another anti-jewish terrorist defending organization Palestine Legal supported by Franky
Defending PFLP Terrorists
Rasmea Odeh
Palestine Legal, under its old name “Palestine Solidarity Legal Support,” was on the
defense committee for Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, while she was on trial in the U.S. for immigration fraud.
Odeh was a key
military operative [00:02:08] with the PFLP, an
internationally designated terrorist organization. Odeh
confessed to masterminding a
bombing in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969 that killed two university students. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate the same year.
Odeh was tried and sentenced to life imprisonment by an Israeli court but was released 10 years later in a prisoner swap and then emigrated to the United States. She was
convicted of immigration fraud in 2014, as she did not disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. Odeh was eventually
stripped of her U.S. citizenship in 2017 and deported to Jordan.
Palestine Legal
signed a statement opposing Odeh’s 2013 indictment for immigration fraud, claiming Odeh was an “exemplary citizen.”
Another statement published by Palestine Legal in 2014
claimed Odeh “committed no crime, and is only under attack because she is a Palestinian icon.”
Leila Khaled
In
October 2020, Palestine Legal
sent a letter to the Zoom digital video conferencing platform, criticizing their
refusal to stream
several online events
featuring Leila Khaled.
Zoom
cited Khaled’s “reported affiliation or membership in a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization” a likely violation of Zoom’s Terms of Service.
Khaled was a leading member of the PFLP and participated in the hijacking of
TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and
El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, she was a
member of PFLP's Political Bureau.
Khaled has
advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and
said that the
second intifada failed because it was not violent enough.
Palestine Legal
accused Zoom of “a dangerous attack on free speech and academic freedom” and of deciding “to censor discussion of Palestinian freedom.” The letter also claimed that Khaled “did not plan to represent the PFLP” at the events.
Palestine Legal - Canary Mission
Palestine Legal
Overview
Palestine Legal is an independent legal organization that provides advice and support to anti-Israel activists.
The group provides extensive assistance to anti-Israel student activist groups such as
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP),
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and
IfNotNow (INN).
Palestine Legal has provided
legal defense to multiple university students embroiled in controversies over anti-Semitic or violent content posted online, including
Yasmeen Mashayekh,
Ahmad Daraldik and
Nerdeen Kiswani.
In addition, they provided assistance to two convicted terrorists with the internationally designated terrorist organization, the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
Palestine Legal
works “to protect the right" for activists to engage in
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement initiatives and has
reportedly drafted the texts of multiple university campus BDS resolutions.
The group maintains a
database of legislation that it claims targets “advocacy for Palestinian rights” and
urges activists to contact government officials to campaign against such legislation.
The organization has offices in Chicago, New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Background
Palestine Legal, formerly
known as Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, was
founded in 2012 by Dima Khalidi.
It was officially
launched in 2013 by
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) as part of the Student Speech Working Group in collaboration with the
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) and
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). The Student Speech Working Group’s organizations also
included the
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – San Francisco Bay Area and JVP.
Partners and Staff
According to its official website, Palestine Legal works “closely” with several legal organizations known for their anti-Israel stance,
includingCCR and NLG, to provide legal support to anti-Israel activists.
Palestine Legal also
lists as its “partners” CAIR and the
U.S. Campaign For Palestinian Rights (USCPR), a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that
lobbies the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel legislation and end government support for Israel.
Palestine Legal’s
staff features an array of longtime anti-Israel activists:
- Dima Khalidi, Palestine Legal’s founder and director, has “worked on numerous cases that sought to hold Israeli officials and corporations accountable” for what Palestine Legal alleges to be “Israeli violations of international law.”
- Liz Jackson, Palestine Legal’s founding staff attorney, has been a BDS activist since 2010, when she advised a divestment campaign launched by SJP at the University of California, Berkeley (Cal SJP). She is also a former member of Cal SJP.
- Radhika Sainath, Palestine Legal’s senior staff attorney, was involved with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) during the second intifada. She also helped organize a so-called “fact-finding delegation to the Gaza Strip” in 2009, following Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead” against Hamas.
- Angela Campion, Palestine Legal’s development and operations manager, is a former organizer and communications manager with SJP.
- Kristian Davis Bailey, Palestine Legal’s communications manager, is a former campus and national organizer with SJP.
- Leila Elaqad, Palestine Legal’s development and administrative associate, was previously Operations Coordinator at CAIR-Columbus, Ohio from July to August 2017.
- Amal Thabateh, Palestine Legal’s Michael Ratner Justice Fellow, is a former intern at CAIR in New York.
Funding
Palestine Legal
states that it is a “fiscally sponsored project” of
Tides.
The group also receives
funding from the
Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), which has a history of
supporting anti-Jewish and
anti-Israel causes, including BDS campaigns.
As of June 2021, anti-Israel activist
Roger Waters was a
major donor to Palestine Legal.
Dismissing Anti-Semitism
Palestine Legal
campaigns against the adoption of the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and its implementation in the U.S.,
claiming that the definition is “designed to silence advocacy for Palestinian freedom.”
