The Office for Civil Rights is investigating harassment of Palestinians at Emory

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Emory University for anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim harassment. This came after the Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) and Palestine Legal filed a motion Complaint on behalf of Emory Students for Justice in Palestine (ESJP) on April 5, calling on the Department of Education to investigate the “hostile” environment at Emory.

CAIR-Georgia Executive Director Azka Mahmood wrote in an email to The Emory Wheel that she hopes the investigation will shed light on why Emory has “failed” to address anti-Muslim and anti- to deal with Palestinian activities.” Last week, CAIR-Georgia held A press conference at Emory called on the university to disclose and abandon its ties to Israel.

Mahmood added that Arab, Muslim and Palestinian students face harassment and discrimination on campus.

“It is incomprehensible that despite repeated requests to the university for help, students must live in an unsafe and unwelcome learning environment with no recourse,” Mahmood wrote.

Pro-Palestinian protesters demand a “Free Palestine” during a rally on campus in April. (Spencer Friedland/Managing Editor)

Ibrahim, an ESJP member who asked that his last name be omitted for security reasons, said he was “glad” that the Office for Civil Rights is investigating the complaint.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to get to this point,” Ibrahim said. “It is really, really, frankly sad that we were unable to seek protection within our own university and our own administration, but instead had to turn to the Office for Civil Rights to investigate this lack of protection.”

ESJP has been working with CAIR-Georgia since October 9, 2023, when Ibrahim said members of the club were first doxxed. CAIR-Georgia worked with other civil rights organizations to send university President Gregory Fenves letter On January 24, he called on Emory to protect Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students from harassment and doxxing on campus and to affirm their right to advocate for Gaza. The groups also alleged that Emory violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by being “biased” toward these students and ignoring their reports of mistreatment.

Ibrahim explained that ESJP has filed bias reports with the university in the past, but has received “substantially no communication” about progress on the complaints.

“There was nothing to address the hostile educational climate on campus,” Ibrahim said.