IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED! CALL NY ASSEMBLY MEMBERS!

The New York State Senate passed a bill on Tuesday, January 28 that would deny state funding to colleges and universities that give funds to entities that support boycotts of Israel and 3 other countries.  A virtually identical bill will be considered in the State Assembly's Higher Education Committee on Monday, February 3rd  - CALL NY ASSEMBLY MEMBERS NOW! See the Jewish Voice for Peace Action Alert here and below.

See CCR and NLG-NYC's press release and letter to Assembly Members here and below.

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ACTION ALERT

Make your voice heard today, Monday Feb. 3rd. 

Help stop passage of a bill in the NY State Assembly that will stifle free speech and academic freedom!A bill targeting the American Studies Association (ASA) because it passed a resolution supporting an academic boycott of Israel has been passed in the NY State Senate and is being fast-tracked in the Assembly. If this becomes law it would prohibit public universities and colleges from using any taxpayer money on groups that support boycotts of Israel. Just as dangerous, this law will lay the groundwork for other attempts to silence debate and opposition on other controversial issues.

We have learned that today, Monday, the proposed legislation will move through three Assembly committees. They could even try to bring it to a vote in the full Assembly before they adjourn for the day.

Three key members of the Assembly need to hear from as many people as possible, and these calls need to be made this morning.

• If you can only make one call, call the office of Deborah Glick, the chair of the Higher Education Committee: 518-455-4841. If her phone is busy, try again. You can also email her by clicking here.

• If you can make a second call, call Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver: 518-455-3791. If his phone is busy, try again. You can also email him by clicking here.

• And if you can make a third call, call Herman "Denny" Farrell, the chair of the Assembly's Ways and Means Committee: 518-455-5491. If his phone is busy, try again. You can also email him by clicking here.

TELL YOUR REPS:  I want this bill defeated because it undermines a time-honored method of effecting social and political change - from the segregated South to South Africa! The rush to push this bill through without any public discussion must be stopped. A commitment to democracy means our representatives should at least convene a public hearing before any votes are taken.

For more background and talking points, click here.

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TALKING POINTS RE: NYS ANTI-BOYCOTT LEGISLATION Jan. 31, 2014

What the Legislation Passed by the NY State Senate Says "No college in this state may use state aid provided directly to such college to: fund an academic entity, provide funds for membership in an academic entity or fund travel or lodging for any employee to attend any meeting of such academic entity if such entity has issued a public resolution or other official statement or undertaken an official action boycotting a host country or higher education institutions located in such country."A “host country” is defined as a country in which there is a higher education institution chartered by the NYS Board of Regents. Thus, the prohibition applies only to boycotts against academic institutions in Israel, Hungary, Lebanon, and the Czech Republic.If this legislation becomes law, no college may provide funds for any employee to pay for membership in, or for travel or lodging to attend a meeting of any organization of professors that has issued a resolution boycotting a higher education institution in Iasrael. In other words, the legislation would prohibit a faculty member from getting funds to travel to an American Studies Association (ASA) meeting, even if that meeting is unrelated to the boycott, or the professor herself is opposed to the boycott. If a college violates the prohibition it loses all public funds for that academic year. This applies to public and private universities that receive state funds.

Why We Oppose the Legislation; Why We Are Calling on Members of the NY State Assembly to Vote NO on this Legislation 1. Advocacy in support of a boycott, like all advocacy, is a constitutionally protected form of expression. While such advocacy may be controversial, the First Amendment is a bulwark against government censorship of controversial speech.2. It has been more than 60 years since this legislature sought to prohibit advocacy on any subject or for any point of view. To do so now will return us to the days of McCarthyism, when colleges and universities became places of fear and suspicion, and when vigorous and contentious debate was replaced by a demand for conformity.3. Advocacy of boycotts – and the boycotts themselves - played a substantial role in changing discriminatory policies in the American south and in South Africa, to say nothing of strengthening labor struggles throughout our country. Advocacy of boycotts by activist students and faculty has a long and honorable place in U.S. history. The NY State legislature should not be on record as suggesting that advocacy of such an effective means for promoting peaceful change is somehow illegitimate.

