Palestine Legal to DC Court of Appeals: Dismiss Lawsuit Over ASA Israel Boycott as SLAPP Suit

Palestine Legal has urged the D.C. Court of Appeals to dismiss the latest in a series of lawsuits that were filed to scare professors from supporting the academic boycott of Israel.

On Wednesday, Palestine Legal and local counsel Benjamin Douglas filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of an appeal brought by academics who were sued over the 2013 American Studies Association (ASA) resolution to boycott Israeli academic associations. The ASA and the professors who were sued seek judicial relief under a D.C. law prohibiting Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).

“This is an archetypical SLAPP suit brought by an anti-Palestinian organization that openly brags about using this tactic to chill speech supporting Palestinian rights,” said Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath.

DC Court of Appeals (Credit: Wikimedia commons)

In December 2013 the ASA voted by a large margin to “honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.” Soon after their resolution was passed, the Mossad-linked Shurat HaDin Israeli Law Center threatened to sue the ASA, and other pro-Israel groups threatened to challenge the ASA’s tax-exempt status.

Ultimately, the Brandeis Center sued the ASA and academics in federal court and, after that suit was dismissed, initiated a D.C. case, which was partially dismissed in December 2019 and is currently on appeal.

Both Brandeis lawsuits argued that in adopting the resolution, the ASA operated beyond its corporate charter and breached its contractual obligations to its members. The D.C. judge dismissed many of these claims, but declined to dismiss the case under the local anti-SLAPP law, which would provide attorneys’ fees to the ASA and the academics who were sued.

Palestine Legal’s brief details efforts by the Brandeis Center to stifle viewpoints that support Palestinian rights in academia and among students. The brief describes how the organization has promoted a strategy of filing baseless discrimination complaints targeting speech supporting Palestinian rights on college campuses, called for government intervention into academic programs it believes to be not sufficiently pro-Israel, and pushed for universities and federal, state, and local governments to pass laws portraying criticism of Israel as a form of antisemitic discrimination.

According to Palestine Legal’s amicus brief:

“Ultimately, the core mission of the Brandies Center is to stop criticism of Israel’s policies by throwing whatever legal obstacles it can at students, universities, and professors, no matter what sticks. The goal, in the then-president of the Brandeis Center’s own words, is not to win the underlying legal claim, but to make advocating for Palestinian rights so onerous and time-consuming, people will think twice before doing so.”

The ASA and the professors are represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Whiteford Taylor Preston LLP, and Kleiman/Rajaram.

Read our amicus brief here.

Read more about the lawsuit here.