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students for justice in palestine
Trump-Appointed Judge Tosses Lawsuit Accusing Pro-Palestinian Groups of Being Fronts for Hamas
Judge Rossie Alston Jr. ruled the plaintiffs had failed to prove the groups provided "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
Aug 16, 2025
A federal judge appointed in 2019 by US President Donald Trump has dismissed a lawsuit filed against pro-Palestinian organizations that alleged they were fronts for the terrorist organization Hamas.
In a ruling issued on Friday, Judge Rossie Alston Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that the plaintiffs who filed the case against the pro-Palestine groups had not sufficiently demonstrated a clear link between the groups and Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The plaintiffs in the case—consisting of seven Americans and two Israelis—were all victims of the Hamas attack that killed an estimated 1,200 people, including more than 700 Israeli civilians.
They alleged that the pro-Palestinian groups—including National Students for Justice in Palestine, WESPAC Foundation, and Americans for Justice in Palestine Educational Foundation—provided material support to Hamas that directly led to injuries they suffered as a result of the October 7 attack.
This alleged support for Hamas, the plaintiffs argued, violated both the Anti-Terrorism Act and the Alien Tort Statute.
However, after examining all the evidence presented by the plaintiffs, Alston found they had not proven their claim that the organizations in question provide "ongoing, continuous, systematic, and material support for Hamas and its affiliates."
Specifically, Alston said that the claims made by the plaintiffs "are all very general and conclusory and do not specifically relate to the injuries" that they suffered in the Hamas attack.
"Although plaintiffs conclude that defendants have aided and abetted Hamas by providing it with 'material support despite knowledge of Hamas' terrorist activity both before, during, and after its October 7 terrorist attack,' plaintiffs do not allege that any planning, preparation, funding, or execution of the October 7, 2023 attack or any violations of international law by Hamas occurred in the United States," Alston emphasized. "None of the direct attackers are alleged to be citizens of the United States."
Alston was unconvinced by the plaintiffs' claims that the pro-Palestinian organizations "act as Hamas' public relations division, recruiting domestic foot soldiers to disseminate Hamas’s propaganda," and he similarly dismissed them as "vague and conclusory."
He then said that the plaintiffs did not establish that these "public relations" activities purportedly done on behalf of Hamas had "aided and abetted Hamas in carrying out the specific October 7, 2023 attack (or subsequent or continuing Hamas violations) that caused the Israeli Plaintiffs' injuries."
Alston concluded by dismissing the plaintiffs' case without prejudice, meaning they are free to file an amended lawsuit against the plaintiffs within 30 days of the judge's ruling.
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University Officials Welcome the Genocide Apologists and Condemn the Protesters
A protest and its aftermath at the University of California, San Diego illustrates the moral myopia of administrators.
Jul 03, 2025
Evidencing America’s profound moral depravity is the targeting of campus protesters rather than the genocidal actions of America’s closest ally Israel. President Donald Trump, members of Congress, Christian and Jewish nationalists, and university task forces on antisemitism all charge campus protesters with widespread antisemitism through singling out and demonizing Israel. Ominously, these accusations have prompted universities to impose far-reaching restrictions on campus speech and assembly which match or exceed the crackdowns of the McCarthy era. Consequently, while Israel’s genocide endures, to the silence or approval of leading political, media, and university leaders, it is the protesters who have been substantially silenced.
Granted, within the surge of campus protests in 2023-2024, a few protesters crossed the line into crude antisemitism or other offensive behavior. The partisan university task force reports on antisemitism at places like Harvard, Columbia, and UCLA have seized upon these scattered instances and lumped them with controversial but defensible chants, such as “Globalize the intifada,” to paint a manufactured picture of rampant hostility toward Jews. Conveniently, neither the task forces nor university officials address the cause of these protests: the ongoing destruction of Gaza, judged to be genocide by Amnesty International and other human rights groups, and the complicity of many U.S. universities. To illustrate this moral myopia, I review a recent tempest at UC San Diego.
On May 19, the Murray Galinson San Diego Israel Initiative (MGSDII) collaborated with UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) to host a lecture by Ido Aharoni, a leading Israeli propagandist. In response, the UCSD Faculty Defense Group, GPS students, and the San Diego chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) converged in waging a vigorous protest. While the first two groups featured silent protests, SJP recited, with the help of amplification, multiple chants, including “Israel is an apartheid state. Genocide you celebrate” and “UCSD, you can’t hide. You’re supporting genocide.” Although the atmosphere was heated and a few participants yelled out “baby killer,” “Zionists not welcome here,” and personal insults at attendees entering the lecture hall, the protesters avoided direct altercations and did not try to shut down the talk.
Ironically, in her rebuke of the protests, Dean Freund urged that UCSD continue “to uphold the values that define our community: curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to a more peaceful and just world.” The protesters did just that.
An irate MGSDII staff accused the demonstrators of hurling “dangerous antisemitic slurs” and asked for punitive action. Obligingly, the UCSD chancellor and the faculty senate chair issued a joint message that curiously declared anti-genocide protests “an affront to the mission of our university” and promised an investigation for violation of university rules. Dean Caroline Freund apologized for “the disappointment and discomfort this caused for many in attendance, as well as for others in our broader community.”
