Latest news with #pro-Palestin
Newsweek
05-08-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
Teacher Fired Over Facebook Post Launches Legal Action
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A teacher in England who was fired after being accused of an Islamaphobic post on Facebook has launched a legal action. Simon Pearson taught English to foreign students at Preston College, in Lancashire, when he said a social media post that led to a woman being handed a 15-month prison sentence after she was convicted of inciting racial hatred was "obviously wrong" but she "should not have been jailed." He was dismissed after an internal investigation found that his post had the potential to bring the college into disrepute and has now filed legal action with an employment tribunal. A file photo shows a Facebook logo on a laptop. A file photo shows a Facebook logo on a laptop. AP Why It Matters Pearson's fate has sparked sharp criticism from free speech advocates and reignited broader debates around freedom of expression in Britain. Critics argue that speech policing, especially on social media, increasingly leads to employment repercussions, even when comments are made outside the workplace and express personal beliefs. Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized the U.K.'s approach to regulating speech on social media, particularly in the context of arrests related to online comments. "At this rate, the UK Government will pretty soon be executing people for liking a meme!" he posted on X, formerly Twitter, in January. The U.S. State Department has previously spoken out about the same case as Pearson, saying in May that is was "concerned about infringements on freedom of expression." What To Know Pearson, 56, was fired after he posted a comment about Lucy Connolly, a woman jailed for racially inflammatory comments in the wake of the Southport riots—nationwide unrest triggered by the murder of three girls during a dance class and misinformation about the suspect being an asylum seeker. Connolly, the wife of a local Conservative Party politician, wrote on X: "Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f****** hotels full of the b******* for all I care…if that makes me racist so be it." She was convicted of inciting racial hatred, handed a 31-month sentence and ordered to serve 40 percent of it behind bars in October 2024. Pearson wrote in a Facebook comment that while Connolly's post was "obviously wrong," she "should not have been jailed" and said this was part of "two tier policy from the top down." The phrase "two-tier policing" has become a politically charged accusation in the U.K., often used to criticize perceived inconsistencies in how law enforcement handles speech, protest, or criminal behavior depending on the race, religion, or political identity of the individuals involved. Critics of "two-tier policing" argue that authorities are more lenient toward minority groups—particularly in cases involving Islamist or pro-Palestinian demonstrators, while opponents argue that this framing often serves as a dog whistle, disguising racial resentment or Islamophobia under the banner of fairness and justice. A Muslim representative of the National Education Union at Preston College made a formal complaint about Pearson's post accusing it of being "Islamophobic" and "racially discriminatory." This triggered the investigation that ended in Pearson being fired. He is now claiming wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal, harassment and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. "I cannot allow what has happened to me to go unchallenged. It is a grave injustice that should concern everybody who cares about freedom," he told the British newspaper The Telegraph. "I am determined to fight for justice and for the freedom to raise legitimate concerns in public and private as part of national debates on extremely serious issues that impact us all." Newsweek has contacted Preston College, via email, for comment. What People Are Saying Simon Pearson's full Facebook comment: "The woman who made that appalling comment about the mosque in Southport is obviously wrong. But where is the jail sentence for the Labour MP calling for people to have their throats slit. Where is the justice meted out against those thugs who beat up the police at Manchester airport? She should not have been jailed for that. People presumed the worst and were outraged by the killing of three little girls. "It was wrong but how many Islamists plots and crimes have been experienced in our country. The Manchester Arena bombing, Lee Rigby, etc... Certain sections of society calling for the genocide of Jews from the river to the sea are also free to express their opinions and make Jewish people afraid to walk the streets. "There is a two tier policy from the top down. Has our country's woke leadership lost its mind? Should we be seeking asylum in America?" Founder of the Free Speech Union, Lord Young of Acton said: "The most striking aspect of this case is that the teacher was sacked at the behest of the NEU. Once upon a time, trade unions used to stick up for workers threatened with the sack for speaking out of turn. Now, they side with management and actively try to get workers sacked, including their dues-paying members." Head of the Special Crime and Counter Terrorism Division at the U.K.'s Crown Prosecution Service, Frank Ferguson, said about the Connolly case: "Using threatening, abusive or insulting language to rile up racism online is unacceptable and is breaking the law." The U.S. State Department commented on the Connolly case in May, saying: "We can confirm that we are monitoring this matter. The United States supports freedom of expression at home and abroad, and remains concerned about infringements on freedom of expression." What Happens Next An employment tribunal will decide whether Pearson's dismissal was fair and lawful. A date for the hearing has yet to be confirmed. The case comes amid wider debate over free speech rights in the U.K., particularly as public figures such as Musk have expressed concern about government responses to social media posts.
