Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff Denounces the Abuse of Terrorism Laws to Punish Speech and Protest
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 8, 2026
Contact: Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff: concernedjfaculty@gmail.com
BOSTON, MA — Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff (CJFS), representing its members on over 40 campuses, joins human rights and free speech groups on both sides of the Atlantic to denounce the designation by the Trump Administration of the British group Palestine Action as a global terrorist organization. The pretext was the group’s campaign of vandalism against weapons manufacturers connected to Israel’s military. We call on Jewish communal organizations to repudiate the new policy.
Conflation of protest with terrorism confirms the worst fears of critics in the early 2000s that the so-called “War on Terror” would undermine democratic society. Those accused of “terrorism” in Great Britain include not just members of a group that tore divots in President Trump’s golf course in Scotland and painted pro-Palestinian graffiti on its clubhouse, but also the former editor of the British Medical Journal, for holding a cardboard sign that read, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Northeastern University professor Zinaida Miller, an expert in international human rights law, sees these types of prosecutions as disturbing symptoms of authoritarian rot that threatens freedom of expression — on university campuses and everywhere else.
“Counter-terrorism laws offer a way for ostensibly democratic governments to suppress dissent and free speech — particularly in defense of Palestinian rights — under the pretext of security,” said Miller. She added: “It is egregious that both the U.S. and U.K. governments are engaging in this abuse of power.”
Informed observers have linked Trump administration policy in this area to Project Esther, an initiative by the far-right Heritage Foundation to “crush the pro-Palestinian movement” by charging nonviolent protesters with “material support” for terrorism.
CJFS is outraged that some Jewish communal organizations have contributed to the repressive authoritarianism represented by Project Esther. The Board of Deputies of British Jews actively supported the labeling of Palestine Action as a terrorist organization, and the Anti-Defamation League has also campaigned against the group.
“Participating in this repression will not sustain global Judaism,” said CJFS member Dr. Aaron Shakow, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. “The abuse of counter-terrorism laws does not protect Jews, either in Israel or the diaspora. By promoting the conflation of civic protest and ‘terrorism,’ the legacy Jewish groups are undermining democracy, turning us into human shields for increasingly authoritarian states, and putting everyone in the world at risk.”
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Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff is a membership organization of Jewish faculty and staff from colleges and universities throughout New England. We represent a range of backgrounds and hold diverse views, but we are united in opposing the invocation of Jews and Jewishness — and misguided or cynical claims of antisemitism — to penalize Palestine solidarity activism, to stifle academic freedom, or to otherwise attack inclusionary commitments.
CJFS is a member of the National Campus Jewish Alliance (NCJA), a national network of diverse groups of Jewish higher education workers united by our commitments to critical inquiry, freedom of expression, and multiracial democracy on our campuses and beyond. NCJA is a fiscally sponsored project of JFREJ Community, Inc.