US civil rights groups condemn California Bill aiming to ban pro-Palestine protests

WORLD, Aug. 20 (YPA) – American civil organizations criticized a California bill on Tuesday that seeks to ban pro-Palestine demonstrations.

The American Civil Liberties Union in California is ringing the alarm bell on Senate Bill 1287, saying that it will “set a dangerous precedent of chilling speech on campuses across the state.”

The bill, introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer, would require schools to adopt and enforce rules against harassment, discrimination, or any behavior that “creates a hostile environment on campus.”

The ACLU’s statement continued: “We expect that this bill will be implemented in a manner that unjustifiably restricts freedom of expression.”

Lina Seikh, a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the state, stated that the original version of the bill aims to “criminalize pro-Palestine protests outright.”

She described the bill as an attempt to ban the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” asserting that the target of the bill is clear.

She added that the bill would give universities “more power” to punish students who organize pro-Palestine demonstrations.

@E.Y.M