Following a familiar pattern of selective outrage, Dean Freund and the chancellor ignored the circumstances prompting the dissent. Most importantly, the event was a university platforming of a professional propagandist who founded the government’s “Brand Israel” program. The MGSDII, which funds visiting teaching positions by Israelis, sponsored the talk as part of its mission to exert “a significant potential impact on the image of Israel that is different to, but on par with or exceeding, results of pro-Israel advocacy organizations.” “[M]ore than ever,” it proclaimed in an email blast after October 7, “we need to bring Modern Israel studies to our university classrooms to counteract the hate and biased education being taught by too many faculty.”
The MGSDII chose well in sponsoring Aharoni. Just two months earlier at San Diego State, he boasted of Israeli accomplishments, praised the U.S.-Israeli alliance, defended Israel’s assault on Gaza, and attacked campus protesters. For good measure, Aharoni quipped “I hope he’s deported to Gaza” in reference to the then-detained Columbia graduating student Mahmoud Khalil. As a skilled diplomat, Aharoni evaded the one critical question he received. The MGSDII was right to see the UCSD event as another propaganda opportunity, this time where the dean was lending prestige by introducing the speaker.
A second important dynamic ignored by Dean Freund and the chancellor was the chilling of Israel-related protests for the past year. In spring 2024, UCSD had become a hotspot for Gaza protests. On May 1, a coalition led by the campus chapters of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) assembled an encampment that grew to several hundred participants. The organizers avoided violent altercations with counterprotesters and facilitated cultural, educational, and religious activities, including an anti-Zionist Jewish Shabbat service, that attracted many visitors. This remarkable display of community activism ended abruptly on May 6 when the chancellor authorized police in riot gear to demolish the encampment and arrest resisters.
Although the city has not filed criminal charges, UCSD has disbanded the SJP and JVP chapters, withheld diplomas from graduating students, and consigned continuing students to a prolonged academic probation while they await completion of investigations. In the fall of 2024, the UC and Cal State systems released revised time, place, and manner regulations, which prohibit encampments, establish new restrictions on protests, and impose harsher sanctions. Combined with the draconian moves from the Trump administration, UCSD’s crackdown has had the intended effect. As professor Gary Fields, a faculty mentor to many UCSD protesters reflected, “What happened in the aftermath of the encampment is that there is still on our campus a climate of surveillance and fear—and self-censorship.”
The UCSD protest of Aharoni marks a courageous effort to revive anti-genocide protests. I would have preferred a more disciplined message that did not insult attendees. Moving forward, protesters would be well advised to devote more planning in coordination with faculty and veteran protesters to wage effective protests. The Faculty Defense Group got the balance right in its press statement: “Our aim in this protest is not to cancel or censor the speech of Ambassador Aharoni. Instead, we want to call attention to the one-sidedness of the event at a time when speech on our campus, and campuses everywhere, decrying the genocide perpetrated by Israel and enabled by the U.S., is being censored and criminalized.”
Above all, students are right to be angry. These frightening times demand robust protest, including the dreaded “disruption” that panics so many university officials. As of June 25, the official death toll in Gaza has surpassed 56,000. Having just joined Israel in a lawless attack on Iran, the U.S. continues to bestow Israel complete impunity to wreak destruction throughout Gaza and the West Bank. Ironically, in her rebuke of the protests, Dean Freund urged that UCSD continue “to uphold the values that define our community: curiosity, compassion, and a shared commitment to a more peaceful and just world.” The protesters did just that. Let us hope that Dean Freund and campus officials across the country absorb the lessons from the brave students on what moral responsibility demands.
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Professors Express Outrage Over UMich's Use of Investigators to Surveil Gaza Student Protestors
"My university has no business doing this," wrote one professor at the University of Michigan Law School.
Jun 06, 2025
Multiple professors expressed outrage on Friday in response to reporting from The Guardian, which found that the University of Michigan is making use of undercover investigators to keep tabs on pro-Palestinian groups on campus.
"My university has no business doing this. I love the University of Michigan, and this is not how we should operate," said University of Michigan Law School professor Sam Bagenstos, writing from his personal Bluesky account.
The Guardian spoke to several unnamed students who said that they have been followed, recorded, or eavesdropped on private investigators. Students who spoke to the outlet tracked dozens of investigators who have trailed them around campus.
Students say they have confronted the investigators, and one student captured on video multiple interactions with a man who the student says has been following him. In one video, the man falsely accuses the student of attempting to rob him, and in another the man appears to fake being disabled.
When contacted by the outlet, the University of Michigan did not deny the surveillance, which The Guardian reported appears to be largely an intimidation tactic. The school said it had not received any complaints about the investigators.
"Any security measures in place are solely focused on maintaining a safe and secure campus environment and are never directed at individuals or groups based on their beliefs or affiliations," a spokesperson for the school said in an email.
