Dima Khalidi: Pressures on universities to discipline and punish students and faculty for speech activities.

The following is a presentation made at the 2015 Israel Lobby Con held at the National Press Club.

 

Dima Khalidi is the founder and Director of Palestine Solidarity Legal Support (PSLS), and Cooperating Counsel with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Her work includes providing legal advice to activists, engaging in advocacy to protect their rights to speak out for Palestinian rights, and educating activists and the public about their rights.

Khalidi has a JD from DePaul University College of Law with a concentration in International Law, an MA in Comparative Legal Studies from the University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies, and a BA in History and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. Prior to founding PSLS, Khalidi worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) as a cooperating attorney on the Mamilla Cemetery Campaign, drafting a petition to United Nations officials to act against the desecration of an ancient Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.

As a volunteer and an intern at CCR, she also worked on numerous cases that sought to hold Israeli officials and corporations accountable for Israeli violations of international law, including Belhas v. Ya’alon; Matar et al. v. Dichter; and Corrie v. Caterpillar; as well as on CCR’s Guantanamo Bay docket. As a law student, she interned with the People’s Law Office in Chicago, helping win the acquittal of a Palestinian-American on major federal criminal charges.
 Prior to studying law, Khalidi worked at Birzeit University, heading a research project on the role of informal justice mechanisms in the Palestinian legal system. She has advocated on Palestinian rights issues in media forums such as the New York Times, the Jewish Press, The Real News Network, Mondoweiss, Huffington Post, Law and Disorder Radio, and Radio Tahrir. She is fluent in Arabic and French.

Since 2015 the annual IsraelLobbyCon conference series at the National Press Club explores the latest research, innovations and tactics for countering the Israel lobby’s damaging policies in the U.S. and around the globe.

 

The conference is solely sponsored by the American Educational Trust, publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, and the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep).