Yale University Suspends Scholar After AI Article Accuses Her of Terrorism Over Pro-Palestine Activism

New York (Quds News Network)- Yale University has suspended a pro-Palestine scholar from its law school after a Jewish news website, which uses AI to generate articles, accused her of being a member of a ‘terrorist group.’ This follows a broader campaign by the Trump administration to suppress any pro-Palestine speech.

Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar at Yale Law School, told the New York Times that she is a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights.

Last week, she was abruptly barred from Yale’s campus in New Haven, Conn., and placed on administrative leave. She was told not to advertise her affiliation with the university, according to The Times.

Yale officials claimed that she was tied to entities subject to U.S. sanctions. The Times said it was an apparent reference to Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group. The Treasury Department added Samidoun to the U.S. sanctions list, claiming it is a “sham charity” that raises money for a terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

“I am not a member of any organization that would constitute a violation of U.S. law,” Doutaghi said.

The decision came three days after a news site published a story about Doutaghi’s connections to the group, citing appearances she made at events sponsored by Samidoun. The article that led to her suspension was published on March 2 in Jewish Onliner, a Substack that says it is “empowered by A.I. capabilities.”

A lawyer for Doutaghi said she is not a member of Samidoun.

In a statement Tuesday, Yale Law School described the accusations against Doutaghi as reflecting “potential unlawful conduct.”

“We take these allegations extremely seriously and immediately opened an investigation into the matter to ascertain the facts,” said the statement, issued by Alden Ferro, a spokesman for Yale Law. “Such an action is never initiated based on a person’s protected speech.”

In January, the Israeli publication Haaretz questioned the reliability of such A.I.-powered platforms that it said worked to promote Israel’s cause online.

An Iranian and a Muslim, Doutaghi said Yale knew about her views when they hired her.

“In fact, at the time I believed that this quality would be an asset for the project I was hired to help lead,” she said.

The website does not publish the names of its authors out of fear of harassment. Doutaghi, however, was reportedly the subject of intense harassment. Within 24 hours of the Jewish Onliner article’s publication, Doutaghi said, she began to receive harassing and threatening messages online. She was also asked to meet with Yale officials to explain her position. She decided to retain a lawyer and asked for additional time to prepare for the meeting with Yale because she was fasting for Ramadan and dealing with harassment.

But three days after the Jewish Onliner published its article, Doutaghi was barred from campus and placed on administrative leave by Joseph M. Crosby, Yale’s senior associate dean, who told her the move was necessary because “we have not received any responses or factual explanations from you.”

Pro-Palestine Activism

Doutaghi said the actions against her are part of an attempt to silence scholars. “This is the type of thing that happens under fascist dictatorships, which Donald Trump is trying to establish,” she said in the interview with The Times.

Her suspension comes as another activist faces similar actions over his pro-Palestine activism.

On Saturday, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who is a permanent resident of the US, was detained by ICE agents when he arrived at his home at a student resident facility with his pregnant wife over his activism as he played a key role in pro-Palestine and anti-genocide demonstrations on campus. He acted as a negotiator with university officials during protests for Palestine in the spring of 2024. The agents said they planned to revoke his green card at the behest of the US Department of State.

The State Department also announced its plans to use AI to revoke the visas of pro-Palestine foreign students, labeling them “pro-Hamas”.

Following Khalil’s arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that the US would “be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported”.

On Monday, in a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

Yale’s peer institution, Columbia, lost $400 million in federal funding last week after being named on a list of schools accused of failure to address antisemitism. On Monday, the Trump administration announced that Yale was among 60 schools that could face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.

As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.

Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”