In April 2023, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) entered into a resolution agreement with the University of Vermont (UVM) over a Title VI complaint brought by two Israel advocacy groups, the Brandeis Center and Jewish on Campus (JOC), on behalf of anonymous Zionist students.

Anti-Palestinian groups are attempting to use this agreement—which does not mention Zionism or the politicized International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism—to chill speech supporting Palestinian rights by claiming OCR has created a new policy incorporating criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism into anti-discrimination laws. This is false.