A pro-Palestinian graduate student group has sued Northwestern University, claiming the school’s mandatory antisemitism training is discriminatory and violates the free speech rights of Arab students, new court papers reveal.
The university began enforcing the training modules, ironically named “Building a Community of Respect and Breaking Down Bias,” in February—months after heated campus anti-Israel demonstrations, according to the lawsuit.
The Northwestern Graduate Workers for Palestine alleges the training uses such a broad definition of antisemitism that it limits political discourse and free speech, labeling them as anti-Jewish. “Northwestern equates criticism of political practices and ideologies with discrimination against Jews themselves,” the complaint filed Wednesday in Illinois federal court states.
The lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on behalf of the student group, seeks to have the training ruled unlawful and eliminated altogether. Plaintiffs also want to remove the disciplinary policy punishing students who do not complete the required training. The suit seeks unspecified damages.
According to court documents, Evanston-based university policy is discriminatory against Palestinian and Arab students by barring them from discussing their national aspirations or protesting alleged mistreatment of their people. The suit charges that Northwestern won’t allow students to oppose a video “dehumanizing Arabs in the process.”
The video, produced by the Jewish United Fund, reportedly includes quotes from Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke interspersed with statements from anti-Israel protesters to suggest “you can’t tell the difference” between the comments, according to a report by the Washington Free Beacon.
The lawsuit alleges the university brands Arab and Palestinian students’ ethnic and religious identities, cultures, and advocacy for their national group’s rights as antisemitic and subject to discipline.
For example, students have been threatened with losing their enrollment or employment status if they do not watch the videos and acknowledge the policies by set deadlines—either by Monday or February 2, 2026, depending on their registration date. “Several members of Grad Workers for Palestine will lose their student status and employment if they do not complete the training,” the filing notes.
At least 300 students have reportedly been blocked from registering for classes because they refused to watch the training video, The Guardian reported last month.
One Ph.D. candidate, Laura Jaliff, told the Evanston Round Table earlier this month that she declined the training because she believed it to be discriminatory. “The number of students who are refusing to take the training on the grounds that it contains damaging political propaganda that has no place in our workplace will inevitably grow,” Jaliff warned.
Students and faculty have widely opposed the training course, arguing the video is “discriminatory and not scholarly,” but the university has not altered its stance, the lawsuit states.
The university’s policy was enacted following anti-Israel protests in April and May 2024, during which students set up encampments on campus. Counter-demonstrators allegedly stole and destroyed property, spat on students, screamed at them, and called Jewish participants “fake Jews,” the suit claims.
One person reportedly told a Jewish student, “You are lucky you are here; if you were in Israel, I’d just shoot you like an animal,” the complaint adds.
Instead of addressing the threats, campus police allegedly cracked down on the pro-Palestinian encampments “with excessive and unreasonable force,” also filing criminal complaints against demonstrators. The Cook County State Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the four people arrested, the suit notes.
Anti-Israel protesters allegedly vandalized a campus building housing the Holocaust center by scrawling “Death to Israel” and “Intifada Now” on its walls, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Protesters reportedly screamed insults like “dirty Jew” and “Zionist pig” at passing students, the Forward reported.
Former Northwestern president Michael Schill was criticized for his alleged negligence in handling antisemitism on campus and was questioned by a U.S. House committee over the unrest. He resigned last month.
In April, the Trump administration froze $790 million in federal grants and contracts to Northwestern, The Evanston Round Table reported.
Michael Teplitsky, president of the Coalition Against Antisemitism at Northwestern, called the lawsuit “absurd” in a statement to the Free Beacon. “The idea that an antisemitism training could somehow threaten anyone’s civil rights is absurd,” Teplitsky said. “Northwestern worked with JUF [Jewish United Fund] to create a student program aimed at inclusion and understanding—exactly what universities are supposed to do.”
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers New York Representative Elise Stefanik and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton last week called on the Trump administration to investigate CAIR’s sources of funding, including “potential ties” to Hamas.
Northwestern University declined to comment on the pending litigation.
https://nypost.com/2025/10/20/us-news/students-sue-over-northwesterns-antisemitism-training/
