U.S. Terrorism Laws Are "Anti-Palestinian at the Core," Chill First Amendment

this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman we look now at how Palestinians are being increasingly targeted by us anti-terrorism laws amidst ongoing efforts to conflate pro- Palestinian activism with so-called terrorism the Anti-Defamation League the ADL has called on University presidents to investigate students for justice in Palestine known as SJP chapters for quote material support for terrorism ADL CEO Jonathan greenblat has even compared SJP to the Hitler Youth anti-zionism is anti-Semitism and the SJP and these kids who are pushing it are like the Hitler Youth sorry I know people don't like it when I say that but it's true and what Shai said before is spoton meanwhile several American universities have suspended or banned students for justice in Palestine in an interview in January with CNN's danab bash former house speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed without evidence some protesters demanding a ceasefire and Gaz are connected to Russia and urge the FBI to investigate them but for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr Putin's message Mr Putin's message make no mistake this is directly connected to what he would like to see same thing with Ukraine it's about Putin's message I think some of these some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere some I think are connected uh to Russia and I say that having looked at this for a long time now as you know you think some of these protests are Russian plants I don't think they're plants I think some financing should be investigated and I want to ask the the uh FBI to investigate that she later would say when people were protesting in San Francisco go back to China for more we're joined by two guests who've been following all of this clo closely darl Lee is an anthropologist and lawyer teaching at University of Chicago he's the author of the new briefing paper anti- Palestinian at the core the origins and growing dangers of US anti-terrorism law jointly published with the center for constitutional rights and Palestine legal and we're joined by De maid founder and director of Palestine legal we welcome you both to democracy Now um darl Lee let's start with you talk about what you found good morning Amy it's good to be with you well I think many viewers of democracy Now are probably familiar with the way that Palestinians have been slandered and stereotyped as terrorists for a long time what this report does is it reaches back and connects the dots of a longer history going back almost 50 years showing how the very foundations of terrorism law in the United States at Key moments of their development were crafted with the agenda of opposing or crushing Palestinian Liberation in Mind the first time the word terrorism even shows up in federal law is in a 1969 statute and it's unfortunately very relevant today this statute restricts us Aid to unra the UN body that provides humanitarian Aid to refugees and it uses um the word terrorism essentially as a synonym for Palestinian resistance um and one of the chief sponsors of this legislation Congressman Leonard farbstein from New York made a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives where he pedal The Stereotype of uh unoa schools and Palestinian refugee camps essentially as hot beds of terrorism that are brainwashing the sort of next generation of terrorists so in light of today's campaigns to defund unra and to deprive Palestinians of humanitarian Aid we can see that this is part of a much much longer campaign that extends in many different directions can you talk about who is pushing these laws and what their agenda is darlly yes one of the other key aspects of the story is the role of organizations like the Anti-Defamation League in pushing for this legislation over time and again this is relevant for one of the clips that you just played the clip of Jonathan greenblat the head of the ADL um accusing student activists SJP of terrorism support of being terrorism supporters um there's a bit of a coming full circle moment here because the ADL was actually one of the organizations that lobbied very heavily for the passage of this law that criminalizes so called material support to terrorist organizations the material support statute is actually the most commonly used charge in federal terrorism cases and the reason why it's prosecutor favorite tool is because it is incredibly broad it criminalizes ordinary activity that would that would usually be covered and protected by the First Amendment um so it's a very very convenient weapon and it was passed in the 1990s um as the result of a long-running campaign by the ADL and other groups to essentially crack down on Palestinian Community organizing and Palestinian solidarity organizing in the United States and what they did actually was they exploited the outrage following the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City now many people will recall of course that the people who carried out that bombing were US citizens essentially right-wing white nationalist militia members um but the law that was passed as a result of the Oklahoma City bombing um included it was mostly a sort of get on get tough on crime Crackdown on on immigration bill that included the the material support um law that was proposed by the ADL as part of a larger package of measures that were all about essentially targeting Palestinian Liberation movements and D mcal head of Palestine legal let's be clear it's not only students for justice in Palestine that have been banned on some campuses but also Jewish voice for peace that's right Amy um um we've seen over the last several months uh multiple efforts to shut down student activism and that is a direct result of uh