Over 100 attacks on pro-Palestine activists in the US

The Expatriate Affairs Department at the Palestine Liberation Organisation yesterday revealed that more than 100 verbal assaults were documented against pro-Palestinian activists in the United States, mostly accusations of terrorism and anti-Semitism.

The department quoted a joint statement by the Centre for Constitutional Rights and the Palestine Solidarity Legal Support warning of the rising trend across the United States, mainly at universities, where criticising Israeli policies is confused with anti-Semitism in order to silence calls to support the Palestinian people’s rights.

The statement said that in the first four months of 2015, the two centres responded to 102 requests for legal assistance from students and faculty members at universities across the country, including pro- Palestinian activists who complained about being verbally abused and described as “terrorists” or “supporters of terrorism” only because they criticised Israel’s policies.

Of the 102 complaints, 60 involved accusations of anti-Semitism and 24 involved accusations of supporting terrorism, the statement said.

The statement warned of the consequences of “smearing the reputation, harassing and intimidating pro-Palestinian activists.”

Co-founder and director of the Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, a lawyer at the Centre of Constitutional Rights, Dima Al-Khalidi said the accusations “not only are detrimental to the students and researchers’ reputations and jobs, but also encourage supervision on students and scholars, and thus violate their constitutional rights and limit the debate and free exchange of ideas in schools and universities.”

The abuses were documented in several US universities including Stanford, Columbia, Northwestern, Toledo, Northeastern, California, Pitzer College and Occidental.

Al-Khalidi said: “False accusations of anti-Semitism are being used as a strategy to put pressure on the campus’ administration to suppress speech critical of Israel.”