1. Bills, Resolutions 2. Congress Continues to Stoke Hysteria Over Student Protests for Palestinian Rights 3. Letters 4. Hearings & Markups 5. Selected Media &…

“The resurgence of antisemitism in the U.S. led several states to adopt the definition. Since 2017, 40 states have taken it up, with 14 states passing it into law and 14 more adopting it by proclamation. In nine states it was adopted by resolution and in three states by executive order, according to the Foundation for Middle East Peace.”

Free Speech – general (right & left) Professor Ken Stern (Director, Bard Center for Hate, & lead drafter of the IHRA definition of antisemitism) 9/17/24:…

New from FMEP Gaza Region//Global River to the Sea U.S. Scene Activism//Universities Perspectives//Long Reads  NEW FROM FMEP The Attack on Academic Freedom (Occupied Thoughts Podcast)…

1. Bills, Resolutions 2. Congress Continues to Stoke Hysteria Over Student Protests for Palestinian Rights 3. Letters 4. Hearings & Markups 5. Selected Media &…

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Fellow Peter Beinart speaks with Professor Sahar Aziz of Rutgers University about the current attacks on academic freedom…

MEI/FMEP 2024 Congressional Briefing Series: The Gaza Catastrophe Part 3 — International Law & Humanitarian Crisis Panelists: Raz Segal (Stockton University), Sherine Tadrous (Amnesty International),  Chris Gunness (Former UNRWA spokesperson) Listen to…

Welcome to FMEP’s Weekly Settlement Report, covering everything you need to know about Israeli settlement activity this week. To subscribe to this report, please click here.…

In this episode of Occupied Thoughts, FMEP Non-resident Fellow Rania Batrice speaks to Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate justice writer and essayist. The two discuss…

“‘This looks like almost dictatorial power given to a single political appointee, who will serve as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner,’ says Lara Friedman, the president of the DC-based Foundation for Middle East Peace, whose late April X thread on HR 6408 drew the first wave of significant public attention to its fiercely anti-free speech M.O. ‘This is about how you accuse and hold accountable American citizens in violation of US material support laws, and there’s a well established way to do that that involves due process. This is a new track to do that without any due process protections.’” and

“‘This is about being able to rescind SJP’s tax exemption,’ Friedman says. ‘I don’t think a lot of people in Congress want to get up and say ‘I’m going to defend this group that allegedly has ties to Hamas.’ And since no one will make a courageously factual case that this is bullshit, that’s how all this got traction.’ It’s a familiar dynamic for groups like Foundation for Middle East Peace, which advocates for just outcomes in the Israel-Palestine conflict. ‘This is very much along the lines of the anti-BDS legislation that passed in state legislatures,’ she adds. ‘Back then, everyone sort of overlooked that, thinking it was a narrow Israel-Palestine issue that didn’t really concern anyone else. And now that legislation is the template for anti-DEI bills and other legislation that punishes speech.'” and

“Given the fraught state of discourse surrounding the present wave of anti-Gaza protests, it’s not hard to envision a ratified COLUMBIA Act being used by hardcore supporters of the Gaza war—and skittish campus administrators—to dismantle Arabic and Middle Eastern studies programs outright. ‘What they’ve got there is the complementary legislation to Trump’s executive order, which makes the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition the official definition of antisemitism’—a version of the term that Palestinian activists have protested on the grounds that it equates Judaism and Zionism, says Friedman. ‘Then you create this monitor, and the IHRA definition becomes the official definition of antisemitism on campus.’ It’s always tempting, given Congress’s steady transformation into a glorified theater of culture warfare, to shrug off such measures as mere donor-pandering on autopilot. But the repercussions of such posturing in the real world are all too chilling. ‘They’re saying that the IRS should be using a political litmus test to determine a group’s nonprofit status,’ Friedman says. ‘That should alarm anyone.'”