4. Public universities are a critical resource for poor and working-class New Yorkers -- and silencing speech in those institutions by using tax dollars as leverage is a particular assault on the speech and freedom of those who rely on public education.

About the Boycott in Relation to this Legislation 1. It is charged that the boycott violates academic freedom. However, the boycott of universities funded by the Israeli government is directed at the institutional policies themselves, and not at faculty members of those institutions, which is the central concern of academic freedom. As the AAUP has said, " Academic freedom is meaningless if it does not protect those who support unpopular positions, including the advocacy of academic boycotts."2. The boycott of Israeli universities makes no mention of any religious group, and, despite claims of this bill’s supporters to the contrary, does not violate any laws against religious or ethnic discrimination. (https://www.ccrjustice.org/files/FAQonLegalityofBoycott_1.10.14_FINAL_SH.pdf)

3. Sponsors of these bills say that singling out Israeli academic institutions amounts to anti-Semitism and constitutes discrimination. This is false. To equate criticism of the Israeli state with anti-Semitism is as absurd as claiming a boycott of Saudi Arabia for its human rights record is Islamophobic or that criticism of the Chinese occupation of Tibet is hateful against people of Chinese ethnicity.

CCR and NLG-NYC Appeal to New York Assembly to Oppose Anti-Boycott Bill

http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-and-nlg-nyc-appeal-new-york-assembly-oppose-anti-boycott-bill

Advocates Argue Bill Violates First Amendment

press@ccrjustice.org

January 31, 2014, New York - The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the National Lawyers Guild- New York City Chapter (NLG-NYC) sent New York Assembly Members a letter urging them to oppose pending legislation that would deny state funding to colleges and universities that fund membership and activities in organizations supporting boycotts of a list of countries, including Israel. According to the legislation’s sponsors, the bills S.6438 (passed in the state Senate on January 28) and A.8392 (on the agenda of the Assembly’s Higher Education Committee February 4th) were drafted in response to the American Studies Association’s recent resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

“The New York legislature’s anti-boycott bills are unconstitutional, a threat to academic freedom, and a disgrace,” said Maria LaHood, Senior Staff Attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The bills’ sponsors have not even tried to veil their intent to stop concerned citizens from using a nonviolent and historical tool for social change, because it’s aimed at Israel’s policies.”

The CCR and NLG-NYC letter urges lawmakers to recognize that denying state aid based on such protected speech violates the First Amendment and threatens academic freedom. It stresses that boycotts to bring about political, social and economic change are protected speech under the First Amendment, and warns that legislation to deny public funding in response to the assertion of unpopular views would likely face Constitutional challenges.  The letter also notes that legislation to punish boycotts of the South African apartheid regime “would have been an unacceptable outcome then, and it is an unacceptable outcome now.”

“Regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with a cause that a boycott is addressing, or whether a boycott is an appropriate way to address that cause, the First Amendment right to engage in a boycott aimed at bringing about political and social change must be upheld and protected,” said Elena Cohen, President of the NLG-NYC.

The American Studies Association endorsed a resolution in December, 2013 to boycott Israeli institutions in protest of the Israeli occupation and Israel's discriminatory laws and policies towards Palestinian students and scholars in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and inside Israel.  The ASA resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions is available here, and an explanation of the resolution is available here.

See the full letter to Assembly Members.

See CCR’s statement on the bill’s passage in the New York state senate.

