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Five students who joined pro-Palestine protests sue University of Michigan over campus ban

The perimeter of a pro-Palestinian encampment is seen on the Cal State Los Angeles campus on Friday, June 14, 2024. Several university campuses, including the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan, became focal points for protests in support of Palestinians. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
The perimeter of a pro-Palestinian encampment is seen on the Cal State Los Angeles campus on Friday, June 14, 2024. Several university campuses, including the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan, became focal points for protests in support of Palestinians. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 4 (UPI) -- Five University of Michigan students have filed a lawsuit against their school after being banned from campus due to their participation in pro-Palestine protests.

The American Civil Liberties Union, with the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, on Monday, accusing the school's bans of being unconstitutional and violating the students' First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.

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The banned students were among those who participated in pro-Palestine protests calling on the University of Michigan to divest from companies and institutions with ties to Israel, which was waging war against Iran-backed Hamas in Gaza, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians.

The bans bar the students from the Ann Arbor campus, and for some of the plaintiffs from all three the university's campuses, with some allowed to enter only for attending classes or seeking medical care. Those who violate the ban could face criminal trespass prosecution.

The lawsuit states the bans have "upended Plaintiffs' daily lives, disrupted their education and work and are blocking their ability to speak and protest freely on the University's vast campus."

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The document continues that the bans appear to disproportionately target protesters whose speech the university disagrees with, as "no other group of protesters have been subjected to similarly broad trespass bans for the same or similar alleged activity" despite the school's long history of protests on campus.

"The University is weaponizing campus trespass bans in an attempt to target, attack and silence the speech of protesters who bravely raise their voices in support of Palestine," Liz Jacob, staff attorney for the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, said in a statement.

"The threat of effectively being barred from classes, suspended from the university, kept from working on campus or even walking the grounds constitutes an extreme attempt to quell free speech and due process rights that are protected by the First and 14th Amendments."

The war between Israel and Hamas erupted Oct. 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed militant group launched a surprise attack on Israel, killing 1,200 Israelis. Another 251, mostly Israelis were also kidnapped that day.

Protests erupted on university campuses across the United States as Israel waged a brutal war targeting Hamas in Gaza that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians while leveling much of the enclaves buildings and infrastructure.

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Many of the protests were calling on their schools to divest from Israel and associated companies, and they attracted the attention of pro-Israel counterprotesters.

The issue has become a flashpoint for Republicans, who have accused some of the institutions of permitting anti-Semitism.

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