One student who says she's been regularly followed is Katrina Keating, a student who is a part of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, which is a local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. Keating told The Guardian that the surveillance has made her feel "on edge." Keating said she was first followed in November.
According to The Guardian, the investigators appear to work for the private security group City Shield. The university's governing body, the board of regents, paid at least $800,000 to City Shield's parent company from June 2023 to September 2024.
"Disgusting. University of Michigan pays around $800,000 to a private security firm to surveil pro-Palestinian students," wrote Marc Owen Jones, an associate professor at Northwestern University in Qatar.
Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School, wrote: "Outrageous. This is a public university."
Chris Geraldi, a journalist with New York Focus, wrote that "every paragraph of this story is bonkers."
In April, with the blessing of Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, law enforcement officers raided the homes of multiple student organizers connected to Palestine solidarity protests at the University of Michigan.
Students who spoke to The Guardian said the surveillance has increased in the wake of those raids.
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It Took 24 Hours to Speak the Names of 12,000 Children Israel Killed in Gaza—A Fraction of the Total
The vigil at Harvard University took place as UNICEF said that at least 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or wounded in Gaza during 600 days of Israeli bombs, bullets, and blockades.
May 28, 2025
Community members concluded a 24-hour vigil at Harvard University on Wednesday during which the names of almost 12,000 children slain in Gaza by Israeli forces were read aloud, signifying only a partial list of child casualties documented by the United Nations Children's Fund, which found that at least 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or wounded in the embattled enclave during 600 days of U.S.-backed genocidal slaughter.
They All Have Names—a coalition of parents, educators, students, healthcare workers, faith leaders, and other community members—gathered at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts to hold the vigil ahead of Harvard University's commencement ceremonies on Thursday.
"These children—lives that should never be reduced to numbers—are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors."
According to the Harvard branch of Students for Justice in Palestine, it took nearly an hour-and-a-half just to read the names of infants killed by Israeli forces since October 7, 2023. Victims' names were read in ascending order of their ages.
"At least 17,400 children have been killed in Gaza since October 7," said Dr. Lara Jirmanus a family physician and clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. "They include at least 825 babies who could not celebrate their first birthday; 895 one-year olds; 3,266 preschoolers; 4,032 between the ages of 6 and 10; 3,646 middle schoolers; and 2,949 teenagers."
Faculty, staff, and community members have held vigil at Harvard Square in support of Gaza, reading the names of Palestinian children killed by 'Israel' since October 2023. pic.twitter.com/96BZWdtjEM
— Kuffiya (@Kuffiyateam) May 28, 2025
"We gather today to remember them, their hopes, and dreams," Jirmanus added. "And to remember that we have the power to stop this unspeakable catastrophe, by demanding our elected officials stop sending arms for genocide."
The vigil occurred against a backdrop of continued genocide denial and aspersions of casualty data provided by the Gaza Health Ministry—figures that Israeli military officials have repeatedly found to be accurate, and that peer-reviewed research published in The Lancet, one of the world's preeminent medical journals, has determined to likely be a vast undercount.
Jirmanus told Common Dreams that the names of around 12,000 children killed in Gaza between October 2023 and October 2024 were recited during the vigil at a rate of about 500 names per hour.
As the vigil took place, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)—which has called Gaza "the world's most dangerous place to be a child"—announced its latest estimate that 50,000 Palestinian children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel began attacking and besieging the strip in retaliation for the Hamas-led attack of October 7, 2023.
All told, the Gaza Health Ministry says that at least 191,285 Palestinians have been killed or wounded by Israeli forces, including upward of 14,000 people who are missing and believed to be dead and buried beneath rubble of hundreds of thousands of bombed buildings.
Among those maimed by Israel's onslaught are thousands of children who have had one or more limbs amputated, often without anesthesia due to the Israeli blockade. Many surviving Palestinian children have also lost one or both parents. Some have lost their entire families. A new acronym has even been coined to describe some of these orphans: WCNSF, or "wounded child, no surviving family."
"In a 72-hour period this weekend, images from two horrific attacks provide yet more evidence of the unconscionable cost of this ruthless war on children in the Gaza Strip," UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Edouard Beigbeder said in a statement.
"On Friday, we saw videos of the bodies of burnt, dismembered children from the al-Najjar family being pulled from the rubble of their home in Khan Younis," Beigbeder noted. "Of 10 siblings under 12 years old, only one reportedly survived, with critical injuries."
"Early Monday, we saw images of a small child trapped in a burning school in Gaza City. That attack, in the early hours of the morning, reportedly killed at least 31 people, including 18 children," he continued.
"These children—lives that should never be reduced to numbers—are now part of a long, harrowing list of unimaginable horrors: the grave violations against children, the blockade of aid, the starvation, the constant forced displacement, and the destruction of hospitals, water systems, schools, and homes," Beigbeder added. "In essence, the destruction of life itself in the Gaza Strip."
Last year, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres for the first time added Israel to his so-called "List of Shame" of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.
The Harvard vigil took place as Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with
Operation Gideon's Chariots, a campaign of conquest, indefinite occupation, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza to make way for new Israeli settlements.
