctioned the Harvard PSC, the main student group devoted to Palestinian rights, to prevent it from engaging in any activities on campus. The Harvard Law Review censored an article by a Palestinian doctoral student after it was already commissioned, edited, fact-checked, and prepared for publication, in an act of censorship totally unprecedented at the publication. Harvard Medical School canceled an event about wartime healthcare featuring patients from Gaza who are Palestinian children aged one, six, and fourteen less than 12 hours before its scheduled time, calling it "one-sided".

"As our brief explains, Palestinian and allied students have been censored and punished for speaking out for Palestinian rights -- or just being Palestinian," said Palestine Legal senior managing attorney Radhika Sainath. "These explicit acts of racism against Palestinians are particularly cruel – Palestinians have the same rights as anyone else to share their families' stories and speak out against their own oppression."

Harvard has also incorporated the heavily criticized IHRA definition of antisemitism into the school's disciplinary policies, which now defines "Zionism" as a protected class. The IHRA definition, promoted by right-wing Israel lobby groups, conflates virtually all criticism of Israel's human rights violations with antisemitism. This decision will disproportionately impact Palestinian and associated students, including Jewish students critical of Israel's policies, all of whom may be accused of conduct violations for engaging in political expression or relaying personal narratives and experiences.

The brief argues that speech critical of Israel's treatment of Palestinians targets the policies of a foreign government—not students’ race, color, or national origin––and falls well outside Title VI’s reach. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act does not and cannot require universities to punish expression critical of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, as doing so would lead universities to violate Title VI by discriminating against Palestinians for speaking about their identity and demands to end the genocide against their own people.

"We hope the Court will affirm that no university, including Harvard, should have billions in federal funding held hostage by the Trump administration for allowing students to speak out against Israel's genocide and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza," said Palestine Legal staff attorney Dylan Saba. "The law is clear – universities cannot be pressured to suppress speech in favor of Palestinian rights, simply because some students who oppose those protected rights find the speech scary or uncomfortable."

Background:

Palestine Legal, a legal aid organization, 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. This trend builds on the decades-long effort of right-wing Israel lobby groups and lawmakers to censor criticism of Israel on college campuses.

Read the full amicus brief here.

Read the full complaint Harvard v. Trump here.