SLAPPed for Speaking About Palestine
Strategic lawsuits against public participation (or SLAPPs)are a tactic used to intimidate activists, journalists, and grassrootsorganizations that speak out against wrongdoing. Recent years have seen a spikein the use of SLAPPs and related intimidation tactics in the ongoing attempt bypowerful interests in the US to stop people from engaging in critical debatesabout the State of Israel and Palestine—especially on college campuses. Theseattacks are not widely known, and when they are, advocates’ critiques of theIsraeli State are often falsely conflated with anti-Semitism, as the rightseeks to silence free speech and deflect attention from human rights issues.
Lauren Regan, Executive Director of the CivilLiberties Defense Center, co-hosted a webinar on December 6th with Palestine Legal and the Protect the Protest coalitionto discuss this topic in detail. The webinar addressed how SLAPPs and relatedlegal tactics are being used to censor those who advocate for Palestinianrights and/or who promote the BDS (boycott, divest, and sanction) movement (aimedat reducing material support to the Israeli occupation and pressuring Israel tocomply with international law). These right-wing efforts have even pushed to expelstudents from universities and law schools, undermining academic freedom.
CLDC hosted the webinar in order to create a forum fordialogue across organizations about how these activists are defending theirrights to protest and free speech.
Anthony C. Alessandrini, Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College, shared that some conservative faculty and students across the U.S. have purposefully created a hostile environment to chill debate about Palestinian rights. After the 2016 election, progressive faculty members at Kingsborough came together to host discussions, but this informal faculty “caucus” was immediately attacked by right-wing faculty and administrators who falsely accused the professors of being anti-Semitic.
The Lawfare Project, a right-wing legal organization that purports to be “dedicated to defending and upholding the civil and human rights of the Jewish community,” per its website, sent a letter to at least 15 faculty members at Kingsborough, accusing them of discriminating against outwardly practicing Jewish and Zionist faculty members, grouping those two categories to conflate them as a monolith. The letter directed the faculty members to preserve all records about the professors’ opinions and communications on Israel, Palestine, and Zionism, among many other topics, in preparation for a potential discrimination lawsuit—despite the fact that the letter did not cite a single concrete incident that could provide the valid basis for a lawsuit. Rather than allowing ourselves to be silenced in fear, Alessandrini concluded that progressive colleagues involved in Palestine solidarity work need to come out even more vocally against anti-Semitism and against racism.
J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, Professor of American Studies andAffiliate Faculty in Anthropology at Wesleyan University, addressed the politicsof an academic boycott within the American Studies Association, and the historyand background related to a lawsuit in which she is a defendant. In January2012 she went as part of a five-scholar delegation to Palestine and laterrevived an internal discussion of Palestinian rights within the Association. In2013 the Association voted 2-1 in favor of refusing to collaborate with Israeliacademic institutions.
Although this decision was in no way directed toward anyindividual, in April 2016 four white male scholars represented by the Louis Brandeis Center (which oftensmears scholars by accusing them of being anti-Semitic) sued in retaliation forthe resolution. They claimed that there was a covert campaign to take over Associationand that the resolution vote violated ASA bylaws. In March 2017 a federal judgethrew out part of the case but allowed three claims to remain. The plaintiffsthen added additional defendants, including Professor Kauanui. In February 2019a judge granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, but the dismissalwas “without prejudice,” allowing the plaintiffs to refile their suit.
Kauanui added that, the apparent goal underpinning theLawfare Project’s and others’ attacks on pro-Palestine activists and academicsis the desire to stop both BDS and academic boycott advocates by: isolatingthem; taxing their time; chilling their speech; and harassing them. However,another important aim of those who oppose the movement for Palestinian rightsis to “data mine” through legal discovery – attempting in a calculated mannerto collect information about individual pro-Palestine advocates with theintention of expanding lawsuits by naming more defendants and prolonging legalbattles. Ultimately those who oppose the Palestinian rights movement want to“make the enemy pay.” This painstaking work is an effort to construe solidarityactivists and Palestinians themselves as the enemy and characterize them asterrorists, attacking their fundamental rights.
Zoha Khalili, Staff Attorney at Palestine Legal, talked about how even small-scale boycotts of Israeli products have been attacked. One example of this was when a food co-op in Olympia, Washington, decided to do just that in 2011, and was SLAPPed with a lawsuit from StandWithUs. Nine years later, in January 2020, this lawsuit still drags on. It went all the way to the Washington State Supreme Court and then back to the Washington State Court of Appeals, with the plaintiff challenging the judge’s dismissal of the case in favor of the co-op.
That case and others have had a profound chilling effect on free expression. Shurat Hadin, a legal group affiliated with the Israeli government, cited the lawsuit when threatening legal action against a Brooklyn food co-op that sought to boycott. Even though the plaintiffs in the Olympia case lost, they considered it a “win” because other food co-ops were discouraged from adopting similar policies, and the intimidation therefore had its desired result.
Lawfare also SLAPPed San Francisco State University faculty andadministrators in a case that was found to be baseless. Lawfare attorneys assertedthat protest against Israeli officials and engaging in research related toPalestine is inherently threatening to Jewish students, despite the fact thatmany Jewish students on campus are critical of Israel while also being proud oftheir Jewish identity. The suit was designed to discourage protests and chill freespeech on campus. As the tactic of targeting individuals proved fruitless,Lawfare proceeded to sue the institution without naming individual defendants, tododge anti-SLAPP laws. Ultimately the university was pressured, through thesecond lawsuit, into paying nominal legal fees and issuing a pro-Zionist publicstatement.
In terms of advice to Palestinian human rights advocates, thepanelists emphasized the importance of ensuring that all public statements areaccurate and consulting with a lawyer early on if there are any concerns aboutpotential SLAPPs, in order to plan how to respond in that event.
In order to be empowered in the face of threats from SLAPP bullies,they also advised activists to talk to a financial adviser to best protecttheir assets. Another tip is to become familiar with movement lawyers asresources and potentially plan a “meet and greet”—either in person or online. Theyurged people to continue to broadcast their message, encourage solidarity withinthe activist community, and speak out for others who are being attacked, tocreate a safer space for all, and engage in activism to show bullies you willnot be silenced. This discourages the use of SLAPPs as a chilling tactic,despite the significant funding behind them.
The takeaway message was to be more public and outspoken aboutthese issues, to expand public discourse and draw attention back to Palestineand the struggle there.