The group, representing Northwestern Graduate Students for Palestine, argues that subjecting students to anti-Semitism training ‘prohibit[s] expressions of Palestinian identity’
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is suing Northwestern University on behalf of the school’s Graduate Workers for Palestine, alleging that subjecting students to a mandatory anti-Semitism training violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, according to a complaint obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
The complaint argues that the training violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits any organization that receives federal funds from discriminating on the basis of race, color, or national origin—and says the training bans “expressions of Palestinian identity.”
“Under the pretense of combating antisemitism, Defendant Northwestern University has enacted policies and practices that prohibit expressions of Palestinian identity, culture, and advocacy for self-determination and silence those, including Jewish students, who express solidarity with Palestinians or even engage in critical academic engagement with Zionism,” the complaint reads.
It focuses on a training video produced by the Jewish United Fund that shows quotes from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke alongside those from anti-Israel activists to make the point that “you can’t tell the difference.”
Northwestern barred students who did not complete the training from registering for classes and offered the students an Oct. 20 deadline to view the video.
CAIR argues that the video “equates critical engagement with Zionism with anti-Jewish statements by the Ku Klux Klan,” discriminating against “the University’s Palestinian and other Arab students by branding their ethnic and religious identities, cultures, and advocacy for the rights of their national group as antisemitic and subject to discipline.”
The complaint stipulates that the “training course is replete with political commentary which restricts Northwestern students from advocating for Palestinian liberation, equal rights, an end to apartheid in Palestine, and for the rights of Palestine’s indigenous people (Jewish and non-Jewish).”
Anti-Israel activists at Northwestern have vandalized the building that houses the school’s Holocaust center with “Death to Israel,” “Intifada Now,” and Hamas triangles, the Free Beacon reported earlier this year. The campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter hosted an anarchist training session that used materials from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group to urge students to “build an Intifada” and “destroy amerika.”
The plaintiffs also included a section on the Deering Meadow encampment that stood on the campus from April 25 to May 1, 2024, which they described as “nonviolent protest, display of signs, speeches, dancing, prayer and other overtly Jewish religious activities, and community building.”
Students walking by the encampment reported activists in the encampment hurled insults like “dirty Jew” and “Zionist pig” in their direction, according to the Forward. Another student reported being told to “go back to Germany and get gassed,” according to the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and a video captured a masked radical—donning a sweatshirt that bore the image of a Hamas terrorist—demanding a passerby state whether he spoke Hebrew. Another video showed an activist accosting a student who attempted to film the encampment.
The “prayer and other overtly Jewish religious activities” note seems to refer to a performative Passover Seder—a celebration that ends with the words, “Next year in Jerusalem”—held on the wrong night. The student activists also displayed a poster of former university president Michael Schill, who is Jewish, with devil horns and drops of blood. Another poster featured a crossed-out Star of David.
Northwestern is also facing a lawsuit from a student who alleges a protester accosted her friend with a sign as others jeered “burn in hell” as they chased her from the encampment area.
The CAIR lawsuit represents a stark shift in the relationship between the extremist organization and Northwestern. The university faced criticism for partnering with CAIR on an anti-discrimination training earlier this year that relied on separate data sets to show anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes. For anti-Semitic attacks, it cited official FBI data, but for anti-Muslim attacks, the training showed unverified figures from CAIR without citing the source. As a result, the training falsely suggested that there had been five times more attacks against Muslims than Jews.
CAIR itself has a history of ties to terrorist groups. It was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2009 federal court case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development Hamas front group. CAIR”s executive director, Nihad Awad, formerly led the Islamic Association of Palestine Hamas propaganda arm and said in November 2023 that he was “happy to see” Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack against Israel.
At least one major organization fighting anti-Semitism at Northwestern believes the CAIR suit to be a farce.
“The idea that an antisemitism training could somehow threaten anyone’s civil rights is absurd,” Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern president Michael Teplitsky told the Free Beacon. “Northwestern worked with JUF to create a student program aimed at inclusion and understanding—exactly what universities are supposed to do.”
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