Photos: Eric Seals (left) and Jack Gruber ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
DETROIT, March 12, 2025 ~ U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (MI-12) recently criticized University of Michigan President Santa Ono over his appearance at an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) conference.
In a statement to the Detroit Metro Times, Tlaib said Ono’s recent speech at the March 3 conference helped spread “racist disinformation,” adding that the ADL is an “extremist group” that has a “decades-long history” of racism. While the ADL was formed to fight antisemitism, the organization has long faced backlash for its support of Israel and its mistreatment of Palestinians, particularly over the country’s recent assault on Gaza that killed over 48,000 people, mostly women and children. Ono has also faced backlash over his university’s response to pro-Palestinian protestors.
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March 12, 2025 ~ Universities are struggling to define the line between protected protest in favor of Palestinians and allegations of antisemitic harassment. Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil was detained by immigration officials in New York City, despite being a legal green card holder, suggesting the targeting of his First Amendment-protected activity. Will Creeley, legal director at Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, talks with Guy Gordon, Lloyd Jackson, and Jamie Edmonds about concerns surrounding due process. Photo: Chris Pietsch ~ USA TODAY NETWORK
(CONTINUED) According to the article from the Metro Times, Tlaib pointed to perceived double standards with the ADL labeling pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist Jewish groups as antisemtic, while its CEO Jonathan Greenblatt recently defended billionaire Elon Musk. The billionaire voiced agreement with the antisemtic Great Replacment conspiracy theory in late 2023, and recently made gestures identical to the Sieg Heil Nazi salute. The ADL has also faced past controversies over surveilence efforts into various activist groups, including lawsuits in the early 1990s over infiltrating the NAACP and collaborating with the aparthied South African government, according to an article from The Guardian.
Still, the ADL has slammed pro-Palestinian student groups like SAFE at U-M, with both the organization and Ono himself labeling student calls for boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) as “antisemitism.” After Israel brutally responded to Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, student activists have called on U-M to divest university funds from Israel. This has led to several protests on campus, leading to several arrests over the past year and a half. The most notable instance was the month-long student encampment on the university’s Diag last year, which end in a violent police teardown.
The ACLU of Michigan filed a lawsuit in Febuary against U-M after the school banned four protesters from campus for participating in pro-Palestine protests.
The conversation of pro-Palestinian speech on college campuses have recently been thrown back in the national spotlight after the Trump administration had Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil arrested and scheduled for deportation over his participation with protests on campus, despite being a legal green card holder. Tlaib slammed the move on X, saying, “This is straight out of the fascist playbook. Criminalizing dissent is an assault on our First Amendment and freedom of speech. Revoking someone’s green card for expressing their political opinion is illegal.“
Free Mahmoud Khalil. This is straight out of the fascist playbook. Criminalizing dissent is an assault on our First Amendment and freedom of speech. Revoking someone’s green card for expressing their political opinion is illegal. Protesting genocide is not a crime. https://t.co/fZDGfWSM2T
— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) March 10, 2025
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