How supporting Palestine became a career killer for Gen Z
Basseema Abouassaad thought they had finally landed their dream job. Fresh out of college, Abouassaad, who uses all pronouns, was hired in April by an environmental conservation organization. It seemed like the perfect start to their career – a stable position aligned with their values. But their elation was short-lived.By June, Abouassaad found themselves unemployed, caught in the crossfire of one of the most contentious global conflicts of our time. The reason? An article surfaced, listing Abouassaad as providing off-site legal support for pro-Palestine protesters. Abouassaad requested that their name be removed from the article for their safety, but the measure came too late.“Two days later I was fired,” recounted Abouassaad, already widely recognized as co-founder of Red Star Texas, a mutual aid group that provides food, anti-overdose medication, and contraceptives. “They said it was so that I could ‘engage in my passions’ without any issues or barriers.”The irony wasn’t lost on Abouassaad. The environmental organization, funded by Valero, an oil company producing ethanol, petroleum, and “green diesel,” seemed more concerned about Abouassaad’s political stance than the studies showcasing the “massive” carbon emissions resulting from Israel’s military actions since Oct. 7, 2023.Abouassaad’s story is not unique. Across the United States, young activists are discovering that their support for Palestinian rights is clashing with the status quo, and it’s costing them job opportunities. In the wake of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which have sparked nationwide protests, a disturbing pattern has emerged: many companies are punishing Gen Z organizers for fighting for what they believe in.From Yale to Gallaudet University, the only U.S. higher education institution specifically for the deaf and hard of hearing, student protests have returned to decry the violence, which UN officials say there are “reasonable grounds” to believe constitutes genocide. Many students have organized through the National Students for Justice in Palestine collective. The resulting backlash has been severe.“I think right now we are seeing a resurgence of repression on campuses that we haven’t seen since the late 1960s,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a Cornell University professor of labor and employment law who serves as general counsel for the AAUP, told the Associated Press.Several universities have defended the crackdown on students, citing campus safety concerns or older policies that prohibit the occupation of an admin building or the obstruction of pathways.The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the U.S.’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, has documented instances of Islamophobia on campus, including the destruction of Quranic artwork, harassment and threats, and even a “doxxing truck” on Harvard’s campus. Doxxing—the non-consensual publication of someone’s private information like phone numbers or home addresses—can have devastating consequences, especially for marginalized activists. Doxxing can often lead to a flood of threatening phone calls, emails, letters, physical harassment at home, and even the doxxing of loved ones.A recent study by Intelligent paints a stark picture: nearly 30% of students who participated in pro-Palestine protests reported having job offers rescinded. Even more alarmingly, 70% faced questions about their activism during job interviews, a practice that skirts the edge of employment discrimination laws.“Companies have taken a particular way of getting rid of people,” said Mahir Nisar, principal attorney at Nisar Law Group. “It’s necessary to raise the concern that this is not okay. They actually may be engaging in unlawful activity.”Personal accounts highlight the severity of the situation. Ridikkuluz, a Palestinian-Jordanian student in Berlin, was fired from a finance job for refusing to write a pro-Israel statement.“I knew that wasn’t the case,” they said, noting the immediate shunning by coworkers. Financial hardship now looms. “I would sell my work about Palestine but that wouldn’t sit right with me,” Ridikkuluz said.“There is a level of ‘you did something wrong for this to be happening to you, you did commit some kind of crime and you are deserving of this happening to you,’” a Harvard student protester told ABC News in October.Legal experts are raising concerns about the potential illegality of such hiring practices. Nisar, whose law firm specializes in employee discrimination, argues that pro-Palestinian activism does not pose a “legitimate business concern” to employers. “The laws basically protect people from discrimination based upon their identity,” Nisar added. “When somebody is speaking up on this particular issue, that [person] is protected against being discriminated against if you are speaking up on behalf of Palestinians or Muslims being slaughtered at this time.”Tracing anti-Muslim bias from universities to the job marketCAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor highlights the majority of university administrations for enabling this anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence, which has ranged from withholding degrees to deploying aggressive police responses against peaceful protesters.Saylor cited George Washington University as an example after they canceled a trauma support program for Palestinian students within 24 hours of its launch. “After the raid of the encampment, we were sent pictures of Islamic prayer mats being thrown in the trash,” Saylor recalled. “I’ve had several people report Qurans being trashed.”The anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence and punishment towards pro-Palestine advocates on campus isn’t confined to university grounds, but also extends to the job market.Experts suggest that this repeated cycle of anti-Palestinian discrimination, both in academia and the job market, persists due to outdated legal frameworks in the United States. The law has failed to keep pace with evolving understandings of Islamophobia and its impacts on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans.“The law does not possess the language we desperately need to accurately capture the totality of Palestinian subjugation,” Palestinian American human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah writes in his article “Toward Nakba As A Legal Concept,” which was published, removed, and later reinstated at the Columbia Law Review. “There is a dire need for a new approach.”Palestine Legal, which supports the Palestine solidarity movement, saw a 400% increase in requests for legal aid between Oct. 7 and Dec. 31, 2023.CAIR also reported a 56% increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents nationwide in April 2024, with 44% of those occurring in the last three months of 2023. And from January to June 2024, there was a 69% jump in reported incidents compared to the same time period the prior year.Legal strategies to hold employers and universities accountableAs campus protests have returned, backlash continues towards pro-Palestine students, faculty, and staff. While some administrations have reached tentative deals for divestment, several others have revised their protest policies. Indiana University forbids protests after 11pm. Emory University prohibited protests from midnight to 7am and enacted a total ban on encampments and building occupation. Police violently dispersed a die-in at the University of Michigan in August. In a public statement, the institution said “we are prohibited from interfering with lawful speech and are also required to intervene when anyone attempts to substantially disrupt or interfere with the lawful speech of others.”“There’s also very reasonable concern about schools overreacting,” said Saylor. “With arrests and schools asking for prosecutions and pursuing disciplinary measures.”In response to the escalating discrimination, legal advocates have taken rigorous action to protect students’ job prospects and hold universities accountable. Palestine Legal and CAIR have filed a series of Title VI civil rights complaints, alleging racial discrimination against pro-Palestine students. These legal efforts have prompted the Department of Education to launch federal investigations into high-profile institutions like Columbia, Emory, and Northwestern.The catalyst for these probes was the universities’ authorization of forceful police crackdowns on student protesters. At these schools, campus security arrested peaceful demonstrators, only for the situations to devolve into violent chaos due to the outsized law enforcement response.In the workforce, some states already carry a legal framework protecting pro-Palestine employees. Federally, all employees are protected by the First Amendment, therefore any firing can result in legal consequences to the employer. Several states also have varying laws protecting workers specifically from political discrimination, such as California, North Dakota, New Mexico, New York, Washington, and Washington D.C.In 2021, Palestine Legal wrote a letter to Google regarding retaliation towards workers protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion digital cloud deal with Amazon and the Israeli Defense Forces. Palestine Legal wrote that such treatment of employees violates Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which “gives applicable employees the right to “engage in . . . concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection.”Political affiliation is not a protected class under Title VII, but as advocates suggest that identity on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., may be used as a strategy in the workforce. Nisar, who provides legal education on his TikTok account, stressed the importance of documenting everything for everyone. “Always develop a paper trail,” he said. “Make sure that it’s done in a written fashion. Specify that it discriminates upon your identity. You want to do it via email. You are always making sure that when you’re speaking up you’re raising your identity [in relationship] to discrimination towards Palestinians or Muslims. This requires that you preserve evidence.”Nisar also emphasized that one be careful to not engage in anything that could constitute discriminatory practice as well. “Whenever they’re speaking up it’s important that they don’t engage in discrimination of their own. A lot of people get caught up in these situations. You can’t fight hate with hate. You have to remember that you’re fighting for a greater principle.”While filing a lawsuit in these states or situations may seem logical, processing the ongoing conflict alongside legal battle can prove emotionally and financially taxing for many. Some might lack the resources to hire a lawyer. Others, like Abouassaad, opt for severance packages instead of lengthy legal battles. “One way to advocate for myself is continuing to be able to survive,” they said. “I accepted that money because f*ck them, pay me.”For others like Abouassaad, the bigger picture matters more than personal grievances. “There’s a genocide happening,” they said. “I’m not at the capacity to deal with an entire lawsuit…. It still doesn’t address the overall issue of censorship against Palestinians and the ways corporations can use their access to capital to enforce their world views on other people.”While the federal probes mark an important accountability milestone, legal experts emphasize that addressing the deeper systemic issues will be a protracted battle. They say updating anti-discrimination laws to better reflect modern understandings of Islamophobia remains a pressing imperative.To guide students facing discrimination, CAIR has released an employee rights guide. Recommendations include setting social media accounts to private, avoiding publicly identifying employers, thoroughly documenting any problematic interactions, and demanding written explanations from HR about policy violations.Despite ongoing repression, Saylor believes that the organizing skills and advocacy experience these young people are developing will serve them well for long-term careers.