US court dismisses lawsuit against several academics over BDS support
Washington (QNN)- A United States court dismissed on Thursday a lawsuit targeting academics and rights advocates over their support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Superior Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday granted a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and further dismissed the 10 counts charged against the academics on the basis of a DC law aimed at discouraging Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs), which are often used as a means to stifle and censor certain viewpoints by burdening public advocates with legal fees.
In December 2013, the American Studies Association (ASA) voted on a resolution honoring Palestinian civil society’s call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions. Over 66% of members endorsed the measure.
“We believe that the ASA’s endorsement of a boycott is warranted given U.S. military and other support for Israel; Israel’s violation of international law and UN resolutions; the documented impact of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian scholars and students; the extent to which Israeli institutions of higher education are a party to state policies that violate human rights; and the support of such a resolution by many members of the ASA,” read a statement from the organization’s National Council at the time.
In 2016, the pro-Israel Louis Brandeis Center sued the ASA on behalf of four members of its members who opposed the resolution. The case was dismissed in 2019, but the group filed a complaint in the D.C. Superior Court. That effort was also dismissed, but the D.C. Court of Appeals was ordered to consider it again after the defendants launched their own appeal.
They claimed that the vote had violated the group’s by-laws and that its officers had breached their fiduciary duties.
“This ruling should send a clear message to those trying to silence advocates speaking out against Israel’s human rights abuses: boycotts are legally protected, and attempts to stifle such advocacy through the misuse of courts will not be tolerated,” said Center for Constitutional Rights staff attorney Astha Sharma Pokharel following the dismissal, “These lawsuits will face strong opposition that will only grow the movement for justice and freedom in Palestine.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights represented the defendants in the case.
One of the defendants was Dr. Steven Salaita, the Palestinian-American rights advocate who was unlawfully fired from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over tweets attacking Israel’s 2014 assault on the besieged Gaza Strip. The plaintiffs amended their lawsuit to include Salaita in 2018 despite the fact that he joined the ASA two years after they held the resolution vote.
“I welcome the judge’s decision to dismiss this long-running lawsuit as a waste of time and money,” said Salaita in a statement. “I am happy to finally be freed of this burden and hope that the ruling will deter pro-Israel outfits with no means of winning a debate beyond harassment and defamation from trying to impoverish those of us committed to the wellbeing of the Palestinian people.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights said that the court found that the “claims primarily arose from advocacy on an issue of public interest and were not likely to succeed.”
The BDS movement is a non-violent initiative that seeks to challenge Israel’s occupation and abuses of Palestinian human rights through economic, cultural, and academic boycotts, similar to the successful boycott campaigns of apartheid South Africa.