They All Have Names noted:
Conditions in Gaza are more catastrophic than ever, as Israel has blocked humanitarian aid for nearly three months, only recently allowing a few trucks of aid, which the U.N. warned was "nowhere near enough." Using starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors without Borders, and an independent U.N. commission have all concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
As officials in Gaza report hundreds of deaths—mostly of children and elders—from malnutrition and lack of medical care, even Israeli officials are speaking out against what former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently called a "war of extermination."
Extermination and forced starvation are among the alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity for which current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The other Hague-based global tribunal, the International Court of Justice, is currently weighing a genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and backed by dozens of countries, either individually or as members of regional blocs.
The 24-hour vigil also took place as U.S. President Donald Trump and his Republican administration—which continues to offer billions of dollars in arms as well as diplomatic support for Israel even as it acknowledges the mass starvation Gaza—wage a rhetorical and financial war against Harvard.
While the administration claims its moves to strip Harvard of federal funding and contracts and block international students from attending the nation's oldest university are responses to its failure to adequately address alleged antisemitism on campus, many critics argue Trump is targeting the Ivy League school over its defiance of the president's "war on woke" and to bend other powerful institutions to his will.
"While we are relieved that Harvard has not conceded to all of the Trump administration's demands, we continue to be alarmed by the university's repressive measures which have been aimed at silencing dissent and protest against genocide, and eliminating teaching and research about Palestine," vigil co-organizer Sandra Susan Smith, who is a professor of criminal justice at Harvard Kennedy School, said Tuesday.
"We call on Harvard to defend free speech, academic freedom, and to adopt an ethical investment policy to ensure that it is not funding human rights abuses with its $50 billion endowment," she added.
Vigil participants and UNICEF both called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
"The children of Gaza need protection. They need food, water, and medicine. They need a cease-fire," said Beigbeder. "But more than anything, they need immediate, collective action to stop this once and for all."
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Ben-Gvir Says GOP Leaders Agree Gaza 'Food and Aid Depots Should Be Bombed'
The remarks by the Israeli national security minister, who is visiting the United States, came ahead of Israel's bombing of a food distribution center in central Gaza that killed three people, including at least one child.
Apr 24, 2025
An Israeli drone strike on a food distribution center in central Gaza that killed three Palestinians on Thursday underscored remarks earlier in the week by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's national security minister, who said that Republican leaders told him during a meeting at U.S. President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort that they agree with his policy of bombing humanitarian aid depots in the embattled enclave.
Eyewitnesses said that an Israeli drone bombed a food distribution point in the town of al-Zawayda, killing three people, including at least one child, and wounding others. The bombing came amid a crippling Israeli blockade of Gaza that has fueled widespread starvation and sickness, with the United Nations relief coordination office warning earlier this week that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached "unprecedented levels."
The Palestinian news outlet Wafa reported that Israeli airstrikes killed 52 civilians across the Gaza Strip since dawn Thursday, bringing the death toll from 566 days of Israel's U.S.-backed genocidal assault to at least 51,355, with more than 117,000 others injured, over 14,000 people missing and feared dead and buried beneath rubble, and millions more forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened.
Thursday's attacks came after Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, said that "senior Republican Party officials" whom he met Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida "expressed support for my very clear position" that Gaza "food and aid depots should be bombed in order to create military and political pressure to bring our hostages home safely."
More than 250 Israeli and other hostages were taken during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. It is believed that 24 hostages are still alive in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, has been widely accused of trying to scupper cease-fire and hostage release efforts in order to prolong the war and delay his criminal corruption trial.
On Wednesday, Ben-Gvir was invited by Shabtai, a secretive society co-founded in 1996 by Yale University graduate students including Cory Booker—who is now a Democratic U.S. senator—to speak at the elite Connecticut school. After his speech, Ben-Gvir waved and flashed the "victory" sign to pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside the event, prompting some to throw water bottles at him.
Following a Tuesday night protest which it did not organize, the Yale chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine was stripped of its official club status by university officials, who cited concerns over "disturbing antisemitic conduct at the gathering"—without providing any evidence to support their claim.
Ben-Gvir continued his U.S. tour on Thursday, with planned visits to Jewish neighborhoods in New York City's Brooklyn borough.
Tuesday's remarks were not the first time Ben-Gvir—who was convicted in 2007 by an Israeli court of incitement to racism and supporting the Kahanist militant group Kach—has endorsed war crimes against Palestinians.
"Let's bomb the food reserves in Gaza, let's bomb all the power lines in Gaza. Why are there lights in Gaza? There must not be a single light. Stop the electricity," he said last month.
In January, Ben-Gvir resigned from Netanyahu's government in protest of its cease-fire and hostage release agreement with Hamas. He rejoined the government after it renewed its genocidal assault on Gaza last month.
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Bowdoin College Students Launch First Gaza Solidarity Encampment of Trump Era
"As Israeli aggression obliterates Palestinian homes and guns down children in Jenin, as unspeakable suffering continues in Gaza, and as America descends further into fascism, we ask—what type of institution does Bowdoin want to be?"
