Pro-Palestinian students threaten to sue US university amid antisemitism definition controversy

Exclusive: George Mason University accused of censorship by citing IHRA definition to order anti-Israel post's removal

Pro-Palestinian students are threatening to sue George Mason University in Virginia after the school cited a contentious definition of antisemitism it recently adopted to demand the removal of a social media post in which they described Israel as a genocidal Zionist state" and the US as the belly of the beast".

In a letter sent to the public university's administrators on Wednesday, and shared exclusively with the Guardian, the university's Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter argued that the video amounted to political expression on a matter of public concern, and thus the very speech the first amendment is meant to protect".