“As this generation graduates, and hopefully come into the advocacy space, they’re going to deliver some really powerful stuff,” said Saylor.Across the pro-Palestinian community, the legal recognition of the Nakba —the violent displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians for the creation of Israel instituted by Britain and the U.S.—is seen as critical to accountability. Eghbariah wrote, “Recognition of Nakba as a universal concept, one acknowledged and prohibited by international norms, is therefore the first step toward a just and lasting solution in Palestine.”This could prove not only a first step towards just global accountability, but also a subsequent end to the anti-war protests and thus work discrimination. “The U.S. can totally stop sending weapons,” Abouassaad said. “After that, everything else will follow.”Rohan Zhou-Lee (They/Siya/祂(Tā)/Elle) is a queer/nonbinary Black Asian dancer, writer, and organizer. A 2023 Open City Fellow at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, they have written for Newsweek, Prism Reports, NextShark, and more. Siya is also the founder of the award-winning Blasian March, a Black-Asian-Blasian grassroots solidarity organization, and for their work has been featured on CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken on organizing, human rights, and other subjects at New York University, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, Harvard University, and more. www.diaryofafirebird.com
From job offers rescinded to invasive interview questions, the backlash against pro-Palestine activism has become a serious threat to the future of this generation.
Basseema Abouassaad thought they had finally landed their dream job. Fresh out of college, Abouassaad, who uses all pronouns, was hired in April by an environmental conservation organization. It seemed like the perfect start to their career – a stable position aligned with their values. But their elation was short-lived.
By June, Abouassaad found themselves unemployed, caught in the crossfire of one of the most contentious global conflicts of our time. The reason? An article surfaced, listing Abouassaad as providing off-site legal support for pro-Palestine protesters. Abouassaad requested that their name be removed from the article for their safety, but the measure came too late.
“Two days later I was fired,” recounted Abouassaad, already widely recognized as co-founder of Red Star Texas, a mutual aid group that provides food, anti-overdose medication, and contraceptives. “They said it was so that I could ‘engage in my passions’ without any issues or barriers.”
The irony wasn’t lost on Abouassaad. The environmental organization, funded by Valero, an oil company producing ethanol, petroleum, and “green diesel,” seemed more concerned about Abouassaad’s political stance than the studies showcasing the “massive” carbon emissions resulting from Israel’s military actions since Oct. 7, 2023.
Abouassaad’s story is not unique. Across the United States, young activists are discovering that their support for Palestinian rights is clashing with the status quo, and it’s costing them job opportunities. In the wake of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, which have sparked nationwide protests, a disturbing pattern has emerged: many companies are punishing Gen Z organizers for fighting for what they believe in.
From Yale to Gallaudet University, the only U.S. higher education institution specifically for the deaf and hard of hearing, student protests have returned to decry the violence, which UN officials say there are “reasonable grounds” to believe constitutes genocide. Many students have organized through the National Students for Justice in Palestine collective. The resulting backlash has been severe.
“I think right now we are seeing a resurgence of repression on campuses that we haven’t seen since the late 1960s,” said Risa Lieberwitz, a Cornell University professor of labor and employment law who serves as general counsel for the AAUP, told the Associated Press.
Several universities have defended the crackdown on students, citing campus safety concerns or older policies that prohibit the occupation of an admin building or the obstruction of pathways.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the U.S.’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization, has documented instances of Islamophobia on campus, including the destruction of Quranic artwork, harassment and threats, and even a “doxxing truck” on Harvard’s campus. Doxxing—the non-consensual publication of someone’s private information like phone numbers or home addresses—can have devastating consequences, especially for marginalized activists. Doxxing can often lead to a flood of threatening phone calls, emails, letters, physical harassment at home, and even the doxxing of loved ones.