Feb 07, 2025
Activists at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine have launched what is believed to be the first Palestine solidarity encampment since President Donald Trump took office, occupying the first floor of the liberal arts school's student union to protest the U.S. leader's proposal to take over the Gaza Strip and expel its native Palestinian population.
Bowdoin Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) occupied the first floor of Smith Union on Thursday night and erected tents there, The Bowdoin Orient reported. They named the encampment after Sha'ban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old computer engineering student at al-Azhar University in Gaza who burned alive in a refugee tent encampment bombed by Israel last October.
The protesters—who reportedly number around 50—acted in response to Trump's Tuesday press conference with fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the president floated U.S. ownership of Gaza, the ethnic cleansing of its Palestinian population, and the construction of the "Riviera of the Middle East" there following 15 months of Israel's genocidal war on the coastal enclave.
Demonstrators also condemned Israel's ongoing assault on the illegally occupied West Bank, where the killing and injury of thousands of Palestinians since October 2023 has been overshadowed by the annihilation of Gaza.
"As Israeli aggression obliterates Palestinian homes and guns down children in Jenin, as unspeakable suffering continues in Gaza, and as America descends further into fascism, we ask—what type of institution does Bowdoin want to be?" Bowdoin SJP said in a statement Thursday. "One that cowers to authoritarianism, that chooses cowardice in the face of injustice? The choice is Bowdoin's."
The Orient reported that a Bowdoin College security official began asking student protesters to identify themselves around 1:00 am on Friday morning while Dean of Students Michael Pulju informed students about the disciplinary repercussions of their action, including the possibility of expulsion.
On Friday morning, more Bowdoin students showed up outside the student union to protest and try to enter the building, chanting, "Open Smith!"
According to the Orient:
The encampment... comes nearly a year after Bowdoin students voted in favor of the SJP-organized Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum, a resolution demanding that the college take an institutional stand against the scholasticide and stop future investments in defense-focused funds. At the beginning of the fall semester, the college established its Ad Hoc Committee on Investments and Responsibility in response to the referendum but has yet to alter its investment practices or offer an institutional statement.
Lead SJP organizer Olivia Kenney told the Orient that the protesters plan to occupy Smith Union "until the demands of the Bowdoin Solidarity Referendum are met" by the school's Board of Trustees.
Staff and students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank recorded a message of solidarity with the "beautiful and wonderful" Bowdoin encampment.
"We woke up this morning to... the news of your encampment, and we've been following the news of the solidarity encampment at Bowdoin and Students for Justice in Palestine," they said in the message, which was posted on Instagram. "We see you, we love you."
"Thank you, from occupied Palestine in the West Bank, where students and faculty and employees alike can barely if at all get to campus because of the checkpoints and roadblocks," the message continued. "From all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, all of the universities that were actively destroyed in 471 days of genocide. Universities throughout the occupied West Bank, which are being surrounded and isolated."
"We are in this together," the message added. "We see you and thank you for raising your voices and screaming loudly that the space of a university is our space. It is a space where knowledge is exchanged. It is the space where we imagine and work to achieve the world that we want to live in, not the world that has been thrust upon us."
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How Harris Can Win Back Voters Who Opposed Biden Over Gaza
By fully charting a new course on Gaza policy, Vice President Harris can build on this goodwill, win back the support of American Muslims and other voters in key swing states and, ultimately, save the country from another Trump presidency.
Jul 29, 2024
In the weeks leading up to President Biden's withdrawal from the presidential race, most of the editorial boards, party activists, and elected officials calling for him to end his reelection campaign focused on only one issue: age.
But there was another reason President Biden needed to drop out: Gaza.
Long before President Biden's debate meltdown sparked panic in the Democratic establishment, his support for the Israeli government's war in Gaza sparked outrage in the Democratic base, where 56 percent of the party's supporters have described the war as a genocide.
At least half a million Democratic voters protested President Biden's support for the Gaza genocide by voting uncommitted or submitting blank ballots during the presidential primaries earlier this year, including over 100,000 people in Michigan, 88,000 in North Carolina and 46,000 in Minnesota.
Over 1 in 5 Democrats or independents in key swing states said they were less likely to vote for President Biden due to the war, according to a YouGov-AJP-Action poll in May. Over a quarter of those voters said that an immediate and lasting ceasefire, full entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and conditions on military aid for Israel’s war were the minimum policy changes needed to secure or solidify their votes for Biden.
Vice President Harris has already neutralized the concerns of voters worried about President Biden's age. Now she must address the concerns of voters who opposed his support for the war on Gaza.
Many Democratic voters were alienated even more by President Biden's failure to call out reports of anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobic violence with the same fervor he uses to call out reports of antisemitic rhetoric, as well as his criticism of the diverse, overwhelmingly peaceful student protests on college campuses.
Frustrated voters included Muslim Americans, Arab Americans, Black Americans, young people and others who helped carry him to victory in 2020. If those voters ended up supporting third party candidates or boycotting the presidential race altogether in November—as some promised to do if Biden remained on the ticket and did not change course—they could have easily tipped the results in Michigan and other key swing states.