For more information on the legality of academic boycott, please see Palestinian Solidarity Legal Support’s frequently asked questions.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

CCR and Palestine Solidarity Legal Support Respond to the New York Senate’s Passage of Anti-Boycott Bill

January 29, 2014, New York  – The New York Senate passed S.6438, legislation drafted in response to the ASA resolution calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, yesterday afternoon.  The legislation would defund academic entities which choose to boycott, imposing an unfair price on protest by students and academics at public institutions across New York. In response to the New York Senate’s passage of S.6438, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS) issued the following statement by PSLS Director and CCR Cooperating Counsel, Dima Khalidi:

The anti-boycott bill targets core political speech and raises serious constitutional red flags.  If this bill goes forward it is likely to face constitutional challenge in the courts.

Boycotts to bring about political and social change, which would be targeted by this bill, are unquestionably protected speech under the First Amendment. Our country has a long tradition of boycotts, from the Montgomery bus boycott led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to the boycott of Apartheid South Africa, recently celebrated at the passing of President Nelson Mandela.

Courts have been very clear that the denial of funding, where motivated by a desire to suppress speech, is prohibited by the First Amendment.

For more information on the legality of academic boycott, please see Palestinian Solidarity Legal Support’s frequently asked questions

CCR, Palestine Legal Respond to Lawsuit Threat Against ASA, Calling it “Baseless”

January 21, 2014:  The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and Palestine Legal today responded on behalf of the American Studies Association (ASA) to a “cease and desist” letter from Shurat HaDin - The Israel Law Center threatening a lawsuit against the academic association if it does not “immediately take all necessary steps to cancel the boycott of Israeli institutions and academics.” The response from CCR and Palestine Legal dismisses as “baseless” Shurat HaDin’s charges of discrimination. It states: “ASA’s action could not be considered discrimination, let alone discrimination “because of” animus toward the religion, race or national origin of any individual; ASA’s actions are undertaken “because of” the policies of politically-accountable leaders in the Israeli government.”  Moreover, “BDS strategies and this resolution are each grounded in the same anti-discrimination principles as other historical divestment and boycott strategies used to protest repressive state practices, including those employed against the South Africa apartheid regime and racial segregation in the United States.”  It is precisely these kinds of boycott, which aim to effect “political, social and economic change,” that the United States Supreme Court has held to be constitutionally protected speech activities.

Since the ASA’s endorsement of a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions in December 2013, attacks against the organization have included waves of hate mail to the organization and its members, a complaint submitted to the IRS to strip the association of its tax-exempt status, and efforts in the New York legislature to withdraw or withhold state funds from universities that support organizations promoting “discriminatory boycotts.”  Shurat HaDin’s letter now threatens to sue the ASA under New York State anti-discrimination laws.

The letter notifies Shurat HaDin: “If you proceed with a suit against ASA based on these meritless claims of discrimination, and in ignorance of basic First Amendment protections, ASA will defend its position vigorously, including seeking costs and any applicable sanctions.”

The full letter is available here.

CCR, PSLS, Say Lawsuit Threat Against Academic Association is Legal Bullying

info@palestinelegalsupport.org January 10, 2014:  Yesterday, Shurat HaDin, an Israeli legal organization, threatened to sue the American Studies Association (ASA) for its December, 2013 endorsement of a resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions in protest of Israel’s discrimination and human rights abuses against Palestinians.

The Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Solidarity Legal Support issued the following statement in response:

Shurat HaDin seeks in vain to punish speech that is fully protected by the First Amendment. The resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions joins a proud history of political and human rights boycotts in the U.S., which have resisted race discrimination and human rights abuses in the U.S. and around the world, and which the United States Supreme Court has held are protected speech. The threat to sue the ASA cynically claims that the academic boycott resolution constitutes discrimination under U.S. law, and under the International Convention to End all Forms of Racial Discrimination – a Convention that Israel itself violates in its abuse of Palestinians.  It is those violations of Palestinian rights that academic boycott protests.

This threat is the latest in a pattern of legal bullying that has escalated in the U.S. as the movement for Palestinian rights has grown. An academic boycott in fact violates no anti-discrimination laws because it does not target any individual or institution based on their Jewish identity or Israeli citizenship. Rather, it is aimed at institutions with direct relationships to the Israeli government. Shurat HaDin’s attempt to paint this principled action as anti-Semitic and discriminatory against Israelis is not only legally bankrupt, but also trivializes important struggles against anti-Semitism and all other forms of racism.

