{"id":199687,"date":"2025-04-23T01:17:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T01:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/activist\/heres-where-pro-palestine-protesters-face-the-harshest-charges-cair-chicago\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T01:17:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T01:17:31","slug":"heres-where-pro-palestine-protesters-face-the-harshest-charges-cair-chicago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=199687","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Where Pro-Palestine Protesters Face the Harshest Charges \u2014 CAIR-Chicago"},"content":{"rendered":"


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As the Trump administration fights to deport students who support the Palestinian people, dozens more face extreme charges in local courts.<\/p>\n

Last spring, students across the country gathered to demand an end to Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza. Police responded by arresting<\/a> more than 3,200 demonstrators.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Appeal reviewed charges levied against thousands of people arrested at last spring\u2019s protests. We identified nearly 40 cases where protesters have faced serious felony charges, including allegedly committing a hate crime on a law enforcement officer, mob action, and attempted ethnic intimidation.<\/p>\n

Some protesters are facing years of prison time. Many more are dealing with the collateral consequences of criminal charges. Even when charges are dismissed, having an arrest record can make it difficult to get housing or employment. In some cases, international students have been forced<\/a> to leave the country after university sanctions prevented them from meeting their student visa requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents speaking out against Israel\u2019s genocide in Gaza should not face criminalization and lifelong consequences for their activism,\u201d said Hafsa Haider, communications coordinator for CAIR-Chicago, in a statement shared with The Appeal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Alexandra Weiner, a former faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, is among the many demonstrators who have had their lives upended by university administrators and local prosecutors for speaking out against genocide. She had been attending a PhD program in Canada, but has had to pause her studies to deal with her charges.<\/p>\n

Weiner told The Appeal that Pitt\u2019s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) had been trying to meet with Chancellor Joan Gabel for months to ask that the school disclose its investments, divest from companies profiting from Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestine, and support Palestinians. Weiner said Gabel never met with SJP.<\/p>\n

Like many other universities, Pitt ultimately called the police on its own students and later suspended SJP over a separate incident. SJP is suing<\/a> the university for violating students\u2019 First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese events took place the first week of June,\u201d Weiner said of the arrests at Pitt\u2019s encampment. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a warrant out for my arrest until January 15. By that time, I had moved to Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weiner is Jewish and grew up attending Pittsburgh\u2019s Tree of Life synagogue, where a right-wing extremist shot and killed 11 people in 2018. Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala\u2019s office charged both Weiner and her brother, who also attended Pittsburgh protests, with felony aggravated assault. Weiner\u2019s brother lost his job and is no longer able to teach at Pittsburgh public schools as a result of the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at the time, I believe, the only Jewish trans woman faculty person at Pitt,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cFor the university to attempt to smear me and my brother as antisemitic and threaten me with a men\u2019s prison is particularly abhorrent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors offered a handful of demonstrators deals to plead guilty to lesser misdemeanor charges\u2014or have their charges dropped if they comply with extensive diversion agreements. But even a misdemeanor conviction can prevent someone from being allowed into Canada.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Weiner said she found out about her charges while she was still abroad and was unable to return home to see her family for two and a half months as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now have a pending felony charge, which means I fail most background checks for jobs,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cIf a landlord searches my name, they can deny me housing based on that charge. I\u2019m still living on friends\u2019 couches with no job, even though I have a Master\u2019s degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

SPJ Pittsburgh has launched a campaign<\/a> to drop the charges against the protesters and raise funds for their legal fees.<\/p>\n

In at least five states, protesters are being threatened with extreme charges:<\/p>\n