Now that President Biden has withdrawn from the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris has a chance to turn the page, chart a new course, and win back those voters, including American Muslims.
That's what our coalition of American Muslim political organizations is calling on her to do.
Vice President Harris has already neutralized the concerns of voters worried about President Biden's age. Now she must address the concerns of voters who opposed his support for the war on Gaza.
Many American Muslims are open to supporting Vice President Harris if she distances herself from President Biden's Gaza policy, respectfully engages with all of our community leaders, picks a vice presidential nominee who does not have a history of explicit hostility towards our community like Governor Josh Shapiro, and commits to concrete policy proposals that would stop the genocide, end the broader occupation of the Palestinian people, and establish a just peace.
Taking these steps will set her apart from not only President Biden, but also from President Trump.
Most American Muslims do not want Donald Trump to return to office for perhaps obvious reasons. The former president has made it clear that he plans to round up undocumented immigrants as part of the largest mass deportation in American history, reinstate the Muslim Ban, stack the federal civil service with political loyalists, and pursue a foreign policy just as or even more, immoral than President Biden’s foreign policy.
During the presidential debate, President Trump even said that the Israeli government should be allowed to complete its war on Gaza, ignored the question of whether he would support the recognition of a Palestinian state to achieve peace, and weaponized Palestinian identity as a racist insult.
After President Trump's speech at the RNC, Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks reportedly said that he believes Trump will give the Israeli government a "blank check" to “finish the job quickly” in Gaza.
“If you need to carpet bomb the area, do it," Brooks said.
Vice President Harris now has the opportunity to contrast herself with Trump on this issue in ways President Biden could not. She has already built up some goodwill in the American Muslim community by using a noticeably more humane tone when discussing Palestinian suffering compared to others in the administration.
She just took heat from the far-right Zionist Organization of America, which ridiculously accused her of embracing "Arab Islamist criminality" because she dared to express some understanding of college students protesting the war on Gaza.
This week, Vice President Harris also declined the opportunity to sit behind Benjamin Netanyahu during his controversial address to Congress. After privately meeting with him on Thursday, Harris delivered remarks about Gaza that were far more balanced and humane than anything Joe Biden has said in nine months.
By fully charting a new course on Gaza policy, Vice President Harris can build on this goodwill, win back the support of American Muslims and other voters in key swing states and, ultimately, save the country from another Trump presidency. She must not miss this opportunity.
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DOE Investigating Columbia University for Anti-Palestinian Harassment
"Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of unequal treatment, racist attacks, or being denied access to an education by their university," one lawyer said.
May 02, 2024
Palestine Legal announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Education has launched a federal investigation into "extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment" at Columbia University a week after the advocacy group filed a complaint on behalf of four students and a campus organization.
"While the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) looks into all complaints it receives, it only opens a formal investigation when it determines the facts warrant a deeper look," Palestine Legal pointed out on social media. "The complaint explains how Columbia has allowed and contributed to a pervasive anti-Palestinian environment on campus—including students receiving death threats, being harassed for wearing keffiyehs or hijab, doxxed, harassed by [administration], suspended, locked out of campus, and more."
"Instead of protecting Palestinian and associated students when their voices are most needed to oppose an ongoing genocide, Columbia has taken actions to reinforce this hostile climate in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964," added the group.
"The law is clear, if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters—they will be at risk of losing federal funding."
Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath stressed that "the law is clear, if universities do not cease their racist crackdowns against Palestinians and their supporters—they will be at risk of losing federal funding."
"Students have the right to speak out against the genocide of Palestinians, without fear of unequal treatment, racist attacks, or being denied access to an education by their university," the lawyer added.
Since the filing, which highlighted that Columbia University President Minouche Shafik invited "the New York Police Department (NYPD) onto campus for the first time in decades to arrest over 100 students who had been peacefully protesting Israel's genocide of Palestinians," the Ivy League leader has called officers back to the school for more arrests.
On Tuesday night, the NYPD "violently arrested and brutalized dozens of student protestors, some with guns drawn, using sledgehammers, batons, and flash-bang explosives," noted Palestine Legal, which represents Maryam Alwan, Deen Haleem, Daria Mateescu, and Layla Saliba as well as Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Columbia is one of many American campuses where administrators have called the police, who have behaved aggressively toward students and faculty nonviolently demonstrating to demand that their schools and the U.S. government stop supporting the Israeli assault of Gaza, which has killed at least 34,596 Palestinians in under seven months.
The Intercept revealed last week that OCR opened an investigation into the University of Massachusetts Amherst after Palestine Legal filed a complaint "on behalf of 18 UMass students who have been the target of extreme anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab harassment and discrimination by fellow UMass students, including receiving racial slurs, death threats and in one instance, actually being assaulted."
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—who has supported peaceful student protests and whose daughter Isra Hirsi was suspended from Columbia's Barnard College for protesting last month—highlighted the reporting on social media and some of the verbal attacks that students have endured.