A recent study by Intelligent paints a stark picture: nearly 30% of students who participated in pro-Palestine protests reported having job offers rescinded. Even more alarmingly, 70% faced questions about their activism during job interviews, a practice that skirts the edge of employment discrimination laws.
“Companies have taken a particular way of getting rid of people,” said Mahir Nisar, principal attorney at Nisar Law Group. “It’s necessary to raise the concern that this is not okay. They actually may be engaging in unlawful activity.”
Personal accounts highlight the severity of the situation. Ridikkuluz, a Palestinian-Jordanian student in Berlin, was fired from a finance job for refusing to write a pro-Israel statement.
“I knew that wasn’t the case,” they said, noting the immediate shunning by coworkers. Financial hardship now looms. “I would sell my work about Palestine but that wouldn’t sit right with me,” Ridikkuluz said.
“There is a level of ‘you did something wrong for this to be happening to you, you did commit some kind of crime and you are deserving of this happening to you,’” a Harvard student protester told ABC News in October.
Legal experts are raising concerns about the potential illegality of such hiring practices. Nisar, whose law firm specializes in employee discrimination, argues that pro-Palestinian activism does not pose a “legitimate business concern” to employers. “The laws basically protect people from discrimination based upon their identity,” Nisar added. “When somebody is speaking up on this particular issue, that [person] is protected against being discriminated against if you are speaking up on behalf of Palestinians or Muslims being slaughtered at this time.”
Tracing anti-Muslim bias from universities to the job market
CAIR’s Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor highlights the majority of university administrations for enabling this anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence, which has ranged from withholding degrees to deploying aggressive police responses against peaceful protesters.
Saylor cited George Washington University as an example after they canceled a trauma support program for Palestinian students within 24 hours of its launch. “After the raid of the encampment, we were sent pictures of Islamic prayer mats being thrown in the trash,” Saylor recalled. “I’ve had several people report Qurans being trashed.”
The anti-Arab and anti-Muslim violence and punishment towards pro-Palestine advocates on campus isn’t confined to university grounds, but also extends to the job market.
Experts suggest that this repeated cycle of anti-Palestinian discrimination, both in academia and the job market, persists due to outdated legal frameworks in the United States. The law has failed to keep pace with evolving understandings of Islamophobia and its impacts on Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans.
“The law does not possess the language we desperately need to accurately capture the totality of Palestinian subjugation,” Palestinian American human rights lawyer Rabea Eghbariah writes in his article “Toward Nakba As A Legal Concept,” which was published, removed, and later reinstated at the Columbia Law Review. “There is a dire need for a new approach.”
Palestine Legal, which supports the Palestine solidarity movement, saw a 400% increase in requests for legal aid between Oct. 7 and Dec. 31, 2023.
CAIR also reported a 56% increase in anti-Muslim bias incidents nationwide in April 2024, with 44% of those occurring in the last three months of 2023. And from January to June 2024, there was a 69% jump in reported incidents compared to the same time period the prior year.
Legal strategies to hold employers and universities accountable
As campus protests have returned, backlash continues towards pro-Palestine students, faculty, and staff. While some administrations have reached tentative deals for divestment, several others have revised their protest policies. Indiana University forbids protests after 11pm. Emory University prohibited protests from midnight to 7am and enacted a total ban on encampments and building occupation. Police violently dispersed a die-in at the University of Michigan in August. In a public statement, the institution said “we are prohibited from interfering with lawful speech and are also required to intervene when anyone attempts to substantially disrupt or interfere with the lawful speech of others.”
“There’s also very reasonable concern about schools overreacting,” said Saylor. “With arrests and schools asking for prosecutions and pursuing disciplinary measures.”
In response to the escalating discrimination, legal advocates have taken rigorous action to protect students’ job prospects and hold universities accountable. Palestine Legal and CAIR have filed a series of Title VI civil rights complaints, alleging racial discrimination against pro-Palestine students. These legal efforts have prompted the Department of Education to launch federal investigations into high-profile institutions like Columbia, Emory, and Northwestern.
