Recently, we passed the one year mark of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Palestine. We have seen horrific images and heard tragic stories that haunt us, including the recent bombing of  hospitals, schools, and residential areas in central Gaza and in Lebanon.  You can read our statement marking this dark anniversary here. At least 902 entire Palestinian families have been completely wiped out, from babies to great-grandparents. Medical experts conservatively estimate that at least 186,000 Palestinians have perished from not just Israel’s direct attacks but the disease, forced starvation, and deliberate decimation of essential infrastructure such as hospitals and schools. Palestine is now the most dangerous place in the world.

Here in the U.S., students have been at the forefront of the movement for Palestinian lives and liberation. On campuses nationwide, students have risked so much to oppose the genocide and U.S. complicity in it.  With moral force that is rooted in anti-racist values, they have demanded that their institutions divest from the genocide in Gaza and respect their right to protest Israeli apartheid and occupation. In response, students across the nation have been facing a vicious backlash, including doxxing, arbitrary disciplinary consequences, physical threats, and more.  Our work is fueled by the inspiration we find in these students’ clarity and resolve.

In the past year, Muslim Advocates has provided legal support and representation to student activists spanning four states and eight campuses nationwide.  Here’s just some of our work:

• Federal Advocacy: Direct advocacy with the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Attorney General, and the Director of the FBI among other officials;
• Fighting Discrimination and Repression: Representing and counseling students on multiple anti-discrimination legal complaints, including complaints against the CUNY School of Law, Hunter College, Queens College, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University; filed bold First Amendment litigation for student plaintiffs that the New York Times covered;
• Fighting Punitive Campus Discipline: Defending student groups and individual students against punitive campus disciplinary charges, including direct representation of Laura Saavedra, a student activist who uses a wheelchair and was subjected to police brutality.
• Public Advocacy: Leading coalition letters, joined by Muslim and non-Muslim social justice organizations, directed to campuses nationwide in defense of students’ activism.