India Today
04-07-2025
- Politics
- India Today
Mahmoud Khalil, freed from US jail, seizes public platform after release
US President Donald Trump's fight with elite American universities was only a few days old when federal immigration agents arrested the Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil at his Columbia University apartment building in New York in the more than three months he was held at a jail for immigrants in rural Louisiana, the Trump administration escalated its battle. It arrested other foreign pro-Palestinian students and revoked billions of dollars in research grants to Columbia, Harvard and other private schools whose campuses were roiled by the pro-Palestinian student protest movement, in which Khalil was a prominent absolutely don't regret standing up against a genocide," Khalil, 30, said in an interview at his Manhattan apartment, less than two weeks after US District Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered him released on bail while he challenges the effort to revoke his US lawful permanent residency green card and deport him. "I don't regret standing up for what's right, which is opposing war, which is calling for the end of violence." He believes the government is trying to silence him, but has instead given him a bigger platform. Returning to New York after his release, Khalil was welcomed at the airport by US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a political foe of Trump; supporters waved Palestinian flags as he reunited with his wife and infant son, whose birth he missed in days later, he was the star of a rally on the steps of a cathedral near Columbia's Manhattan campus, castigating the university's leaders. Last week, he appeared before cheering crowds alongside Zohran Mamdani, the pro-Palestinian state lawmaker who won June's Democratic primary ahead of New York City's 2025 mayoral election."I did not choose to be in this position: ICE did," Khalil said, referring to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who arrested him. "And this of course had a great impact on my life. I'm still, honestly, trying to contemplate my new reality."He missed his May graduation ceremony and emerged from jail unemployed. An international charity withdrew its offer of a job as a policy adviser, he said. The government could win its appeal and jail him again, so Khalil said his priority is spending as much time as possible with his son and wife, a was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria; his wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, is a US citizen and he became a US lawful permanent resident last year. Moving to New York in 2022 as a graduate student, he became one of the main student negotiators between Columbia's administration and the protesters, who set up tent encampments on a campus lawn as they demanded that Columbia end investments of its $14 billion endowment in weapons makers and other companies supporting Israel's is not charged with any crime, but the US government has invoked an obscure immigration statute to argue that Khalil and several other international pro-Palestinian students must be deported because their "otherwise lawful" speech could harm US foreign policy interests. The federal judge overseeing the case has ruled that the Trump administration's main rationale for deporting Khalil is likely an unconstitutional violation of free-speech rights. The government is is not about 'free speech,'" Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, wrote in response to queries, "this is about individuals who don't have a right to be in the United States siding with Hamas terrorists and organising group protests that made college campuses unsafe and harassed Jewish students."URGES UNIVERSITIES TO HEED THEIR STUDENTSKhalil, in the interview, condemned antisemitism and called Jewish students an "integral part" of the protest movement. He said the government was using antisemitism as a pretext to reshape American higher education, which Trump, a Republican, has said is captured by anti-American, Marxist and "radical left" Trump administration has told Columbia and other universities that federal grant money, mostly for biomedical research, will not be restored unless the government has greater oversight of who they admit and hire and what they teach, calling for greater "intellectual diversity."Unlike Harvard, Columbia has not challenged the legality of the government's sudden grant revocations, and agreed to at least some of the Trump administration's demands to tighten rules around protests as a precondition of negotiations over resuming called Columbia's response heartbreaking. "Columbia basically gave the institution to the Trump administration, let the administration intervene in every single detail on how higher education institutions should be run," he said. Columbia's administration has said preserving the university's academic autonomy is a "red