For more information on the legality of academic boycott, please see the Palestinian Solidarity Legal Support’s Frequently Asked Questions.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.

Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS) engages in coordinated and strategic legal advocacy to protect and advance the constitutional rights of Palestinian human rights activists across the U.S.  PSLS is an initiative built in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and in collaboration with the National Lawyers Guild and other groups.  We aim to build the power of activists to withstand the concerted assault on free speech and continue advocating for Palestinian human rights. PSLS documented over 100 repression incident in 2013 alone, the majority of which targeted academic discussion or political activity on college campuses.

2013 Accomplishments: Advocating for Activists Who Advocate for Palestine

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Support our work to advance the rights of Palestinian rights advocates!

Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS) was launched in early 2013 to provide an unprecedented, organized legal response to increasing threats against activism for Palestinian rights in the United States.

As the movement for freedom and justice in Palestine grows, we have documented an escalation of legal bullying tactics. These aim to silence the dedicated activists who are challenging political orthodoxies about Israel/Palestine in this country, exposing the depth of human rights violations against Palestinians, and taking bold action to slowly but surely change the stalled discourse in this country. We have their backs.

In 2013 alone, we:

• Responded to over 100 cases of legal and other intimidation against Palestinian rights activists.

• Conducted two-dozen workshops and presentations for activist and legal audiences.

• Produced a comprehensive Know Your Rights Legal Guide with information on legal issues activists might confront, and distributed it to over 1000 activists nationwide.

• Grew and coordinated a national network of legal professionals and activists to stand up for the right to speak out for Palestinian human rights!

Our work includes responding to requests for advice, referrals, representation and advocacy support; tracking incidents of repression; and providing resources to activists that will empower them to understand and deal with potential legal issues.

Case Highlights

We defended the rights of Palestine activists through intensive First Amendment advocacy in a number of compelling cases of repression.

Here are some examples that illustrate the pressure that Palestinian rights activists have faced this year, and how PSLS was able to make a difference.

• We helped win the landmark dismissal in August 2013 of complaints before the Department of Education against three University of California campuses falsely alleging that Palestinian rights activism on campus created a hostile environment for Jewish supporters of Israel. The complaints targeted film screenings, lectures, mock checkpoints, and protests of Israel’s assaults on Gaza. The dismissals make clear that these activities are in fact protected political expression. After years of uncertainty regarding the status of the complaints, UC students report they now feel a renewed sense of security engaging in campus advocacy.

• In February 2013, students at Brooklyn College faced legal threats for organizing an event discussing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Israel advocates and NYC politicians launched a campaign calling on Brooklyn College to cancel the event, even threatening to withdraw funding from the school. We urged the college to respect academic freedom and warned NYC City Council Members that threats to funding were inappropriate. We also represented students who had come under investigation by the university after the event. With our help, they were cleared of any wrongdoing.

• In the spring of 2013, a Palestinian student at Claremont Colleges in southern California was called a “cockroach” by a professor during a mock Israeli checkpoint demonstration. We supported the student in reporting the incident. When the student was then investigated for alleged violations of the demonstrations policy, we advocated on his behalf until he was exonerated.

• In the fall of 2013, Rutgers University student group was accused of bias against Jewish students after distributing mock eviction notices to raise awareness about Palestinian home demolitions. We successfully advocated for the dismissal of the baseless charges. We continue to advise and support students as they plan similar awareness campaigns.

• A California State University Professor has been repeatedly accused of wrongdoing for expressing his political views on his university website. We advocated on his behalf and urged University Trustees to reject baseless charges against him, as the State Attorney General had already done. We are standing up for academics around the country who are being attacked for expressing support for Palestinian rights.

