A student is suing Indiana University and its director of Jewish Studies after her pro-Palestine advocacy led to her removal from an event and alleged retaliation.
Doctoral student Sabina Ali filed a federal lawsuit claiming she faced retaliation that violated her First Amendment rights after she used a pro-Palestine profile picture. She is backed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.
Ali and her attorneys are seeking an injunction barring any additional infringement on her speech and monetary damages.
Ali’s lawsuit is focused on a string of interim director Gunther Jikeli’s actions following Ali’s profile picture being shown at a department event. In a statement regarding the lawsuit, Ali said Jikeli “undermines academic freedom and creates a toxic environment of fear and retaliation, exemplifying how universities can too easily revert from sites of inquiry into instruments of repression.”
IU has repeatedly faced criticism for its handling of speech related to the Israel-Gaza conflict. That includes the heavy police presence and arrests at the 2024 Palestine solidarity encampment, the cancellation of a Palestinian artist’s exhibit and a professor’s suspension related to hosting a speaker.
When Jikeli took charge of the department after an unusual change of leadership last year, students told IndyStar that they were concerned his strongly held views on antisemitism would seep into the department’s functioning. They worried his leadership disregarded First Amendment and academic freedom rights.
Indiana University and Jikeli did not immediately respond to an IndyStar request for comment.
Removed for a profile photo
In September, Jikeli removed Ali from a hybrid workshop because he claimed her Zoom photo included a “Palestinian terrorist” and disrupted the event, according to an email cited in previous IndyStar reporting. Ali refused to remove her photo or turn her camera on when asked.
Her profile photo included a drawing of a woman wearing a keffiyeh (a headscarf that commonly symbolizes solidarity and resistance in the Palestinian territories), the flag and the words “Free Palestine.”
Jikeli said in the email that his responsibility was to ensure “everyone feels safe and not under attack by messages.” He told the department in an email that “political slogans or provocative images of any kind have no place in our academic settings.”
In response to the situation, a high-ranking dean said at the time that “a ‘hostile environment’ is not sufficient grounds to restrict someone’s First Amendment rights.”
Declined funding & a class assignment
In the months following the Zoom removal, the lawsuit accuses Jikeli of rejecting Ali’s travel funding application “to deny Ali the ability to speak and to punish her for expressing viewpoints conflicting with his own.” He overturned a departmental committee’s unanimous decision to fund her trip, she said.
Ali did receive funding elsewhere to attend a conference to present her paper titled “Weaponizing Indigeneity: Zionist Public Discourses on Possessing Palestine.”
Jikeli also established a more restrictive online meeting policy that forbade Zoom participants from having profile or background images, slogans or symbols.
Though not mentioned in the lawsuit, IndyStar also obtained a class assignment where Jikeli instructed students in one of his classes to reflect on Ali’s profile picture within the context of it being used as an image in an online meeting: “Imagine this image displayed constantly on Zoom during hybrid workshops with students and professors. How would its persistent presence affect your focus, comfort, and sense of belonging in that educational space?”
Ali previously said she reported Jikeli to the university for faculty misconduct. Her initial complaint filed with IU’s Office of Civil Rights Compliance “found no evidence to indicate that the conduct complained of would constitute discrimination or harassment on the basis of an identity.”
IndyStar reached out to Ali for an update on her university complaint.
The USA TODAY Network – Indiana’s coverage of First Amendment issues is funded through a collaboration between the Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. All coverage is paywall-free.
Have a story to tell, tip or question? Reach Cate Charron by email at ccharron@indystar.com, on X at @CateCharron or Signal at @cate.charron.28.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Student sues Indiana University, alleging pro-Palestine advocacy led to retaliation
Reporting by Cate Charron, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Cate Charron, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
