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John,
Last week, our Jewish neighbors finished celebrating Sukkot, a weeklong holiday marked by spending time in sacred outdoor structures called sukkahs. Jewish students on more than 20 campuses across the country set up sukkahs for Palestine, demanding their universities divest from genocide and calling for an end to weapons shipments to Israel. But multiple university administrators shamefully directed police officers to destroy and desecrate these sukkahs, trampling yet again on students’ rights.
As campuses escalate repression during this fall semester, I want to lift up Palestine Legal, the only legal organization focused on protecting advocates for Palestinian rights. The group’s mission is to bolster the Palestine solidarity movement by challenging efforts to threaten, harass, and legally bully activists into silence and inaction. Palestine Legal also exposes this repression for what it is: an effort to shield Israel from accountability and justify U.S. support for atrocities.
Palestine Legal has seen an unprecedented spike in repression targeting Palestinians and their supporters in the United States. In the last year, the organization received nearly 3,000 requests for legal support—which is over ten times the number of requests from the previous year.
This year Palestine Legal has advised and represented activists in need, sued schools for their discriminatory and unconstitutional actions, and filed 10 federal civil rights complaints against universities for severe anti-Palestinian discrimination in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Thanks to their work, student groups in multiple states have been able to continue operating on-campus, five schools are now under federal investigation, and many universities have dropped charges and complaints against pro-Palestine students and professors.
Will you chip in today to support Palestine Legal’s important work, which is needed now more than ever? Thousands of students, faculty, people in workplaces, and activists depend on Palestine Legal having the capacity to fight for their rights.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately, with 100% going directly to Palestine Legal
Thank you for speaking up for Palestinians’ human rights and for U.S. residents’ civil and constitutional rights. We will continue fighting for our freedom of expression and our right to protest, which are essential for our collective liberation. We will keep pushing for the transformative changes our communities need, in service of a world where everyone can thrive.
In solidarity,
Rashida
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Rashida Tlaib
Date: Fri, Oct 25, 2024
Subject: New attacks on students:
To: [email protected]
John,
Wearing riot gear and pointing guns at residents, University of Pennsylvania police raided the off-campus home of pro-Palestine student activists this week. Nonprofit organization Palestine Legal has condemned this alarming use of force as well as this fall semester’s wave of new anti-protest policies at colleges nationwide.
In states such as Michigan, students and faculty have been hospitalized after brutal beatings and arrests—all for engaging in constitutionally protected activities. Our state’s Attorney General even filed criminal charges against peaceful student protesters. Palestine Legal writes: “Activists and community members have been doxxed, threatened, investigated, censored, questioned, fired, and even assaulted simply because of their views.”
For 12 years, Palestine Legal has been protecting our right to dissent by representing, advising, and providing legal education to activists and communities who speak out for Palestinian freedom. Since last October, Palestine Legal has received almost 3,000 requests for legal support—more than 10x what the group receives in a typical year.
During this exponential increase of repression, Palestine Legal is supporting people who’ve experienced workplace discrimination and termination for expressing support for Palestinians’ human rights, as well as students and faculty at high schools and colleges across the country who are navigating censorship, suspensions, expulsions, evictions, police violence, and more. Thanks to Palestine Legal’s work, five universities are now under federal investigation for anti-Palestinian racism, and many schools have dropped charges and complaints against pro-Palestine students and professors.
Please donate today to Palestine Legal, the only legal organization that’s committed to defending the civil and constitutional rights of people in the U.S. who speak out for Palestinian freedom. With anti-Palestinian repression at an all-time high, we must urgently increase Palestine Legal’s capacity to keep doing this critical work.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your secure donation will go through immediately, with 100% going directly to Palestine Legal
Progressive change happens because strong social movements demand it. For example, people forced the passage of civil rights legislation by marching, boycotting, leading civil disobedience, bringing cases before the Supreme Court, and relentlessly fighting for clear policy demands until they were passed by Congress and signed into law by the president.
Our right to free speech and protest is a crucial part of making the transformative changes we need. As Palestine Legal wrote: “Student speech and organizing has always had a cherished and critical role in U.S. movements for racial and social justice, moving the needle on critical domestic and global issues.”
Heartbreakingly, our movement has not yet ended the genocide or the occupation of Palestine. However, we are seeing a historic shift in U.S. public opinion on Palestine, with a majority of Americans in favor of stopping U.S. military aid to Israel. And we get closer to winning by using every tool we can, including pushing back through the courts with legal advocacy.
Will you chip in today to support Palestine Legal, the only legal organization in the United States exclusively dedicated to supporting the movement for Palestinian rights? This is a crucial moment to protect our right to protest.
Thank you. Together, we will keep growing our movement for Palestinian liberation and the liberation of all people.
In solidarity,
Rashida
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