In Landmark Victory for Student Free Speech, Department of Education Dismisses Complaints

Decisions on three California campuses defeat attempts to silence campus activism around Palestine. August 28, 2013, Berkeley, CA – Civil rights organizations this week welcomed news that the Department of Education's (DOE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has closed three investigations against three University of California schools, at Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and Irvine, which falsely alleged that Palestinian rights activism created an anti-Semitic climate. The complaints underlying the investigation claimed that student protests and academic programing in support of Palestinian rights and critical of Israel "created a hostile environment for Jewish students."

Read more here.

CCR, NLG, ADC Criticize FAU for Treatment of Students Disciplined for Protesting IDF Soldier Event

CCR, NLG South Florida, and ADC sent a letter to Florida Atlantic University (FAU) expressing concern with the disciplinary actions the administration took against five students who protested a lecture by an IDF soldier on their campus.  To avoid a stain on their academic records and to be able to continue their education and activism without the distraction of a protracted legal battle, the students signed agreements putting them on probation, prohibiting some of them from holding leadership positions in official student organizations, and mandating that they attend a “Campus of Difference” training program developed by none other than the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The ADL has falsely accused some of the same students of anti-Semitism and has been at the forefront of efforts to silence advocates for Palestinian rights because it disagrees with them.  FAU’s actions appear to be in response to a concerted campaign by outside organizations to malign students engaged in Palestinian rights advocacy on campus, and to pressure the University to act against them.  CCR and other organizations will continue to monitor FAU’s treatment of these students. To read the full letter, click HERE.

To read the students’ statement, click HERE.

SF City Counselor warns against branding criticism of Israel as "hate speech"

San Francisco City Counselor John Avalos wrote a letter to the SF Municipal Transportation Authority, warning against the "dangerous precedent of branding political speech that may be unpopular to some as 'hate speech' in an effort to silence it."  Last week the San Francisco Supervisor disagreed with his colleagues who characterized an ad placed on SF buses as "hate speech."  The ad featured a quote from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu that draws similarities between apartheid in South Africa and Israel's system of rule in the occupied Palestinian territory. The ad was placed by the organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).   Supervisor Avalos clearly distinguished AMP’s core political speech from hate speech, and encouraged SF Municipal Transportation Authority to leave open public buses as a forum for all speech.  Read the full letter.

Free Speech, Anti-Semitism & Campus Climate: forum at UC Santa Cruz

ucsc debate

University of California Committee on Academic Freedom Rejects Efforts to Suppress Palestinian Advocacy

The Chair of the University of California's Committee on Academic Freedom  (UCAF) wrote to the University of California's Academic Senate urging the University to reject concerted efforts to pressure the University to enact restrictions on the free speech rights of campus organizations and individuals advocating for the interests of Palestinians.   Read the full letter hear. The letter notes that "the majority of UCAF (there was one dissenting vote) urges that the [Academic] Senate take a strong position rejecting any efforts (whether originating outside the University or inside it) that would limit free expression by supporters of either the Israeli people or the Palestinian people. Vigorous debate is a core function of the great university, and must be unfettered.  On controversial issues like Middle Eastern politics, many people have strongly held views which are deeply offensive and upsetting to some. Be that as it may, no one has a right to a campus free from expression they find offensive or even insulting. What people on our campuses do have, on the other hand, is the right to present counter-arguments and analyses of their own. "

In the system of shared governance at the University of California, UCAF and the Academic Senate play important roles to determine policy.

Rights Groups Call on DOE to Address Use of Title VI to Silence Students Advocating for Palestinian Rights

The Center for Constitutional Rights and seven other rights organizations today called on the Department of Education to address the use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by Israel-aligned groups to suppress student speech advocating for Palestinian rights and critical of Israeli policies. See CCR's Press Release and the letters here.

"Shhh Don't Talk About Palestine" Presentation at UC Davis Law School

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Join us April 24rd, 2013 at UC Davis Law School for a discussion on the concerted campaign to suppress students' First Amendment rights to criticize Israeli state policy. From Brooklyn College, to University of South Florida, from UC San Diego to UC Davis, students are facing legal threats and intimidation which mislabel their advocacy for Palestinian human rights as anti-Semitic. This intimidation chills speech on the Palestine-Israel question - one of the most important political debates of our time, and robs university students of robust intellectual debate essential in a democratic society. It also poses serious dangers to pro-Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students who are already at risk in an Islamophobic US political climate.