Credit: Santiago Nariño-Northeastern SJP
Quarterly Newsletter
March 2015
Spring greetings from the PSLS team!

Palestine activism is reaching new heights on college campuses, and Israel advocates are mobilizing to shut it down. The growing repression has resulted in a huge demand for our legal advice and advocacy in the first few months of 2015.

Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS) has already documented over 100 incidents of repression and requests for legal advice this year , the vast majority from students or student groups facing backlash from administrators for their divestment initiatives and other activities.

We've been working hard in 2015 to defend activists against attacks on their right to speak out for Palestinian rights. Read on for some updates!
Defending Students

 

Advocating against Attacks on Divestment Initiatives 

 

Since January, several Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters have proposed resolutions to divest from corporations that profit from Israel's violations of Palestinian human rights. Their energies have consistently been met with institutional resistance and arbitrary administrative barriers, prompted by heavy lobbying by Israel advocacy groups claiming that divestment initiatives are anti-Semitic. PSLS advised student groups on how to navigate these hurdles, and advocated for their right to bring the issue of Palestine to their student bodies.
Credit: SJP UCLA

In February, the University of Toledo blocked the public from attending a divestment hearing in the student senate, restricted students' presence during arguments, and forced SJP to sit in a separate room while opponents of the resolution presented their views. After NLG attorney Barbara Harvey and PSLS urged the administration to comply with its obligation to protect the First Amendment rights of its students, the university permitted an open hearing, during which the student government voted overwhelmingly in favor of divestment.


In the lead-up to other divestment votes, PSLS also sent preemptive letters to administrators at Northwestern University, Loyola University-Chicago, and the University of California, reminding them to respect students' free speech rights and not cave to the repressive agendas of Israel advocacy groups intent on silencing criticism of Israel. PSLS, along with the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild, also sent a letter to the Northeastern University student government urging senators to respect student democracy after the executive cabinet blocked SJP's divestment referendum from the ballot. The cabinet retracted its decision and allowed the student government to hear the petition to include the referendum on March 16. The student government voted against the petition after intensive lobbying from student and non-student Israel advocacy groups.  

 

Despite significant hurdles, divestment resolutions passed at six schools so far this year - Northwestern University, Stanford University, University of Toledo, Loyola University, UC Davis, and UC Santa Cruz. The University of California Student Association, representing all 233,000 students in the UC system, also passed a resolution calling on the UC Regents to divest from corporations violating Palestinian human rights. In the case of UC Davis, the student court later reversed the student government vote in support of divestment on the grounds that the resolution was "political in nature" and did not relate to student welfare.  

 
Protecting Students against Censorship

Also this quarter, PSLS advised students and advocated for their free speech rights when administrators attempted to 
Credit: #PitzerIAW2015

curtail their Palestine advocacy. Many of these cases are confidential, but they

include incidents where students at public universities were told that they could not use the word "apartheid" to describe their mock apartheid wall, and where students were forbidden from distributing boycott flyers during Israel Apartheid Week. At Pitzer College, students were denied permission to display their mock apartheid wall because it would trigger complaints and defy a College's "aesthetics" policy. PSLS warned the College not to infringe on the students' speech rights.

 

 

In two instances at private universities, SJP chapters were told their activities were being limited because schools would or had lost significant money from donors. In several cases, students, with PSLS's help, pushed back and were victorious. Said one student leader, "organizing at [our college] has become so much easier and more efficient due to PSLS's work and we want to send you infinite thanks."
To read up on more of our recent work to defend students, click here.
Advocating against Repressive  Legislation

Protecting Middle East Studies Programs against Censorship

In February, PSLS and allied organizations sent a letter to the Department of Education strongly objecting to a lobbying campaign by Israel advocacy groups to restrict speech critical of Israel's policies at Middle East studies centers. The lobbying groups are demanding that the DOE and Congress deny federal funding for these programs based on faulty and politically motivated studies declaring that such programs are anti-Semitic. (Read More)
Resisting Efforts to Define Criticism of Israel as Anti-Semitism

This month, the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) passed a "Resolution Condemning Anti-Semitism" that re-defines anti-Semitism, in terms long pushed by Israel advocacy groups, to encompass almost any criticism of Israeli policies. PSLS developed an FAQ on the important distinction between actual anti-Semitism and criticism of Israel, and the concerns the new definition raises for student debate on Israel and Palestine.(Read More)

 

PSLS continues to work with the Rasmea Defense Committee to advocate for Chicago community organizer Rasmea Odeh, who was found guilty in November, 2014 of 'unlawful procurement of naturalization' for omitting on her immigration forms that she was convicted and imprisoned by Israel in 1969, based on a tortured confession.
Credit:  Christine Geovanis

Odeh was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined $1,000. Her US citizenship has also been revoked and she faces deportation to Jordan upon completion of her sentence. Odeh is free on bond pending her appeal. District Court Judge Gershwin Drain acknowledged that the outpouring of community support influenced his decision to give her a lesser sentence than the prosecution requested (3-5 years), but he denied that the prosecution itself was political.

(Read More)
PSLS in the News

Our work continues to gain exposure on popular news sites and blogs. Below are some media highlights from the last quarter!
Exciting Events Ahead!
  • New Hire:  We are in the process of hiring a new staff attorney to help keep up with our caseload!
  • Re-Branding: We are in the midst of a re-branding process, and later this spring we will announce our new and improved website, as well as our new name and logo. Stay tuned!
  • Speaking Events: On April 10th, Dima will speak about the repression of Palestine activism on US campuses at the Washington Report for Middle East Affair's Israel Lobby Conference. Liz will participate on the
    panel  When the Law is a Lie: Settler Colonialism and the Struggle for Justice in Palestine/Israel  at the Law and Society Association Conference on May 28th.

Stay tuned for more updates in April!

 
Sincerely,

Dima Khalidi
Director
Liz Jackson
Staff Attorney
Radhika Sainath
Staff Attorney
Angela Campion
Office Manager