Lawsuit alleges former University of Michigan employees were fired for participating in protests
Pro-Palestinian protestors gather on University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus on March 14, 2025 to call for the release of Columbia University organizer Mahmoud Khalil | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols
Former employees of the University of Michigan are suing the leadership of the school, alleging that their employment was terminated after they engaged in pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Detroit by the Sugar Law Center and American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, asserts the university's actions are in violation with the employees' constitutional rights of freedom of speech, petition and assembly.
The university attributed all firings and blacklisting to violations of the school's policies on community violence, but the lawsuit states neither the seven student employees nor the full-time employee who faced repercussions for their participation in protests on campus enacted any sort of violence and complied with police instructions during the events.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Civic engagement has long been a hallmark of the university community, the lawsuit states, noting University of Michigan students throughout history have protested for different causes on campus including demanding an end to the Vietnam War.
But as members of the university community hold protests demanding the university divest from companies tied to Israel's war in Gaza, the lawsuit states that since the deadly October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the university has completely changed its response to protest activity on campus.
'Since October 7, 2023, the University has solely targeted, discriminated against, and punished students for engaging in speech and protest activity in support of Palestine and calling for the University to divest from Israel as a means of pressuring Israel to cease human rights violations against the Palestinian people, including crimes against humanity and genocide,' the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit notes that divestment is a reasonable effort for protesters to pursue as the university has divested before, including divesting from tobacco companies in 2000, South Africa in the 1970's and 80's and Russia in 2022. The lawsuit further notes that never before has peaceful participation in protests on the university's Ann Arbor campus resulted in termination or permanent ineligibility for rehire, as it has for these employees.
University of Michigan spokesperson Kay Jarvis said, 'the university does not comment on litigation' in response to Michigan Advance's request for comment on the lawsuit.
The protests at the heart of the lawsuit are a November 17, 2023 sit-in protest outside the university president's office and a May 3, 2024 protest outside of the University of Michigan Museum of Art.
During the May 2024 protest, the lawsuit said protestors stood outside the art museum while several of the university's regents were inside the building for a private event. Protestors linked arms and chanted and moved back to continue their protest after university police set up a barrier around the entrance of the art museum.
Months later, five university employees who participated in the protest were sent correspondence informing them that their employment was terminated and they were permanently not eligible for rehire for violating the university policies against community violence.
Four of the individuals who were fired months after the protest were not employees of the university when the protest was held, according to the lawsuit, which added that all the former employees who participated in the November 2023 and May 2024 protests participated in their own personal time.
During the November 2023 protest, the lawsuit says one particular student, Zaynab Elkolaly, attempted to join the sit-in protest outside the university president's office, entering the Ruthvan Building, when she became caught between a crowd trying to enter the building and police officers at the entrance.
'While turned away from the entrance to leave and with her back to the police, she was grabbed from behind and thrown to the ground by a University of Michigan police officer. While being thrown to the ground, her hijab was ripped off,' the lawsuit says.
Months later, after Elkolaly had graduated and was no longer an employee at the university, but was planning on applying for work at the school, she received a letter from the university saying she was ineligible for rehire due to violating the school's policies against violence.
'Each of the Plaintiffs was a dedicated University employee who took their job duties seriously, conducted exemplary work, and performed necessary services for the University,' the lawsuit states, adding that the processes the university enacted to terminate employment or bar future employment for the former employees robbed them of due process to combat retaliation by the university for their civic engagement.
