The anti-Israel advocacy group "Palestine Legal" threatened to take legal action against Kent State University for refusing to remove a display featuring a photo of and quotation by the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, the Algemeiner reported.
The local chapter of the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organization had previously called for the display and quote to be removed.
"Palestine Legal" wrote a letter to Kent State President Beverly Warren, accusing the university of violating the First Amendment rights of SJP and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964— which prohibit programs and activities receiving federal funding from discriminating on the basis of race, color or national origin.
The letter demanded that the university apologize for not protecting students from “a network of well-funded right-wing Zionist organizations.”
It further stated that the university had failed to provide a "safe space" for pro-Palestinian Arab students to express their opinions and failed to protect them from accusations that they support terrorism.
SJP president Yousof Mousa stated that the demand that the exhibit and quote be removed was based on the belief that Golda Meir participated in "ethnic cleansing."
Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Todd Diacon wrote that “Removing the quote from Golda Meir, which is nonsectarian and which reasonably could be read by many as inspirational, would be counter to our core institutional value of supporting a diversity of cultures, beliefs, identities and thought.”
The quote from Prime Minister Meir reads: “Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”