US university professors sue school over probe on pro-Palestine activity

A group of faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania is suing the university in an attempt to stop the school from complying with a request from Congress to hand over all material, teaching or otherwise, related to pro-Palestinian activity and sentiments on campus.

The proactive lawsuit is the latest legal saga unfolding at universities in the US, which since 7 October have seen a crackdown on speech related to Palestine. It also comes after the presidents of Penn, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were called in for a contentious congressional briefing in December over the large number of pro-Palestine rallies taking place on campus.

"The Committee is engaged in a partisan witch hunt by seeking syllabi, academic papers, and other material from Penn faculty of all ranks, with the search highlighting keywords like Jew, Israel, antisemitism, Palestine, Gaza, resistance, settler colonialism and diversity, equity and inclusion, to name most of their criteria," the Penn Faculty for Justice in Palestine (PFJP), a group of faculty, staff and graduate students, said in a statement shared with Middle East Eye.

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