The lawsuit seeks to force the university to repeal actions it took against the plaintiffs' employment statuses, recover damages from loss of employment and any other relief that would be considered just in this scenario.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Hamas-Qatari plot to scuttle Trump middle east peace plan uncovered by IDF in Gaza: report
Documents found by the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza show Qatari officials and leaders of Hamas plotting to scuttle Donald Trump's 'deal of the century' to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the president's first administration, according to a report. The documents apparently show leaders of Qatar and the terror group discussing ways to thwart the peace plan as well as efforts to have Arab countries, such as Saudi Arabia, normalize relations with Israel, according to Israel's Channel 12. The documents cite an emergency meeting in June 2019 between Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Hamas leaders including Khaled Mashal, former chair of the Hamas Political Bureau. 5 A screenshot from Israel's Channel 12 report claiming Qatari and Hamas leaders (Yahya Sinwa, on right) tried to scuttle peace negotiations brokered by President Trump during his first term in office. Israel Channel 12 5 Trump's 'deal of the century' was supposed to end the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians when it was announced in January 2020, but according to leaked documents found by IDF soldiers in Gaza the plan was nixed by Hamas working through Qatari mediators. EPA 'We must work together to oppose and eliminate the 'deal of the century,' ' Mashal said, according to the documents. Six months later Qatar's then-foreign minister Mahammed bin Hamad al Thani, speaking to a Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, noted 'the Qatari grants are Hamas's main artery,' referring to cash doled out to the terror group — whose members killed 1,200 Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, was assassinated last year in Tehran where he was attending the inauguration of Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian. His remains were taken to Qatar where they were buried in Lusail, the country's second largest city. In addition, the documents reportedly include correspondence showing Hamas worked to sideline Egypt's diplomatic efforts in Gaza, and replace it with Qatar. 'The Egyptians were attempting to restrain the escalation and we caused them to leave the picture with empty hands,' said Yahya Sinwar in May 2021, when he was the leader of Hamas in Gaza. 'In their place, the Qataris came, and we gave them an opportunity to dictate the fruits of diplomacy.' Sinwar was killed in October 2024 during fighting by the IDF. 5 Former Hamas Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh called cash grants from Qatar 'the main artery' of the Hamas terrorism network in documents that were leaked to Israel's Channel 12. AP The documents also reportedly reveal messages from Mashal thanking the Qataris for sending the Hamas leadership to Iran for the funeral of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport on January 3. 'Thank you to Qatari brothers who agreed to fly us,' reads the note from Haniyeh to the Qatari leadership. In a press release, the Qatari government called the documents, which The Post has not been able to independently verify, 'fabricated.' 5 Hamas leader Khaled Mashal (left) allegedly thanked his 'Qatari brothers' for flying Hamas terrorists to Tehran for the funeral of of terrorist Qasem Soleimani, on January 7, 2020. EPA They claimed they had been circulated in the Israeli media 'in an attempt to sow tension and division between Qatar and the United States at a crucial stage in our efforts to mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.' The country's International Media Office said in a June 10 press release the tactic had previously been used 'by those who want diplomacy to fail.' The White House did not return an email seeking comment. A spokesman for Hamas refused comment. 5 Qatar's Emir, Tamim bin Hamad al Thani (left) was allegedly cited in documents found by the IDF in Gaza in which Hamas leaders discuss how to thwart a Trump peace plan for the region. Getty Images In January 2020, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled a deal for a two-state peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. The plan, 'Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,' called for the creation of a State of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem. As part of the deal, Sinwar was offered $10 billion and for Gaza to be recognized as Palestine and Hamas-led in exchange for 'forgetting about' the West Bank and other territory. Sinwar rejected the offer, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). The deal ceded major settlements in the West Bank to Israeli sovereignty and called for a four-year freeze on new Israeli settlement construction. Qatar has had a long association with Hamas, who were designated a terror group by the US in 1997. Qatar's current defense minister, Sa'oud Aal Thani, posted tweets in 2014 backing the group during a round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in the summer of 2014. 'We are all Hamas,' he posted, according to Middle East Media Research Institute. A spokesman for the IDF declined to say when the trove of documents was found in Gaza.


New York Post
an hour ago
- New York Post
Los Angeles anti-ICE rioters are launching the left's American intifada
The riots that kicked off in Los Angeles last weekend aren't just about illegal immigration — they're part of a revolutionary movement. 'Anti-colonialism' is a term often heard in America's college classrooms, but off campus virtually no one takes it seriously. It's just another harebrained radical academic theory, right? Yes, the theory is mostly silly — but the practice is deadly serious. Most Americans and Europeans today feel ashamed of imperialism and racism, and they're glad to be rid of colonies and slavery. All that injustice is a thing of the past, however much its legacy haunts our present. But the ideology of anti-colonialism says otherwise: Imperialism and thoroughgoing racial exploitation never ended and never can end, not until 'settler' and 'colonizer' power is overthrown everywhere. Israel is the focus of the most vitriolic and violent anti-colonial rage, but the United States is just as guilty of being a 'settler-colonial state.' Mexico, and indeed all of Latin America, is America's Palestine, and when illegal immigrants cross the border, when they resist deportation, when they and their allies riot, this is justified resistance to colonialism. In Palestinian terms, it's an intifada, or at least the beginnings of one. Palestinians launched two intifadas against Israel, from 1989 to '93 and from 2000 to '05. These 'uprisings' involved rioting, throwing stones at police