The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, along with its Greater Los Angeles Area office (CAIR-LA), today raised concerns regarding Pomona College’s recent settlement agreement stemming from a complaint filed by several groups openly supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The organization also called on the school’s leadership to take measures to protect free expression and academic freedom on campus.
SEE: Pomona College, UC Settle Antisemitism Allegations
On Wednesday, Dec. 10, Pomona College President Gabrielle Starr announced that the school agreed to settle a complaint brought against it by pro-genocide groups alleging antisemitism on campus. In response, CAIR sent a letter to the college’s leadership, raising serious concerns about the agreement.
The settlement agreement references the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism, which has been widely criticized, including by its own author, for its misuse in academic settings to conflate antisemitism with legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and silence free speech and expression on college campuses.
The settlement agreement also problematically includes critiques of Zionism, a political movement, as the basis for unlawful speech and harassment on campus.
Additionally, the agreement expands the school’s Time, Place, and Manner restrictions, including protest regulations and enforcement mechanisms, which risks the selective and disproportionate enforcement of protected speech, including pro-Palestinian speech.
In the letter, CAIR urged Pomona College to issue a clarifying public statement affirming that criticism of the state of Israel or Zionism as a political ideology constitutes protected speech on campus and that the settlement agreement won’t be used to further justify crackdowns on pro-Palestinian students and faculty’s speech and activity.
CAIR also urged leadership to include Islamophobia, anti-Muslim bias, and anti-Palestinian discrimination alongside antisemitism in the training protocols outlined in the settlement and to engage the organization as a partner in the development and delivery of these trainings.
In a statement, CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush said:
“Pomona College’s harmful settlement agreement—including the language equating a political ideology with a protected characteristic—raises serious concerns about the future of free expression and academic freedom on campus. The agreement’s expansive application of the IHRA definition of antisemitism falsely and dangerously equates the Jewish faith and identity with the political actions of a foreign government and has previously been used by institutions across the nation to suppress legitimate criticism of the state of Israel’s well-documented human rights abuses. This framework risks weaponizing school policy to silence any protected speech that its leadership does not agree with and silences the many Jewish students and faculty who have publicly spoken out against the Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza.
“All students, regardless of faith, background, or country of origin, have the right to be free from targeted harassment or discrimination on campus; true safety and inclusion cannot be achieved by suppressing dissent or criminalizing those who speak out against injustice.”
In November 2024, CAIR designated Pomona College as an “institution of particular concern” due to its creation of a hostile campus environment for Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and Jewish students, staff, and faculty opposing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The designation of Pomona College stems from its leadership’s opposition to a referendum by its democratic student government calling for the college to sever ties with Israeli companies profiting from the genocide of Palestinians, its militarized police response to students’ peaceful pro-Palestine protests, and its alleged failure to protect Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students from harassment and discrimination.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
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CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Manager Enjy El-Kadi, (714) 851-4851 or eelkadi@cair.com; CAIR-LA Senior Communications Coordinator Madi Hameed, mmorse-hameed@cair.com