Gaza First Amendment Alert

UN says response to the Gaza war "unleashed a global crisis of freedom of expression," anti-protest forces shop prosecutors, and crackdowns on campuses continue.

Here’s the second issue of Defending Rights & Dissent’s Gaza First Amendment Alert. As a tidal wave of repression hits pro-Palestine activism and advocacy, we’ll keep you up to date, with posts every other Wednesday.

Jewish Students’ Gaza Solidarity Sukkahs Come Under Attack From Universities, Pro-Israel Groups

During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, it is customary to build sukkahs, temporary structures symbolizing the ones described in the Torah during Israelites time in the wilderness following their liberation from slavery in Egypt. Jewish celebrants will sometimes sleep in or eat in the structures. It is not out of the norm to see sukkahs on many college campuses. At schools across the country, anti-Zionist Jewish students, including, in some cases, members of Jewish Voice for Peace, put up Gaza solidarity or anti-Zionist sukkahs. While such sacred spaces are usually treated with reverence, the pro-Palestinian nature of the sukkahs not only led to attacks by anti-Palestinian groups and individuals, but multiple colleges, including Northwestern University, the University of California at Berkeley and University of Washington, demolished the religious structures. At UCLA, one student was arrested at the sukkah for violating time, place, and manner restrictions. In at least one case, that of UC Berkeley, the sukkah was removed under rules put in place in response to campus encampments. In the October 23 edition of its Campus Crisis Alert newsletter, the Anti-Defamation League, which purports to combat antisemitism, appeared to commend the destruction of the Jewish religious structures. In a tweet, the Los Angeles ADL praised the dispersal, arrest, and removal of the UCLA sukkah as progress towards a “safe and secure campus.” 

UN Expert: Gaza War “has unleashed a global crisis of freedom of expression”

On Thursday October 17, 2024, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, presented a thematic report to the UN General Assembly on “Global threats to freedom of expression arising from the conflict in Gaza.” The report found that the Gaza War “has unleashed a global crisis of freedom of expression” noting that “rarely has a conflict challenged freedom of opinion and expression so broadly and so far beyond its borders.” The report highlights three particularly disturbing trends: 

• first, attacks on journalists and media endangering access to information about the conflict globally;

• second, the suppression of Palestinian voices and views in a discriminatory and disproportionate manner,undermining academic and artistic freedom as well as freedom of expression more generally; 

• and third, the blurring of the boundaries between protected and prohibited speech

The rapporteur mentioned “serious concern that the pattern of killings and arbitrary detention of journalists and destruction of press facilities and equipment in Gaza indicates a deliberate strategy of the Israeli military to silence critical reporting and obstruct documentation of possible international crime.” Khan noted that  “silencing journalists by killing them is the most egregious form of censorship.” In addition to noting Israel’s attacks on media in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, in “some Western countries, media companies took retaliatory measures against their own journalists, usually Arab or Palestinian, for expressing their personal views online or offline.” Khan specifically cited an incident where the Los Angeles Times barred 38 employees from covering Israel or Palestine after they signed a letter condemning the killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza.

The report also talked about the suppression of protest and dissent. Although, thanks to its strong First Amendment protections, the United States has not seen the preemptive ban on pro-Palestine protests or slogans, like some European countries have seen, protests have been met with “repressive measures, including widespread police action against the demonstrators and stigmatization of Palestinian advocacy as inherently dangerous.” Lawmakers at both the state and federal level have proposed 45 separate laws “aimed at restricting street protests in support of Palestine, punishing student protesters and stigmatizing their Palestinian advocacy as ‘terrorism’” Citing testimony provided by Defending Rights & Dissent, the report also mentioned the heavy handed response to campus protests.

Khan also criticized both state actors and social media companies for conflating speech in support of Palestine with terrorism or antisemitism. The rapporteur found that blanket prohibitions on the slogan “From the river to the sea” violate international law. She also found that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, violated international protections for free expression. In the United States, First Amendment advocates have long been in consensus that the use of that definition by the government or in academic settings would violate our own First Amendment protections.

During the General Assembly session, the US expressed its opposition to Israel shutting down Al Jazeera, though they failed to note that their arming of Israel made the killing of journalists possible. They rejected Khan’s conclusions about the IHRA definition and defended its use. A number of European countries followed this same pattern--expressing concern over the killing of Palestinian journalists without seriously proposing solutions and defending the IHRA definition of antisemitism. It is unclear if these responses were coordinated. 

University of Michigan Sought Out Specific Prosecutor to Go After Student Protesters

An investigation by The Guardian found that University of Michigan specifically sought out Attorney General Dana Nessel over county prosecutors, believing she would be more likely to prosecute their students for protesting. According to The Guardian, “Nessel’s office has so far charged about 85% of the protesters who were arrested or for whom arrest warrants were requested last school year. By comparison, Washtenaw county’s office only charged 10% of arrests, while the Wayne county prosecutor, Kym Worthy, dropped all five Gaza protest cases forwarded to her office by Wayne State University police in Detroit, data provided by protesters’ attorneys and prosecutors shows.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) accused Nessel of being biased against the protesters. In response, Nessel falsely claimed Tlaib had stated she was biased because Nessel was Jewish. In spite of fact checks finding the claim to be false, it was repeated by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. Tapper even asked Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer if she condemned the remark Tlaib didn’t make. Bash lamented that Whitmer failed to condemn the nonexistent remark. 