and soldiers, hurling Molotov cocktails, and violence up to and including suicide bombings, as well as boycotts, strikes and other forms of economic coercion and nonviolent protest. An American might recognize many of these tactics — though not suicide bombing, thank God — not only as scenes from Los Angeles in recent days but as familiar features from other left-wing protest movements, including those inspired by Black Lives Matter and the killing of George Floyd five years ago. There isn't some grand anti-colonialist conspiracy directing all of this, although there are links between one outburst and another: Usually the thugs who call themselves 'antifa,' for example, are in the vanguard of the provocations. But a conspiracy isn't necessary — the ideology is a franchise, teaching anyone who believes in it to immediately identify enemy groups and what slogans to chant when harassing or hurting them. No radical has to wait for orders to know what to say and do to police or Jews. On social media, conservatives have joked about the Mexican flags some LA rioters have been waving: After all, if you're proud of Mexico and its flag, why would you object to being sent back there? But those flags aren't being waved to make a point about Mexican territory — they're making a point about American territory, Los Angeles itself, which in anti-colonialist eyes belongs to illegal aliens at least as much as to any American. Never mind that Mexico was a product of settler colonization (by Spain) and practiced settler colonization itself in places occupied by indigenous peoples. Anti-colonialism is not about history or consistent philosophical principles; it's about power and acquiring it for those who are willing to take to the streets. That's one reason the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol four years ago was so shocking, when right-wing supporters of Donald Trump were willing to use a little of the force that left-wing protest movements routinely employ. The Jan. 6 rioters saw themselves as decolonizing the Capitol, viewing their enemies as a privileged elite who had somehow stolen the election and therefore the country. That riot didn't involve arson to the degree seen in Los Angeles these past few days, but it was frightening to the left, the political middle and most conservatives because it showed radicalism could expand into the right. Too many Americans who would never dream of rioting themselves have for too long simply accepted that left-wing protests are allowed, even expected, to be violent. They were unprepared for the activist right — not Nazi extremists, but a small subset of otherwise unremarkable Republican voters — to learn from what the anti-colonialist left was allowed to get away with. The lesson all Americans have to learn now, before it's too late, is this kind of violence will keep expanding as long as it's tolerated in the name of anti-colonialism and other progressive causes. There will be more riots, and then there will be more than riots: The premises of anti-colonialism call for intifada, not just in Palestine but right here in America. Law, and law enforcement, has to prevail in Los Angeles, but this is a battle that has to be won in the classroom, and the conscience, as well as in the streets. There will always be some violent extremists, but what sets fire to our cities again and again is the complacency of ordinary Americans who fail to recognize a radical premise when its consequences are broadcast on the nightly news — and world news, too. Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
France says Palestinian Authority makes ‘unprecedented commitments' to reform ahead of conference on statehood
France said it has received a letter from the Palestinian Authority that contains 'concrete and unprecedented commitments' to reform as Paris prepares to co-chair a conference on Palestinian statehood in New York. The letter, which France said was signed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, includes condemnation of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, a call on Hamas to immediately release all hostages, and pledges to hold elections and reform the authority, according to excerpts shared with CNN. 'Hamas will no longer rule Gaza and must hand over its weapons and military capabilities to the Palestinian Security Forces, which will oversee their removal outside the occupied Palestinian territory, with Arab and international support,' the Élysée Palace cited Abbas as writing. The letter France says it received comes as anticipation builds around whether President Emmanuel Macron might recognize the State of Palestine at a summit next week aimed at building support for Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. France is co-chairing the summit with Saudi Arabia. CNN has reached out to the PA for comment. Its official news agency Wafa, which often reports on the president's correspondence, made no mention of the letter. France said Abbas pledged to organize presidential and general elections within a year in order to 'rejuvenate the Palestinian governance.' Abbas, 89, is deeply unpopular among Palestinians. He has led the PA since the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 2004 and has clung to power despite being seen by critics as lacking democratic legitimacy. Proposals put forth by Arab states for a post-war Gaza have excluded Hamas from governance and called for the reformation of the PA. The Guardian reported on Saturday that France may be retreating from its plan. The conference 'has weakened its ambition and will instead hope to agree on steps towards recognition,' The Guardian said, citing diplomats, adding that 'French officials briefing their Israeli counterparts this week reassured them the conference will not be the moment for recognition.' However, an Élysée source told CNN that the French presidency refutes such reports, and that Paris is moving in the direction of recognizing a Palestinian state. 'We can clearly see that some have an interest in suggesting that we are not moving in the direction of recognition. That is false,' the source said Tuesday, adding that 'we are determined to recognize a Palestinian state in order to create the conditions for the state's existence.' The source highlighted the importance of the upcoming conference at the UN. 'Recognizing Palestinian statehood is consistent with France's position in support of the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people,' the source said. 'As part of the June 18 conference, it must contribute meaningfully to the momentum behind implementing the two-state solution, based on the principles reaffirmed by the President of the Republic.' France would be the most prominent Western country to recognize Palestinian statehood. Last year, Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized the State of Palestine in a move that provoked backlash from Israel. CNN's Abeer Salman contributed to this report.