line" as negotiations Lam Abrams, a Columbia spokesperson, said university leaders "strongly dispute" Khalil's characterisation."Columbia University recognises the right for students, including Mr. Khalil, to speak out on issues that they deeply believe in," she said in a statement. "But it is also critical for the University to uphold its rules and policies to ensure that every member of our community can participate in a campus community free from discrimination and harassment.'Khalil urged Columbia and other universities targeted by Trump to heed their students."The students presented a clear plan on how this campus can follow human rights, can follow international law, can be inclusive to all students, where everyone feels equal regardless of where they stand on issues," he said. "They prefer to capitulate to political pressure rather than listening to the students."- Ends
Los Angeles Times
13-02-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
UCLA suspends Students for Justice in Palestine after protest at UC regent's home
UCLA administrators said Wednesday said they were indefinitely suspending two Students for Justice in Palestine organizations after masked pro-Palestinian campus activists protested outside the Brentwood home of University of California Regent Jay Sures last week, vandalizing his property and surrounding his wife while she was in her car. Chancellor Julio Frenk said in a campuswide message the decision by the UCLA Office of Student Conduct was an interim suspension while internal judicial procedures over the groups — Students for Justice in Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine — took place. The organizations, which supported pro-Palestinian encampments last year, will no longer be able to reserve space for meetings on campus, apply for student club funding, or affiliate themselves with UCLA. The conduct proceedings and suspensions have no end date. 'Without the basic feeling of safety, humans cannot learn, teach, work and live — much less thrive and flourish,' Frenk said in his letter. 'This is true no matter what group you are a member of — or which identities you hold. There is no place for violence in our Bruin community.' UCLA joins several other UCs and other campuses throughout the country that have banned or suspended SJP. At UC Santa Cruz, the organization is suspended until September 2026. At UC Irvine, a suspension is in place through November 2029. And at UC San Diego, SJP was charged last spring with activities 'incompatible with the orderly operation of campus' and did not renew its campus group status in the fall. The UCLA suspensions come after UC adopted 'zero-tolerance' polices for code of conduct violations following unrest during spring 2024 when campuses erupted in contentious protests — and violence targeted the UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment. The policy bans masking while breaking the law, including vandalism. UCLA's rules add that it can hold students accountable for off-campus behavior if university leaders believe students have acted violently or endorsed violence. While the LAPD is investigating potential crimes during the incident at Sures' home, UCLA is not pursuing campus charges against individual students related to the actions. In his letter, Frenk cited Instagram posts from the UCLA SJP groups advertising an early morning Feb. 5 protest outside the regent's home. Dozens of protesters — their faces concealed with scarves and masks — showed up with drums, fliers and signs demanding the UC system divest from Israel. The activists 'harassed' Sures and used 'threatening messages,' Frenk said, and held a banner reading, 'Jonathan Sures, you will pay until you see your final day.' Frenk also said protesters 'vandalized the Sures home by applying red-colored handprints to the outer walls of the home and hung banners on the property's hedges.' Sures, a UCLA alumnus and vice chairman at United Talent Agency, is one of 18 UC regents. An outspoken supporter of Israel, he called the actions of pro-Palestinian campus protesters antisemitic as encampments and conflicts with administrators and police escalated last year. In a Feb. 5 Instagram post, accounts for the SJP chapters group said Sures is 'one of the unelected officials responsible for protecting UC investments in genocide and weapons manufacturing.' The post includes a doctored image of Sures in a suit with fire burning behind him under a pro-Palestinian banner and his hands edited to appear bloody. In another post, the groups said, 'Regents have repeatedly kicked us out of their meetings, canceled forums for public comment, and criminalized our attempts to protest investment policies. We have taken our issues straight to the Regents because they have systematically militarized our campus in response.' In an interview, Sures said he believed students chose his home because he is Jewish. 