Camp Intifada: Students for Theocratic Authoritarianism
I’m old. So old that I still believe that classic Western liberalism is the best system for assuring prosperity and peace, and authoritarianism, particularly of a theocratic nature, is a disastrous governance style. Watching the encampments and riots on college campuses, I see that too many young people have missed this lesson and instead support violent, barbaric, theocratic authoritarianism. I think these participants are not representative of a majority of students or voters and that the weak responses of some universities bode ill for their futures. Moreover, I think the Administration’s failure to act on the side of Western civilization is seriously damaging President Biden’s reelection prospects, indeed, the prospects for the Democratic party itself. In the absence of a federal response, private litigation is likely to prove particularly damaging to those who have funded and encouraged or tolerated these campus outrages.
Several lawsuits are in the works. At least three have already been filed. The most significant was a suit filed in Virginia this week alleging that the National Students for Justice in Palestine coordinated with Hamas, an organization federally listed as a terrorist organization, to orchestrate these campus attacks. The suit claims that NSJP “has effectively become the campus arm of Hamas” and is “directly aiding and abetting the terror group on American colleges” and “facilitating the conditions necessary for Hamas to continue carrying out acts of terror and the holding of hostages, including American nationals.” If successful, the lawsuit would permanently shut down NSJP and American Muslims for Palestine, a reincarnation of a previous outfit that provided material support for Hamas.
The complaint suggests that the defendants in the case just filed are carrying on in the same ways of the Holy Land Foundation before HLF, along with five of its leaders, were found guilty in a federal court at Dallas of providing material support to Hamas. They were convicted and sent to prison for, in two cases, 65 years. At the time, the assistant attorney general for national security said that the sentences “should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly provides financial support to terrorists under the guise of humanitarian relief.”
The Sun asks Mr. Ostrovsky: What happens if SJP is determined to be a terrorist arm of Hamas? “The ramifications would be extraordinarily wide-ranging,” he says. “First and foremost, it would shut them down once and for all. They would not be allowed to operate in the United States, including campuses. They could not fundraise. It would be illegal to be affiliated with them. There are many other consequences, but there [sic] are a few of the main ones.”
Two significant lawsuits related to these campus outrages are directed at Northwestern University. In the first, brought by three students, the university is charged with breach of contract.
“...alleging that the university violated its duty to abide by its own policies by allowing a climate of antisemitism on its campus.
Attorneys from the Chicago-based Much Shelist, P.C., who brought the suit in Cook County’s circuit court on Wednesday, wrote in the filing that the plaintiffs “expected Northwestern to fulfill a modest core promise it made to them and all other similarly situated, tuition-paying students: the conduct of your student peers and faculty will be governed by rules, and — once you enroll — you will be free to safely move about and avail yourself of our beautiful campus in accordance with those rule
“Rather than conduct the business of the campus in accordance with the clear rules of conduct that everyone signed up for,” the attorneys wrote, “Northwestern ignored those rules, opting instead to facilitate, encourage, and coddle a dystopia cesspool of hate in the school’s lush green center, Deering Meadow.”
In the second suit against the school, the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) charges that it violated Title VI, contending that the university’s concession to the protestors to award nearly $1.9 million in full-ride scholarships, faculty positions, and student-organization space to Palestinian students and staff violates Title VI’s prohibition against discrimination.
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