The U.S. State Department
adopted the IHRA’s
working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Twenty-eight European countries, as well as Canada, Australia, Israel and Argentina, have also
adopted the definition.
Several examples of anti-Semitism given in the IHRA definition
relate to Israel. At the same time, the definition states: “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.”
Palestine Legal
tracks proposed legislation across the U.S. that seeks to
adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, re-framing it as “Legislation targeting advocacy for Palestinian rights.”
Anti-Semitic
incidents in the U.S. “more than doubled” during OGW and its aftermath, compared to the same time period in 2020, according to the
Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
Alongside that, Palestine Legal provides
legal support to anti-Israel activists to help whitewash, downplay or
dismiss their
anti-Semitic and
violent rhetoric posted to social media by
portraying their remarks as being merely “protected speech critical of Israel.”
Providing Legal Support to Anti-Israel Activists
Palestine Legal has provided significant legal support for individuals and groups under fire from accusations of anti-Semitism, making threats of violence and engaging in discriminatory activity.
- In 2020, Palestine Legal provided support for SJP and Within Our Lifetime (WOL) leader Nerdeen Kiswani, after a video she posted went viral in which she threatened to set a man’s Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sweatshirt on fire. Palestine Legal said Kiswani was the target of a “Zionist smear campaign” for her “jest.” Palestine Legal states that it has “proudly supported” Kiswani since 2014.
- In December 2020, Palestine Legal provided support for Ahmad Daraldik, an SJP activist at Florida State University (FSU) who was at the center of a controversy following the exposure of Daraldik’s anti-Semitic social media posts, such as “stupid jew thinks he is cool.” Palestine Legal together with CAIR-Florida sent a letter to FSU’s President defending Daraldik and framing his posts as “remarks critical of Israel’s occupation.”
- In 2019, Palestine Legal and two other groups sent a joint letter to a library in New Jersey that had canceled a JVP children’s book reading of “P is for Palestine” by Golbarg Bashi. The book was surrounded by controversy for its reported glorification of “intifada.”
The book states [00:01:10]: “I is for Intifada. Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, whether you are a kid or a grownup.”
The term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence, since the early 2000’s.
Palestine Legal’s letter asked the library to reschedule the event and apologize to JVP and Bashi. The library eventually allowed the event to go ahead.
- In 2018, Palestine Legal advised a University of Michigan (UM) professor, John Cheney-Lippold, who refused to write a recommendation letter for a student who was going to study in Israel, citing his support for BDS.
UM disciplined Cheney-Lippold with a number of sanctions and issued a letter stating his conduct had “fallen far short” of the University’s expectations for how “faculty interact with and treat students,” that Lippold’s “behavior in this circumstance was inappropriate and will not be tolerated” and that “a student's merit should be your primary guide for determining how and whether to provide a letter of recommendation.”
- In April 2017, Palestine Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of SJP, after Fordham University (Fordham) rejected SJP’s request to create a campus chapter. Fordham’s dean explained that he believed SJP would create “polarization” on campus that would “run contrary to the mission and values” embraced at Fordham.
In August 2019, a New York court
mandated that Fordham recognize SJP as an official club. Fordham, however, successfully
appealed the ruling and in
December, 2020, the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division
overturned the lower court’s decision.
AIPAC’s
mission, as stated on their website, is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
- In March 2015, Palestine Legal defended an SJP chapter at New York University (NYU), after its members slipped fake eviction notices under the doors of over 2,000 students living in two student residence halls.The group has also published a “Mock Eviction Actions Preparation Checklist” to guide students on how to prepare, promote and carry out “mock eviction actions” on college campuses.
- In September 2013, Palestine Legal and CCR published a “Legal and Tactical Guide” for “Palestinian Human Rights Advocacy in the U.S.” The guide advised students on staging anti-Israel mock checkpoints, protests, marches and demonstrations.
Defending Yasmeen Mashayekh
In 2021, Palestine Legal defended
Yasmeen Mashayekh, a student who
was [00:11:08] then embroiled in a
national controversy over
anti-Semitism she spread on
social media that year.
In October 2021, Mashayekh was
listed as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Senator for University of Southern California (USC)’s
Viterbi School of Engineering (Viterbi). In May 2021, she
tweeted: “I want to f**king kill every motherf**king Zionist.” She also
tweeted: “yel3an el yahood [curse the Jews].”
Mashayekh also
spread violent hatred of Israeli Jews,
called for the destruction of Israel
and America,
expressed support for Hamas and
glorified terrorists.
Mashayekh was
condemned after Canary Mission
exposed her anti-Semitic tweets.
Palestine Legal
claimed Mashayekh was targeted “for speaking out for Palestinian rights.”
In a letter to the editor at the Los Angeles Times, Zoha Khalili, writing as staff attorney at Palestine Legal,
portrayed Mashayekh’s comments as being allegedly “political speech disagreeing with the ideology behind the Israeli government’s expansionist violence.”
Mashayekh’s name was
reportedly removed from a post on the school’s website celebrating women leaders, where she was a graduate student.
After Palestine Legal intervened, Mashayekh’s profile was
restored to the site.