The catalyst for these probes was the universities’ authorization of forceful police crackdowns on student protesters. At these schools, campus security arrested peaceful demonstrators, only for the situations to devolve into violent chaos due to the outsized law enforcement response.
In the workforce, some states already carry a legal framework protecting pro-Palestine employees. Federally, all employees are protected by the First Amendment, therefore any firing can result in legal consequences to the employer. Several states also have varying laws protecting workers specifically from political discrimination, such as California, North Dakota, New Mexico, New York, Washington, and Washington D.C.
In 2021, Palestine Legal wrote a letter to Google regarding retaliation towards workers protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion digital cloud deal with Amazon and the Israeli Defense Forces. Palestine Legal wrote that such treatment of employees violates Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act, which “gives applicable employees the right to “engage in . . . concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid or protection.”
Political affiliation is not a protected class under Title VII, but as advocates suggest that identity on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, etc., may be used as a strategy in the workforce. Nisar, who provides legal education on his TikTok account, stressed the importance of documenting everything for everyone. “Always develop a paper trail,” he said. “Make sure that it’s done in a written fashion. Specify that it discriminates upon your identity. You want to do it via email. You are always making sure that when you’re speaking up you’re raising your identity [in relationship] to discrimination towards Palestinians or Muslims. This requires that you preserve evidence.”
Nisar also emphasized that one be careful to not engage in anything that could constitute discriminatory practice as well. “Whenever they’re speaking up it’s important that they don’t engage in discrimination of their own. A lot of people get caught up in these situations. You can’t fight hate with hate. You have to remember that you’re fighting for a greater principle.”
While filing a lawsuit in these states or situations may seem logical, processing the ongoing conflict alongside legal battle can prove emotionally and financially taxing for many. Some might lack the resources to hire a lawyer. Others, like Abouassaad, opt for severance packages instead of lengthy legal battles. “One way to advocate for myself is continuing to be able to survive,” they said. “I accepted that money because f*ck them, pay me.”
For others like Abouassaad, the bigger picture matters more than personal grievances. “There’s a genocide happening,” they said. “I’m not at the capacity to deal with an entire lawsuit…. It still doesn’t address the overall issue of censorship against Palestinians and the ways corporations can use their access to capital to enforce their world views on other people.”
While the federal probes mark an important accountability milestone, legal experts emphasize that addressing the deeper systemic issues will be a protracted battle. They say updating anti-discrimination laws to better reflect modern understandings of Islamophobia remains a pressing imperative.
To guide students facing discrimination, CAIR has released an employee rights guide. Recommendations include setting social media accounts to private, avoiding publicly identifying employers, thoroughly documenting any problematic interactions, and demanding written explanations from HR about policy violations.
Despite ongoing repression, Saylor believes that the organizing skills and advocacy experience these young people are developing will serve them well for long-term careers.
“As this generation graduates, and hopefully come into the advocacy space, they’re going to deliver some really powerful stuff,” said Saylor.
Across the pro-Palestinian community, the legal recognition of the Nakba —the violent displacement of some 750,000 Palestinians for the creation of Israel instituted by Britain and the U.S.—is seen as critical to accountability. Eghbariah wrote, “Recognition of Nakba as a universal concept, one acknowledged and prohibited by international norms, is therefore the first step toward a just and lasting solution in Palestine.”
This could prove not only a first step towards just global accountability, but also a subsequent end to the anti-war protests and thus work discrimination. “The U.S. can totally stop sending weapons,” Abouassaad said. “After that, everything else will follow.”
Rohan Zhou-Lee (They/Siya/祂(Tā)/Elle) is a queer/nonbinary Black Asian dancer, writer, and organizer. A 2023 Open City Fellow at the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, they have written for Newsweek, Prism Reports, NextShark, and more. Siya is also the founder of the award-winning Blasian March, a Black-Asian-Blasian grassroots solidarity organization, and for their work has been featured on CNN, NBC Chicago, USA Today, WNYC, and more. Zhou-Lee has spoken on organizing, human rights, and other subjects at New York University, The University of Tokyo, the 2022 Unite and Enough Festivals in Zürich, Switzerland, Harvard University, and more. www.diaryofafirebird.com