Student Sues NYU Over ‘Excessive’ Punishment of Pro-Palestine Activism
A New York University student who was suspended for tearing down pro-Israel posters on campus is suing the school for allegedly unfairly sanctioning her, according to a complaint filed April 5 by the student’s lawyer.
The complaint alleges that NYU’s punishment of Hafiza Khalique was “arbitrary and capricious and not in accordance with the NYU Student Code,” and that some of the sanctions Khalique received were “excessive” in relation to her actions. Jonathan Wallace, Khalique’s lawyer, wrote in the filing that NYU initially told Khalique it would not suspend her for her actions, but did so anyway after succumbing to pressure from influential pro-Israel figures who are ostensibly donors.
Khalique, a first-year undergraduate student, was reportedly doxxed and reported to the university administration when she ripped down “Zionist propaganda posters” from the windows of a campus building on Oct. 16.
“As a form of symbolic speech and protest, she showed her support for and protection of the victims in Palestine by tearing down a flyer herself,” the complaint reads, adding that the posters were unauthorized and unaffiliated with NYU, and would’ve been taken down anyway.
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A video about her action went viral on X, and her identity was quickly spread across right-wing and pro-Israel pages such as LibsofTikTok, StopAntisemitism, Campus Reform, and Canary Mission, the filing states. Major conservative media like Fox News and The Megyn Kelly Show seized on the incident and further publicized Khalique’s identity, which invited harassment so intense the student did not feel safe enough to leave her room for meals, according to the complaint.
Khalique’s correspondence with the Dean of Students’ Office began one day after the poster-tearing incident. Over the next few weeks, university officials from the Office of Student Conduct and the Dean of Students’ Office told Khalique she may have violated the school’s destruction of property and non-discrimination policies, but that the university was not considering expulsion or suspension for her actions, the complaint says. Officials reiterated that stance at a conduct hearing on Oct. 27, and Mathew Shepard, NYU’s Director of Student Conduct and Community Standards, told Khalique she may face an “educational” component as a result of the incident, the filing states.
But the university allegedly reneged. In a Nov. 11 email, Khalique was told she had been suspended for violating NYU’s code of conduct by vandalizing university property and expressing antisemitic speech, the complaint says. Khalique was told that her sanctions had been escalated after “consultation with relevant University stakeholders.”
“This sanction letter actually contained somewhat apologetic language rather remarkably explaining that the sanction was much worse and more punitive than originally described because of the intervention of one or more mysterious ‘stakeholders,’” Wallace wrote in the complaint.
He explained that those stakeholders are rumored to be wealthy donors who pressured the university into punishing students who express views they disagree with.
“In the NYU community, such ‘stakeholders’ are widely believed to be pro-Israel individuals external to the NYU community but placing NYU under great pressure, including wealthy donors threatening to withhold contributions,” Wallace wrote. “It is arbitrary and capricious if the University is allowing external forces, no matter how much pressure they apply, to dictate outcomes in individual student disciplinary cases.”
Representatives for NYU’s Office of Student Conduct and Office of the Dean of Students did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Khalique’s case is the latest example of ongoing battles over free speech on college campuses since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza, which pro-Palestine groups see as a deliberate attempt to silence them. Pro-Israel groups have countered that the universities are not doing enough to quash antisemitism on campus; NYU has also been sued by Jewish students who claim it failed to protect them from antisemitic speech and harassment since Oct. 7.
But Khalique has also been subject to Islamophobia, racism, sexism, and fatphobia in the form of “disturbing and vile messages” on every social media platform, according to her complaint and a GoFundMe post she wrote on Dec. 6. A first generation student from a low-income, working-class background, she lost her Pell Grant scholarship because she wasn’t allowed to attend classes after the suspension, which was set to last through the end of the fall 2023 term and the entirety of the spring and summer 2024 semesters.
“During a time of need for support, my university abandoned me all while discriminately targeting and disciplining me,” she wrote in her December post.
“As a first-year student, my entire college experience thus far has been any Muslim student’s nightmare.”
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