More Crackdowns on Campus Protesters 

Cornell University has begun banning student protest leaders from campus. The Vice President of the school's Jewish Voice for Peace chapter and the co-chair of the Young Democratic Socialists of America chapter were among four students banned from campus for three years. The University of Chicago suspended a student for participating in a protest and evicted them from their dorm. Brown University has suspended its Students for Justice in Palestine chapter over a protest they organized. At the University of Pennsylvania, police donned riot gear and brandished assault weapons to perform a raid on students suspected of vandalism. UC Irvine has started bringing charges against students and faculty for participating in a May protest. In September of this year, ten people were charged, including two professors. Now an additional 39 protesters were charged. 

Congress Continues Reckless Fanning of Flames Against Protesters

Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Joni Ersnt (R-IA), and Tim Scott (R-SC) sent a letter to the Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christoper Wray urging them to force Students for Justice in Palestine to register as foreign agents of Hamas. The letter offers no evidence SJP are foreign agents of Hamas, but merely engaged in political speech the Senators disliked. It is not a crime to be a foreign agent--only to fail to register as one. However, as Hamas is a Foreign Terrorist Organization, it is a crime to engage in coordinated advocacy on their behalf, meaning it would be illegal under US anti-terrorism law to act as their agent. 

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has sent a letter to Garland urging the FBI to open a domestic terrorism investigation into the pro-Palestine group Unity of Fields. 

Israel Issues Assassination Threats Against Gazan Journalists, Kills Three Journalists in Lebanon

On October 23, Israel tweeted out six pictures of Al Jazeera journalists announcing they were "Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists" and there"was proof of the integration of Hamas terrorists within the Qatari Al Jazeera media network." Israel explicitly singled out Al Jazeera journalists in the north, where, even by the standards of the Gaza War, Israel is engaged in particularly brutal attacks. Later, former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted out, "Al-Jazeera cannot be considered a news outlet. It’s a terror support organization."

Journalist Jeremy Scahill has called this an "an assassination threat and an attempt to preemptively justify their murder." This sentiment was echoed by Defending Rights & Dissent.

Two days later, Israel carried out an airstrike in Lebanon that killed three journalists. 

Heritage Foundation Outlines New Plan of Attack on Palestine Solidarity Protests 

Earlier this month, the Heritage Foundation unveiled a new plan called “Project Esther: A National Strategy to Combat Anti Semitism.” Named for the Biblical Queen Esther, the report conflates nearly all pro-Palestine activism with both antisemitism and anti-Americanism. Far from being a good faith effort to reduce bigotry and prejudice in our society, it is a blueprint for political repression. It calls Palestinian activist groups, including Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, and Students for Justice in Palestine, “Hamas Support Organizations.” It labels a number of members of Congress, including Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Pramila Jayapal, the “Hamas Caucus.”

It calls for Hamas Support Organizations to be denied access to our open society, lose access to Congress, have their “communication disrupted,” and be prevented from being able to disseminate “propaganda.” It also calls for their criminal prosecution. Since “Hamas Support Organizations” are merely American groups with different views on foreign policy than the Heritage Foundation, it is unclear precisely how they can be denied access to open society or forbidden from spreading their political message. 

According to The Forward, the report is predominantly authored by Evangelical Christian organizations. The report itself shockingly singles out both Jewish members of Congress and the Jewish community writ large for special condemnation. For example, the report describes Bernie Sanders as “one of 10 Jewish Senators whose anti-Israel positions are both notorious and inexplicable.” It accuses the Jewish community of complacency, noting “over the past decades, significant elements of the American Jewish community, particularly the Reformed Jewish movement, have supported—even led—a multitude of liberal causes célèbres, including pro-Palestine organizations.” 

Pressure Growing Over US Inaction As Israel Bars Foreign Media, Attacks Journalists and US Citizens

On October 21, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) led 64 of his fellow House Democrats in sending a letter to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling on the US to do more to pressure Israel to allow foreign media into Gaza. The letter was supported by Defending Rights & Dissent and 18 press freedom organizations. 

The following day, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) led a bicameral letter signed by 11 members of Congress calling on Biden, Blinken, and Attorney General Merrick Garland to launch an investigation into an Israeli attack that injured American journalist and Vermonter Dylan Collins. Collin was one of six journalists in Lebanon who were deliberately attacked by Israeli tank fire from across the border. 

Within the Department of Justice, a number of mid-career employees sent Garland an anonymous letter criticizing the double standard given to Israeli war crimes versus war crimes committed by Hamas or Russia. The letter specifically criticizes the failure to investigate the killing of four US citizens: Jacob Flickinger, Aysenur Eygi, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, and Mohammad Khdour.

Want a way to take action? Tell your members of Congress to demand an independent investigation! 

Updates from October 16 Issue

US journalist Jeremy Loffredo has been allowed to depart Israel. The Grayzone reporter has given a harrowing accountof his ordeal. 

Defending Rights & Dissent has authored a primer on the Office of Foreign Asset Control’s Sanctions against Samidoun. And as predicted, the same lawfare groups that pushed for sanctions against Samidoun are now engaged in a campaign to push for similar sanctions against other Palestinian solidarity organizations. 

Finally, in our last issue we reported on the absurd case of the Harvard students suspended from the library for engaging in a “study-in.” In response to the university overreaction, 25 members of the faculty staged their own study-in, silently reading materials about dissent and free expression while placing signs in defense of free speech in front of themselves. Like the students, they were suspended from the library for two weeks.