CAIR Finds Stanford a “Hostile Campus”

The San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-SFBA) in Palo Alto held a press conference on February 19 to announce CAIR’s designation of Stanford University as a “hostile campus.” The designation is placed on colleges and universities that suppress Palestinian advocacy, by cracking down on student protests and retaliation against faculty addressing Palestinian human rights. To date, in the aftermath of last year’s nationwide pro-Palestinian demonstrations, student encampments and calls for divestment to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza, student participants have been sanctioned and punished for their participation. As a result, CAIR has designated 17 US institutions as Hostile Campuses.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) ranked Stanford due to the free speech violations among the worst colleges for free speech. While, according to CAIR, Stanford “has failed to protect international students facing deportation threats for participating in pro-Palestinian protests.”

CAIR today formally declared that Stanford “despite its stated commitment to free speech and academic freedom…has repeatedly penalized students for speaking out on Palestine, including arrests, suspensions, and policy changes restricting demonstrations. These actions have had a chilling effect on campus activism and created an environment of fear and intimidation for those advocating against Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

By calling out hostile colleges and universities, CAIR’s Un-Hostile Campus Campaign “aims to foster an environment where Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other students, faculty, and staff opposing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza can exercise their free speech rights without fear of state force or university discipline.”  

Two CAIR-SFBA spokespersons addressed the reasons behind declaring Stanford as a “hostile campus.” Hibah Hammoudeh, CAIR Civil Rights Coordinator, opened her comments by saying “Since October 7, 2023, students and faculty that have stood up against the genocide in Gaza and Palestinian human rights have faced harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. Stanford’s administration has enabled a climate of fear and intimidation by failing to protect these members of this community. Our findings discovered a disturbing pattern of bias, disciplinary actions, surveillance of student activists and a systemic failure to protect those advocating Palestinian rights.”

Civil Rights Managing Attorney Jeffrey Wang explained that CAIR’s formally designating Stanford as its latest hostile campus is “holding the institution accountable for its purported commitment to freedom of expression, so that students and faculty who speak out against genocide can be treated fairly.” The institution has used “harsh disciplinary measures including suspension.” He went on to say that when the university updated its free speech policy “it imposed rules that could further limit discourse around Palestine and chill student activism.” He characterized Stanford’s limits as part of “a growing trend of universities across the country suppressing pro-Palestinian and anti-genocide advocacy.”

Stanford cancer clinical researcher Eman took the podium saying that she believed in Stanford medicines method motto that “health is a human right.” Going on to say that her belief “was shattered when the genocide in Philistine began.” Confessing that she was amazed how the genocide and killing did not elicit a response from her “corner of Stanford medicine” that remained silent. She went on to say that “This silence felt like a knife to the gut.  Making it painfully clear that to institutions like Stanford, health as a human right is only for a privileged few. Not for people like me.” 

Refusing to remain helpless she “channeled her anger into action by joining the Stanford sit-in to stop genocide.” In the wake of her activism, she has been harassed and called a “terrorist” and when she along with other pro-Palestinian students have complained about harassment “Stanford has taken no action.” She noted, too, that a student wearing a t-shirt with Arabic script saying “Damascus” was intentionally hit by a car and that the university took no action. Due to her experiences as a Muslim woman she has understood that her “humanity is conditional.”

“Stanford has sent a chilling message that Muslim, Palestinian, and pro-Palestine students do not deserve the same protection as others.” In closing, she called on the university to “protect all students regardless of their identity.” She called for the university to clearly condemn “violence and oppression against all communities…the reinstatement of a free speech zone without arbitrary removal to silence dissenting voices, and an institutional commitment to safeguarding the academic freedom and safety of Muslim, Palestinian, and pro-Palestine students and faculty.” In closing, she iterated that “Silence in the face of genocide is complicity and I refuse to be complicit.”

Stanford student, German Rafael Gonzalez, a third-year student in Urban studies, spoke of his “institutional oppression due to being allied with the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.” Due to his peaceful activism, he explained that he “faced involuntary suspension including being banned from campus for an extended period of time and the confiscation of many of my personal belongings, including necessary [daily] medications. I was effectively unhoused.” Saying, “students should never be faced with being houseless for engaging in any form of protest.”

His activism also resulted in Gonzalez not being allowed to finish the quarter he was enrolled in and was denied access to any of his university transcripts preventing him from applying for jobs. He reflected on the irony of the university in urging students to allow due process to take its course in discussing divestment while he was instead suspended without having been allowed due process. He iterated, too, how Stanford has historically engaged in due process in past student suspensions but that “once again when it comes to Palestine Stanford suspends due process.”

He stated that the university’s repression of student human rights defenders, suspensions, free speech limits and denial of due process will only guarantee that “the student movement to see justice in Palestine will not end.”

In closing, Gonzalez reflected that last year Stanford removed from its website a statement on investment responsibility that stated, “The Board of Trustees recognizes that Stanford must divest funds from companies through their actions or inactions who commit or support the crimes of apartheid and genocide.” Yet Stanford remains in a state of overwhelming denial despite international condemnation of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza while the university has taken no action to divest from Israel.

Report and photo by Phil Pasquini

© 2025 nuzeink all rights reserved worldwide