Court denies anti-Israel students’ plea to lift their suspensions

The judge rejected the Arizona State University students’ lawsuit claiming their school was causing them “irreparable harm.”

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The U.S. District Court in Arizona on Friday rejected a lawsuit brought by student protestors against their university over their suspension due to their anti-Israel activities on campus.

Twenty students wanted the court to force the Arizona State University (ASU) Board of Regents to reinstate them due to the “irreparable harm” it was causing them not to attend class.

One of them, a senior, will not be able to graduate due to the suspension.

They also alleged that their First Amendment rights to free speech had been abrogated by the administrative move that followed their arrest for trespassing after they refused to leave the pro-Hamas encampment they participated in along with hundreds of other protestors.

Their lawyer, David Chami, told ABC News that ASU’s decision to suspend was made “even before they had all the evidence, all the facts,” which is “contrary to what we do in this country — innocent until proven guilty, right?”

However, Judge John Tuchi ruled that the plaintiffs had not presented sufficient evidence of either claim, and refused to grant a temporary injunction that would allow them back into class.

The trespassing charge was not addressed at this time.

Some 50 other students, faculty members and outsiders had also been detained overnight April 26 after refusing the college administration’s demand to clear the lawn they had occupied the previous day.

The police entered after the protestors had been clearly told that they were violating the university’s campus-use policies and the Student Code of Conduct.

“Peaceful expression of views is always acceptable,” the school had added in a statement, “but demonstrations cannot disrupt university operations. ASU is committed to maintaining a secure environment for everyone.”

ASU’s move to bring in the police and dismantle the encampment only one day after it was set up was an unusually quick move. On most campuses, similar encampments have been allowed to remain for many days, and in some cases, weeks, while administrations negotiate with the protestors instead of enforcing their own rules.

According to a Fox News report Saturday, the police have so far made over 2,200 arrests on 49 college campuses throughout the United States.

The protests, which universally demand that the schools divest from Israel due to its alleged crimes in going to war with Hamas after the terror organization massacred 1,200 people in a surprise invasion on October 7, 2023, have typically become hate-fests full of violent rhetoric and actions.

While consistently calling for the destruction of Israel, the demonstrators have also turned against fellow Jewish students, many of whom have been repeatedly assaulted physically or verbally as they try to get to class or their dorm rooms.