OCR has opened a probe into Emory University following a complaint filed by Palestine Legal and the Council on American Islamic Relations, Georgia (CAIR-GA), according to The Guardian. The newspaper noted Thursday that complaints have also been filed about Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Emory spokesperson Laura Diamond said in a statement that the university "does not tolerate behavior or actions that threaten, harm or target individuals because of their identities or backgrounds."
CAIR-GA executive director Azka Mahmood said that she hopes the investigation into Emory helps "make sure that the systems put in place against bias are used for everyone across the board—so we can produce a comfortable, equitable place for Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students in the future."
The probes and complaints are notably being conducted and reviewed by an administration that has condemned campus protests while arming Israeli forces engaged in what the International Court of Justice has called a plausibly genocidal campaign in Gaza.
After U.S. President Joe Biden delivered brief remarks on the demonstrations Thursday morning, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and national deputy director at CAIR, said his "claim that 'dissent must never lead to disorder' defies American history, from the Boston Tea Party to the tactics that civil rights activists, Vietnam War protesters, and anti-apartheid activists used to confront injustice."
"And if President Biden is truly concerned about the conflict on college campuses," Mitchell added, "he should specifically condemn law enforcement and pro-Israel mobs for attacking students, and stop enabling the genocide in Gaza that has triggered the protests."
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Columbia Sued Over 'Retaliatory' Suspension of Pro-Palestine Student Groups
"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," said the head of the NYCLU.
Mar 12, 2024
The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal on Tuesday filed a lawsuit on behalf of members of two pro-Palestine student groups at Columbia University which avocates say were illegally suspended for engaging in peaceful protests and other events protected under the First Amendment.
The suit—filed on behalf of the Columbia chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)—seeks the groups' reinstatement. Under pressure from people including wealthy pro-Israel donors, Columbia officials unilaterally
suspended the school's JVP and SJP chapters in November, claiming the groups repeatedly held "unauthorized" events including protests and teach-ins since October 7, when Hamas-led attacks on Israel prompted genocidal retaliation against the people of Gaza.
"Universities should be havens for robust debate, discussion, and learning—not sites of censorship where administrators, donors, and politicians squash political discourse they don't approve of," NYCLU executive director Donna Lieberman said in a statement.
"These student groups were peacefully speaking out on a critical global conflict, only to have Columbia University ignore their own longstanding, existing rules and abruptly suspend the organizations," Lieberman added. "That's retaliatory, it's targeted, and it flies in the face of the free speech principles that institutes of higher learning should be defending. Students protesting at private colleges still have the right to fair, equal treatment—and we are ready to fight that battle in court."
Maryam Alwan, an organizer with Columbia's SJP chapter, said that "Ivy League institutions should not attract students who value justice and equality if they do not want to be held accountable for the ideals that they claim to uphold."
"As a Palestinian American student, I should have the same right to speak out on my campus as everyone else—and no amount of targeted policy changes or illegitimate suspensions will prevent us from advocating for the Palestinian people," Alwan added.
Cameron Jones, a JVP organizer at the school, argued that "Columbia must protect all Jewish students and voices, not just those adhering to a specific political belief."
"The university's decision to suspend a Jewish group sets a concerning precedent for safeguarding free speech on college campuses," Jones added. "It not only took away our rights as a club, but told us that our university does not support or respect anti-Zionist Jews or their beliefs."
Palestine Legal staff attorney Radhika Sainath noted that "for decades, Columbia students have been at the forefront of speaking out against segregation, war, and apartheid and SJP and JVP sit squarely in this tradition."
"It is precisely because these principled students pose a threat to the status quo that they are being targeted for McCarthyist censorship, but the law does not allow it," Sainath asserted. "Universities must abide by their own rules and may not punish student groups speaking out for Palestinian rights in the moment when they are most essential—even if donors and lobby groups complain."
"For decades, Columbia students have been at the forefront of speaking out against segregation, war, and apartheid and SJP and JVP sit squarely in this tradition."
The Columbia suspensions came amid a nationwide campus crackdown on criticizing Israel or advocating for Palestinian rights. Some students have fought back. In November, the University of Florida SJP chapter sued state education officials and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over their move to deactivate the group over its support for Palestinians' legally enshrined right to resist Israeli occupation, apartheid, and other crimes.
Conversely, five Jewish students and two organizations last month sued Columbia and Barnard College alleging "particularly severe and pervasive" campus antisemitism, while a Jewish student at Columbia's School of Social Work filed a separate discrimination lawsuit last month.
There has been a dramatic increase in reports acts of both antisemitism and Islamophbia on U.S. campuses and in wider society since October 7.
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Governor Green, Genocide Is Not Aloha
Fifteen organizations and more than 2,600 people are demanding an end to Hawaii’s “Strategic Partnership” with Israel.
Mar 07, 2024
On February 29, 2024, 15 organizations in Hawaii at a press conference at the Hawaii State Capitol called for Hawaii Gov. Josh Green to terminate any relationship the State of Hawaii has with Israel, citing the Israeli genocide being conducted in Gaza.