'This is not about me. I'm the target but this is about protecting every member of our community from intimidation and hate,' Sures said. 'The conceit that somehow you will intimidate me and the University of California will divest is silly and illogical. That's never going to happen.' In response to encampments, UC leaders said last year that they would not divest from Israel. About 18% of the university system's $175 billion in assets are connected to weapons companies, investment funds with Israeli ties, corporations such as Disney targeted by pro-Palestinian activists or U.S. bonds. Graeme Blair, a member of UCLA's Faculty for Justice in Palestine, said the suspensions were part of a pattern of 'violence against Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, and pro-Palestine students.' 'Just like in April, administrators today selectively deployed the charge of violence, not against those whose actions cause physical harm, but against those whose speech they dislike,' said Blair, an associate professor of political science. 'Chancellor Frenk and the UC regents' continuing complicity in genocide is violence. ... To call hanging banners on shrubs violence is a despicable distortion.' The UCLA SJP groups posted brief statements on Instagram Wednesday. 'Damn, that's crazy,' said a post on the graduate student group's account under a copy of Frenk's letter. 'Hey guys, @UCLA just 'interim suspended' our chapter,' said the UCLA SJP account. 'Stay tuned and turn on our story and post notifications to stay updated.' An emoji of a Palestinian flag ended the post. Kira Stein, the chair of UCLA's Jewish Faculty Resilience Group, said 'it was about time' for the suspensions after more than a year of complaints her group has raised about SJP. Stein, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, said SJP organizations have been 'weaponizing political dissent to mask blatant antisemitism, using intimidation, harassment and inflammatory disinformation to divide and destabilize our campus. ... We have a long list of SJP violations of university rules and regulations that we have been sharing with the administration.' In an interview, UC Regent Rich Leib, who has also spoken in favor of pro-Israel campus communities, said he was 'very supportive' of suspension. 'I strongly believe in peaceful protest but doing things at private residences and intimidating people is not a peaceful protest. What they did to Regent Sures' house and what they did to his family was way beyond a peaceful protest,' Leib said. The union representing UC police said it supported the suspension — and called on UCLA to 'to demand prosecution' if protesters break the law. 'Universities cannot allow lawlessness under the guise of activism. Only through full accountability will these students learn to confine their actions to those permitted by law and university policy,' said the statement from Wade Stern, president of the Federated University Peace Officers Assn. Pro-Palestinian movements grew quickly on U.S. campuses after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza. Last spring, protesters erected encampments and demanded divestment. Actions at UCLA were among the largest in the nation. UCLA, in internal and external reviews, has been faulted for a failure to quickly coordinate a response with Los Angeles police and other law enforcement when vigilantes attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment there on April 30 and May 1. The university created a new campus safety office in response and, last month, said it hired former LAPD Cmdr. Steve Lurie to lead it. Lurie previously oversaw the department's West Bureau, which includes UCLA. The Westwood campus has increased restrictions on protests since fall — making the majority of public areas off-limits to demonstrations without permits — and upped the presence of campus security guards. UCLA has also been embroiled in a host of lawsuits, investigations and strife over pro-Palestinian protests. In October, a group of pro-Palestinian UCLA students and faculty members filed a lawsuit in state court, alleging that the university violated their free speech rights when it cleared the spring encampment and wrongly subjected them to disciplinary measures over protesting. Earlier, a federal judge in a separate case ordered UCLA to ensure equal access to Jewish students, three of whom alleged that the university enabled encampment protesters to block Jews from parts of campus. Also in October, the UCLA Task Force to Combat Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias released a 93-page report on 'broad-based perceptions of antisemitic and anti-Israeli bias on campus' since 2023. The UCLA Task Force on Anti-Palestinian, Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Racism has also published three reports since April detailing a campus that's 'less safe than ever' for those groups and criticizing 'increased harassment, violence, and targeting' of them.
