Assalaam Alaikum,
On Tuesday, Muslim Advocates, the ACLU of North Carolina, and Emancipate NC filed a lawsuit challenging the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s ongoing punishment of individuals involved in the nondisruptive encampment for Palestinian lives and freedom on campus last spring. This is another important step we’ve taken to defend the right to dissent, including against the genocide in Palestine. Protesters at UNC, including our clients, were forcibly removed from the encampment. They were physically injured, banned from campus, and subjected to arrests, all without due process and in violation of their first amendment rights. UNC’s punitive crackdown is dramatically more severe than its responses to past protests involving other viewpoints. Muslim Advocates remains committed to combating the national trend of state and private suppression of the student movement for Palestine.
The current administration is escalating anti-Palestinian repression. It issued an executive order meant to curb freedom of speech and expression, misleadingly titled “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.” The President also issued a public statement via social media calling for the expulsion, imprisonment, or deportation of student protesters, a call in direct opposition to our constitutional right to freedom of speech.
Students who support Palestinians’ human rights are being threatened with continuously escalating retaliation. Most recently, Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil was unlawfully abducted by ICE. He was targeted, despite being a green card holder, because he has been a visible, principled advocate for ending the genocide while a student at Columbia University. Mahmoud is not alone. Students, faculty, and organizers across the country are under scrutiny and facing explicit pressure to be silent under threat of having their visa or immigration status weaponized against them.
Muslim Advocates is bringing our legal-advocacy capacity to the defense of frontline students and their constitutional right to speak out in moral outrage. We know it’s an essential part of our movement for social justice—and justice in Palestine is core to the fight for justice everywhere.
Please consider supporting our work. Your generosity helps us ensure that students on the frontlines can live out their values and continue fulfilling the role students always have of helping build the free society that our constitution promises and that we all deserve.
