[rad-green] Israel lobby prompts US Department of Education investigations over Palestine events

*https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-lobby-prompts-federal-investigations-over-palestine-events
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-lobby-prompts-federal-investigations-over-palestine-events>Electronic
Intifada           30 January 2020*
Israel lobby prompts federal investigations over Palestine eventsBy Nora
Barrows-Friedman
[image: Two men clasp hands]

*Trump’s order is meant to shield Israel from criticism on US
campuses. Gripas YuriAbaca via ZUMA Press*

The US Department of Education has opened
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2020/1/10/trumps-education-department-targets-ucla-with-investigation-into-palestine-advocacy>
two
separate investigations into the University of California at Los Angeles
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ucla> because of events that discussed
advocacy for Palestinian rights.

The investigations have been prompted by complaints filed by Israel lobby
groups, which allege that Palestine-related education or advocacy on campus
is inherently anti-Semitic and discriminates against Jewish students.

They follow US President Donald Trump’s executive order
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/trump-appeases-israel-lobby-executive-order>,
signed in December, which allows mere accusations of anti-Semitism against
campus critics of Israel to result in lengthy inquisitions by the
government.

Israel lobby groups recently filed similar complaints against Columbia
University
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2019/12/20/federal-complaint-filed-against-columbia-after-trump-gives-nod-to-target-political-speech-on-palestine>
 and Georgia Tech
<https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/hillels-of-georgia-seeks-anti-semitism-probe-of-georgia-tech/>
.

In November, before the executive order, the Department of Education’s
Office for Civil Rights  opened an investigation
<https://www.newsweek.com/civil-rights-office-investigating-nyu-over-claim-it-allowed-hostile-atmosphere-jewish-students-1472118>
into
New York University, after an Israel-aligned student claimed that the
presence of Students for Justice in Palestine created a “hostile
atmosphere.”

The Middle East Studies Association’s committee on academic freedom has
called
<https://mesana.org/advocacy/committee-on-academic-freedom/2020/01/27/doe-investigation-of-nyu-for-alleged-discrimination-against-jewish-students>
on
NYU’s president to reject “all efforts to weaponize allegations of
anti-Semitism in order to advance a political agenda.”

An investigation that was previously closed by the US government
against Rutgers
University <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/rutgers-university> in 2014
was re-opened
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/trump-administration-moves-curb-campus-criticism-israel>
in
2018 by the Office for Civil Rights.

That office is led by Kenneth Marcus, who as an Israel lobbyist working
outside the government pioneered the strategy of filing complaints to the
Department of Education under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/title-vi-civil-rights-act>.

The complaints typically allege that universities fail to protect Jewish
students by not cracking down on Palestine solidarity activism or teaching
about Palestine.

Marcus developed this lawfare strategy when he was head of the Brandeis
Center for Human Rights, an Israel lobby group unaffiliated with Brandeis
University.

Marcus will adjudicate the findings of these new investigations. He could
determine if universities like UCLA will lose federal funding for not
suppressing student advocacy for Palestinian rights.
Smears

One of the investigations into UCLA was instigated by the Zachor Legal
Institute <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/zachor-legal-institute>, an
anti-Palestinian think tank that claims <https://zachorlegal.org/> it is
“taking the lead” against the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)
movement for Palestinian rights.

In November 2018, student activists from around the country gathered
<https://www.nationalsjp.org/2018-conference1.html> at the national
conference of Students for Justice in Palestine to build anti-racist
organizing strategies.

Mere hours after the conference began, the Zachor Legal Institute filed a
federal complaint against UCLA.

The complaint alleges that the university expressed an “intentional act of
anti-Semitism” in hosting the conference. It added that SJP is a “terror
front” and claimed that the conference was an “attack on Jewish students.”

Following Trump’s executive order, the US Department of Education accepted
the group’s federal complaint and opened the investigation.

Leading up to – and during – the conference, student activists were
subjected
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/listen-las-israel-lobby-fails-ban-conference-palestinian-rights>
to
a relentless smear campaign and targeted attacks by Israel lobby groups,
UCLA administrators and local lawmakers.

While pro-Israel advocates pushed
<https://jewishjournal.com/news/nation/241343/petition-calls-ucla-cancel-nsjp-conference/>
for
UCLA to cancel the conference, members of the Los Angeles city council
unanimously passed a resolution
<https://clkrep.lacity.org/onlinedocs/2018/18-0002-S128_reso_11-06-2018.pdf>
condemning
Students for Justice in Palestine. The motion alleged that the conference
“undoubtedly would promote anti-Semitism” and that Jewish students on
campus would face discrimination.