of of uh efforts by groups like The ADL um but also by uh uh statements by President Biden himself that have said that he will Mobil he is mobilizing federal law enforcement to surveil uh uh campus activism and these threats of surveillance that Pelosi herself uh uh made as well uh are serious and they reflect what we are saying in this report is a fundamentally anti-palestinian agenda uh when uh the US government instead of uh stopping military aid to Israel uh to stop this genocide is stopping funding for unwa that is a Lifeline for gazin um this is uh uh the result of Decades of uh anti-palestinian rhetoric that has allowed these laws to develop and that is ultimately in this moment when people are mobilizing to stop this genocide a cover for the genocide it is a justification for the dehumanization of Palestinians and their allies to Tar them uh with criminal or discriminatory intent and that's the intention of this report is to really expose this this anti-palestinian agenda that is driving um efforts to to Really expand these laws to to Target First Amendment activity that is is uh trying to mobilize people uh for justice Palestine legal has received multiple reports of the FBI harassing Palestine advocates for their social media posts can you describe some examples dimma well we and other uh legal organizations that are supporting people who are facing increasing repression are getting multiple reports of uh people being visited by the FBI um often because of social media posts that they they make uh because of their their activism on the streets um and people have even been uh U visited by Ice um uh immigration enforcement agencies um and this is a direct result again of this rhetoric um of of this increase in in uh surveillance resources uh to law enforcement agencies and uh as we know from the post 911 era um the impact on our communities is enormous it has a huge chilling effect on people on First Amendment rights um but it also is uh is is a signal of an erosion of a whole host of of constitutional rights um when law enforcement is mobilized in this way as we saw in the 1960s with cointelpro as we saw in the post 911 era so this is uh just the beginning we think of what is a massive mobilization of State resources against this movement and uh this is why we're publishing this report now to really encourage lawmakers to protect First Amendment rights to roll back these laws which are only shielding Israel from accountability and scrutiny and undermining fundamental First Amendment rights for everybody can you talk about the anti-palestinian bills that are in front of Congress and I one of them that would possibly radically expand deportations of Palestinians at this time DEA yeah we're seeing legislator around the country not just Congress but uh state legislator uh threatening uh presenting bills that are uh trying to justify uh an erosion of of constitutional rights and um First Amendment rights by uh noting uh terrorism supposed terrorism threats right um and certainly in it's after October 7th we saw an increase in these kinds of bills um one that that wanted to deport all Palestinians and we see this rhetoric from our elected officials as well so um we're we are uh very clear that the reason that this is allowed to happen is because this anti-palestinian sentiment has been cemented not only into US law but into the minds of people and that's why uh these kinds of bills are are proposed with hardly anyone blinking an eye uh while uh Palestinians are being obliterated in Gaza as we speak um so this is a very concerning moment um and and one where we must all stand up and recognize that uh our laws are uh be have been built and are being used and exploited uh to further uh the the Israel's own agenda and uh you know the United States complicity in uh in what Israel is doing right now darlly can you talk about what most surprised you in this last minute we have uh in doing the research for this report yes well I think uh one of the surprising episodes um is the one that I referred to earlier about the way that the material support law was passed after the Oklahoma City bombing essentially what happened was that the Clinton Administration proposed a sort of General anti-terrorism law that included the things that the ADL wanted that essentially targeted Palestinians but also included things that you would expect like expanded law enforcement Authority regulation of of firearms and explosives and so on and the house Le um sorry the Republican Le House of Representatives essentially gutted that bill and replaced it with all the provisions that they wanted um and immediately uh the Democrats and the ADL pushed back lobed very hard and the parts of the original Bill only the ones that pertained to so-called International terrorism that were essentially targeting Palestinians were put back into the bill so it's a really sobering example of how anti-palestinian animus is one of the most enduring areas of bipartisan appeal in Washington well I want to thank you both for being with us we're going to link to your report darl Lee lawyer associate professor of anthropology and social sciences at the University of Chicago and Di Mahal founder and director of Palestine legal the new briefing paper is anti-palestinian at the core the origins and growing dangers of US anti-terrorism law that does it for our show to see all our video and audio podcast you can go to democracynow.org and congratulations to our whole team as we just surpassed 2 million YouTube viewers democracy Now produced with Renee Fel Mike burkea distri Messiah rhs n Shake Maria terasa Tammy waroff I'm Amy Goodman thanks so much for joining us

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Length: 13min 28sec (808 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024