WASHINGTON, DC – Requests for legal assistance related to pro-Palestinian advocacy remained high in the United States last year, as President Donald Trump threatened penalties against activists and universities.
Palestine Legal, an organization that “supports the Palestinian freedom movement in the United States,” said in its annual report released Tuesday that it received 1,131 inquiries seeking legal assistance in 2025.
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This number is lower than the previous record of 2,184 requests the group received in 2024, when pro-Palestinian protests swept American campuses and faced regular crackdowns from both school administrators and law enforcement.
Dima Khalidi, executive director of the Palestinian Authority for Justice, said the 2025 numbers show that pro-Palestinian advocacy continues, even as universities across the country have placed new restrictions on protests.
“Our year-end 2025 report shows that while the majority of universities are cowering and bowing to coercive pressure from the Trump administration and its pro-Israel supporters, student activists for Palestine and collective freedom remain an example of moral conviction and courage,” Khalidi said.
“Even in the face of punitive consequences for speaking out, they remain opposed to U.S. injustice to Palestine because they understand the cost of surrender for all of us.”
The Palestinian Justice Authority said that while the “overwhelming majority” of requests for legal assistance in 2025 were from university students and teachers, the number of cases categorized as “immigration and border-related” continued to rise to 122.
The group received 851 requests from individuals and organizations for Palestine-related advocacy work, and a further 280 requests for legal guidance on the implementation of advocacy activities.
Despite a decline from 2024, last year’s complaint rate was 300 percent higher than in 2022, the year before Israel began its genocidal war in Gaza on October 7, 2023.
At least 72,560 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since then.
pressure campaign
In 2024, Trump campaigned for a second term in the White House on a promise to crack down on pro-Palestinian protests that sought to highlight human rights abuses during the war.
He has labeled these protests anti-Semitic and, since taking office in 2025, has led a campaign to punish schools that have become hubs of pro-Palestinian activity.
So far, five universities have signed agreements with Trump after he threatened to withhold billions of dollars in federal funding. This includes Columbia University, where the pro-Palestinian camp and accompanying police crackdown attracted international attention.
Colombia ultimately reached a $200 million settlement with the Trump administration and initiated several policy changes aimed at combating anti-Semitism.
Rights groups have criticized the policy as conflating pro-Palestinian advocacy with anti-Semitic sentiment. They also warn that President Trump’s actions risk undermining free speech, a right protected by the First Amendment.
Overall, as of July 2025, nearly 80 students who participated in protests at Columbia University faced serious academic discipline, including expulsion, suspension, and degree revocation.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration used the immigration crackdown to target pro-Palestinian protesters and advocates, including academics such as Rumeisa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Badar Khan Suri, and Mahmoud Khalil.
To date, deportation proceedings have been abandoned for Mr. Ozturk, who was in the United States on a student visa, and Mr. Mahdawi, a permanent resident of the United States who was detained during his citizenship hearing.
After completing his doctoral studies at Tufts University, Ozturk voluntarily returned to his hometown of Turkiye.
The government is still proceeding with deportation proceedings against Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and permanent resident of the United States.
Separately, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) searched five homes associated with pro-Palestinian activists at the University of Michigan in April 2025, sparking outrage. Federal authorities seized property but made no arrests.
legal victory
Despite the difficult situation across Palestine, the Palestinian Authority for Justice has hailed a series of legal victories defending the rights of pro-Palestinian protests in 2025.
Last August, for example, a federal court rejected a lawsuit seeking to punish UNRWA USA, a nonprofit organization that supports the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), under the 1990 Anti-Terrorism Act.
A separate lawsuit filed by the Council on Palestine Legal Affairs and American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) accuses the University of Maryland of trampling on students’ free speech rights by banning Students for Justice in Palestine (UMD SJP) from participating. The lawsuit resulted in a settlement of $100,000.
Meanwhile, federal judges have sided with Harvard University and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in their challenges to the Trump administration’s defunding efforts.
“The fight waged by Palestine Legal and our partners confirms that the Trump administration, universities, and Israeli advocacy groups cannot run roughshod over the growing demands to respect and protect Palestinian rights without consequences,” Palestine Legal said in closing its report.
“Developments throughout 2025 have made clear that if we allow our right to support Palestinian freedom to be trampled, all of our fundamental rights will be at risk in the face of authoritarian collapse.”