On the day of the press conference, Israeli military killed 107 and wounded over 700 starving Palestinians that were attempting to get food for their families from food relief trucks. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed and 70,000 wounded in the 152-day Israeli attack and siege of Gaza.
On February 22, 2024, the Green’s office issued a letter stating his commitment to “unbreakable bonds” between the U.S. and Israel and the enduring commitment to Israel’s security.
“What Israel is doing to Palestinians in Gaza is not self-defense, it is genocide, pure and simple.”
According to the letter received by email from the governor’s office on February 22, 2024:
Under Governor Green’s administration, this commitment to Israel’s security continues to be bipartisan and sacrosanct. The United States remains steadfast in preserving and strengthening Israel’s capability to deter threats and defend itself. Additionally, the pledge never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon remains integral to this partnership.
The historic Memoranda of Understanding on security assistance, signed by successive U.S. administrations, further demonstrate the unwavering support for Israel’s security. These arrangements underscore the importance of Israel’s security to U.S. interests and regional stability.
Governor Green’s administration upholds the commitments outlined in the Joint Declaration, ensuring the enduring U.S.-Israel strategic partnership remains strong and steadfast.
Prior to Governor Green’s statement of a “strategic partnership” with Israel, in October 2022, then-Gov. David Ige signed a Joint Declaration for the State of Hawaii with the State of Israel establishing a “strategic partnership for friendly exchanges and cooperation between Hawaii and Israel,” and a formal relationship between both governments “to foster economic cooperation, facilitate joint industrial research and development, and enhance business relationships, research, and educational opportunities.”
Over 2,600 persons have signed a petition demanding that the “strategic partnership” with the State of Israel signed by Ige in October, 2022 be terminated.
Considering the genocide the Israeli government is conducting on Palestinians in Gaza, with over 100,000 confirmed killed, injured, or missing at the hands of Israeli forces in what was then 145 days, and in light of the violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, 15 organizations in Hawaii demanded at the press conference an end of Hawaii’s “strategic partnership” with the State of Israel.
The 15 organizations calling for a termination of all “strategic partnerships” with Israel to be immediately terminated are: Jewish Voice for Peace-Hawaii, Hawaii for Palestine, Rise for Palestine, Kona 4 Palestine, Maui for Palestine, Kauai for Palestine, Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at the University of Hawaii, Veterans For Peace-Hawaii, Seed of Love Hawaii, Humanists of Hawaii, Weaving Our Stories, AF3IRM Hawaii, Sabeel-Hawaii, World Can’t Wait-Hawaii, and Hawaii Peace and Justice.
In a statement, Jewish Voice for Peace-Hawaii coordinators Imani Altemus-Williams and Julie Warech wrote:
As Jews in Hawaii, we believe that maintaining any alliance with Israel is co-signing the ongoing genocide against Palestinians. Israeli actions are not about Jewish safety but rather the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land. We call on Governor Green to stand with the Jewish values of shalom and tikkun olam by terminating this partnership and refusing to enable atrocious war crimes. We call on Governor Green to take a public stand for a CEASE-FIRE NOW.
Petition originator Jason Mizula, who has visited the West Bank of Palestine, stated, “The State of Hawaii’s strategic partnership with such a government contradicts our values here in Hawaii—values rooted in respect for all life forms and peaceful coexistence. By continuing this partnership, we are cosigning these acts that go against our principles. Occupation is not aloha. Apartheid is not aloha. Genocide is not aloha.”
Fatima Abed of Rise for Palestine said: “The International Court of Justice has found Israel’s actions in Gaza likely constitute war crimes and genocide, in direct violation of international law. The contract between Hawaii and Israel not only supports the current genocide of over 30,000 innocent people, 13,000 of which are children, but also supports the same system of colonialism that continues to cause harm to Hawaii and in particularly Kanaka Maoli.”
Sam Peck, a University of Hawaii (UH) undergraduate and member of Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (SFJP) at UH, said:
Through its support and partnership with Israel, the U.S government and the State of Hawaii are directly responsible for the murder of over 20,000 children. Countless more have been orphaned, amputated, and have died slowly under rubble while their loved ones looked on, powerless to help. By continuing its partnership with Israel, the State of Hawaii is endorsing these atrocities, and stating that it believes they should continue unchecked. We believe that the State of Hawaii and its representatives do not wish to continue supporting such a heartless genocide, and as such we call on Governor Green to terminate the state’s partnership with Israel. SFJP at UH also calls for an immediate cease-fire and an end to funding for Israel.
Retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright who has been to Gaza eight times commented, “What Israel is doing to Palestinians in Gaza is not self-defense, it is genocide, pure and simple. The numbers of people killed and injured and the level of destruction of housing, hospitals, schools and universities, and other infrastructure is intended to force Palestinians out of an uninhabitable Gaza—it is genocide and a second Nakba.”
She continued: “Hawaii, its state institutions, and universities should not continue a partnership with a country that conducts genocide. We demand Governor Green rescind Hawaii’s ‘strategic partnership’ with Israel.”
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