• In October, 2013, we filed a brief with the Center for Constitutional Rights in support of the appeal of the “Irvine 11” case, challenging the criminal conviction of students who were criminally prosecuted for protesting Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

• In one of the most egregious campus cases of the year, students from Florida Atlantic University were charged with conduct violations for engaging in a brief walkout and protest of an Israeli soldier’s speaking event. This was after over a year of intense pressure by outside Israel advocacy groups (including the Anti-Defamation League and others) on the school to punish the students for their speech activities. The students were pressured into signing agreements that prohibit them from holding leadership positions in student organizations and required mandatory attendance at an Anti-Defamation League-sponsored “diversity” training. We advocated their cause with the University, and continue to advise the students on navigating a hostile political and legal climate and ongoing discriminatory treatment.

• PSLS spoke out, with dozens of other organizations, against the arrest and indictment of a Palestinian-American community leader in Chicago in October, 2013. Rasmea Odeh, a 65 year old woman that has received awards for her work with Arab-American women in Chicago for a decade, was charged with allegedly not indicating in her naturalization application 20 years ago that she was convicted by an Israeli military court and imprisoned for 10 years, during which time she was tortured. Her indictment follows the 2010 Grand Jury subpoenas and FBI raids against 23 anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists in the Midwest, including Rasmea’s colleague at the Arab-American Action Network in Chicago. PSLS continues to work with the community to respond to this political indictment of an important community leader.

PSLS is an independent project of the Tides Center, built in partnership with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and working closely with the National Lawyers Guild and a number of other organizations and individuals.  We have worked tirelessly with our partners to respond to the needs of Palestinian rights activists under attack for speaking out.  We need your help to sustain this work!

Please support us today, so we can continue to protect the rights of activists who are growing the Palestine solidarity movement in the US.

PSLS advises American Studies Association that boycott is protected First Amendment activity

The National Council of the American Studies Association (ASA) voted unanimously to endorse academic boycott of Israel and on December 16th the ASA announced the full membership voted to approve the resolution by a two to one margin: "The Council voted for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions as an ethical stance, a form of material and symbolic action. It represents a principle of solidarity with scholars and students deprived of their academic freedom and an aspiration to enlarge that freedom for all, including Palestinians."

Palestine Solidarity Legal Support advised the ASA National Council that the legal threats are baseless.  The academic boycott, like other boycotts for human rights, is not illegal under any federal or state law, but is protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution. Such frivolous legal threats are a primary tactic in the repression of Palestinian human rights activism, which PSLS formed in response to.

Many have written about the historic nature of the ASA debate, and the powerful breaking of taboo on the subject (see pieces by ASA members Alex Lubin and David Lloyd, and by Judith Butler in The Nation),  the outpouring of anti-colonial and anti-racist solidarity voiced during the debate, and the personal risks academics take when they publicly speak in favor of boycott (see piece by ASA member and Palestinian-American scholar Noura Erakat). And as noted in the New York Times, this is "the largest academic group in the United States to back a growing movement to isolate Israel over its treatment of Palestinians."

The opposition's reliance on legal bullying is predictable.  Alan Dershowitz, in an open letter threatening ASA members said "a vote for a boycott will expose you and your association both for legal and academic consequences."

Unfortunately, legal arguments are a necessary response to legal bullying.  But more to the point than any legal argument is this response from David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English at University of California, Riverside:

By and large, Zionists have refused to debate and have ceded that ground to their opponents. Instead, they rely increasingly on other means, predominantly legal and institutional harassment, to close down debate, force student senates to rescind democratically approved divestment resolutions, or punish students and academics for criticizing Israel.

There is no doubt that Zionist organizations have great power and the material resources to enable them to engage in a forceful assault on the American Studies Association.

But in the intellectual world, the resort to force is not a position of strength. Saturday evening at the ASA showed the power of reasoned, moral argument. And there is no going back from that. In the struggle for justice for the Palestinian people, a turning point has been achieved.