Talking Israel and Palestine on Campus: How the U.S. Department of Education can Uphold the Civil Rights Act and the First Amendment
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Talking Israel and Palestine on Campus:
How the U.S. Department of Education
Can Uphold the Civil Rights Act and the
First Amendment
YAMAN SALAHI AND NASRINA BARGZIE*
Introduction
A surge in scholarly discussion and campus activism about Israel
and Palestine at American universities has given rise to impassioned
debates about the First Amendment in public higher education., In
the last four years, a few off-campus organizations have filed
complaints with universities and with the federal government
alleging that pro-Palestinian expression creates a hostile educational
environment for Jewish students in violation of Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, often on the basis of nothing more than speech
critical of Israel's practices or policies.2 Responding to these
complaints, universities around the country have investigated,
disciplined, and in some cases suspended student organizations that
. Yaman Salahi and Nasrina Bargzie are, respectively, a Staff Attorney and Senior
Staff Attorney in the National Security/Civil Rights Program at Asian Americans
Advancing Justice -Asian Law Caucus. The authors would like to acknowledge the many
civil rights organizations with whom they have collaborated on this issue, including the
ACLU of Northern California, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Council on
American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine
Solidarity Legal Support, and the Student Speech Working Group. We would particularly
like to thank Alan Schlosser, Legal Director of the ACLU of Northern California, and
Elizabeth Jackson and Dima Khalidi of Palestine Legal for their contributions to refining
these ideas over the course of several years.
I. Elizabeth Rodden, Middle East Conflict, U.S. Campuses, INSIDE HIGHER ED (June 17,
2014), https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/17/pro-palestinian-student-activism-
heats-causing-campus-tensions.
2. Naomi Zeveloff, Coming up Empty on Title VI, JEWISH DAILY FORWARD (Mar. 13,
2012), http://forward.com/articles/152691/coming-up-empty-on-title-vi.
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