A week before the LA City Council’s resolution, the UCLA administration
sent students a cease and desist letter claiming
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2018/11/7/ucla-bear-trademark-nsjp> that
their illustration of a bear on conference promotional materials violated
the university’s trademark. The Bruin bear is the university mascot.

UCLA backed down after receiving a letter from the civil rights
organizations Palestine Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union.

These complaints and the newly opened investigations are meant to have a
sharp chilling effect not just on students and professors but on university
administrations, Amira Mattar, a legal fellow at Palestine Legal, told The
Electronic Intifada.

“It’s strong-arming universities to be censors, to cut Palestine advocacy
or risk their funding,” Mattar added.
Attacking free speech

The second UCLA investigation was instigated by the Israel lobby group
StandWithUs <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/standwithus>, which
alleges that a Palestinian professor did not take a sufficiently pro-Israel
position during a discussion with a student.

In May 2019, professor Rabab Abdulhadi, who teaches at San Francisco State
University and has been a longtime target of Israel lobby groups, gave a
lecture
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2019/5/31/ucla-wrongly-investigates-lecture-linking-zionism-with-white-supremacy>
at
UCLA about Islamophobia and settler colonialism.

During the question and answer session, “a student told Abdulhadi that as a
Jew she identified with the political ideology of Zionism and was offended
by being placed ‘in the same category as a white supremacist,’” according
to Palestine Legal.

Abdulhadi responded “that she respects the student’s feelings but does not
agree with them,” the civil rights group added.

Several students claimed that the lecture was a form of hate speech and
said they planned to file a complaint to the university.

UCLA conducted an internal investigation and concluded months later that
there had been no wrongdoing or discrimination.

In its complaint, StandWithUs claims that the university did not adequately
punish Abdulhadi.

“The logical conclusion of this argument is that federal law requires UCLA
to intervene when professors fail to support Israel,” Palestine Legal warns
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2019/5/31/ucla-wrongly-investigates-lecture-linking-zionism-with-white-supremacy>
.
Micromanaging academia

Meanwhile, members of Congress are calling
<https://grothman.house.gov/uploadedfiles/12-19-19_title_vi_member_letter_to_sec._devos.pdf>
on
Betsy DeVos, the US education secretary, to pull federal funding from
universities that have Middle East studies programs where members of
faculty support the academic boycott of Israel.

Invoking Title VI of the Higher Education Act, the lawmakers insist that
Middle East Studies National Resource Centers – which are housed at many US
universities – are “misusing” their federal grant funds because directors
and members of faculty support the academic boycott.

Title VI of the Higher Education Act provides federal funding for foreign
language and area studies. It is unrelated to Title VI of the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and is not supervised by the Office for Civil Rights or Kenneth
Marcus directly.

However, Marcus does have influence, Mattar told The Electronic Intifada,
“because when he was at the Brandeis Center, he led this campaign to cancel
all Title VI funding of Middle East Studies programs because of their
[alleged] bias against Israel.’”

The lawmakers cite DeVos’ threats
<https://palestinelegal.org/news/2019/9/20/pro-israel-complaints-dept-of-ed-threatens-middle-east-studies-funding>
last
September against Duke University and the University of North Carolina over
a conference focused on Gaza, which was sponsored by the Duke-UNC
Consortium for Middle East Studies.

DeVos threatened to cut funding to Middle East Studies unless the
universities provided a “revised schedule of activities that it plans to
support for the coming year, including a description demonstrating how each
activity promotes foreign language learning and advances the national
security interests and economic stability of the United States.”

Mattar called it an unprecedented “micromanagement of the content of
academic affairs” because the department was deemed too sympathetic to
Palestinians.

UNC and Duke University settled with the government and are looking into
ways to be in compliance with the government’s demands, she added.

“They’re in a position where they can’t actually explore academic content –
it’s confined now, it’s limited,” Mattar said.

In addition, Congress member Denver Riggleman of Virginia called on DeVos
to block federal funds from Georgetown University, claiming that the
institution’s faculty at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies are
anti-Semitic due to their support of the BDS movement.

Mattar said that although these threats are lingering over the heads of
students, faculty and university administrators, students are continuing
their advocacy for Palestinian rights “the way that the US Constitution
permits it.”

Trump’s unilateral action to implement a distorted definition of
anti-Semitism in order to silence Palestine rights campaigners “should not
change their movement for justice, equality and peace, despite the backlash
and the smearing. Your First Amendment rights remain unchanged,” she
explained.

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