The free speech organization Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sent a letter to West Virginia University demanding that the public school in Morgantown end a no-contact order that it had placed on a Jewish student, who was distributing a pro-Israel book on campus.
Jessie Appleby, counsel for FIRE’s campus advocacy program, wrote to E. Gordon Gee, the West Virginia president and former Ohio State University leader, that the nonprofit is “concerned” that the school launched an investigation against Eliyahu Itkowitz in January based on complaints from a dining hall employee, identified in the letter as Hannah Harper.
Harper reported Itkowitz for giving her a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s book The Ten Big Anti-Israel Lies the prior month. The West Virginia employee saw the book, which Itkowitz handed out broadly on campus, as “anti-Muslim.”
“Let’s be clear. I started handing out Alan Dershowitz’s book after passing repeated anti-Israel demonstrations by the Muslim Students Association on my way to class,” Itkowitz told JNS.
“They had every right to protest, and so do I,” the Jewish student said. “But instead of protecting open dialogue, WVU’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities responded to me with constant investigation and intimidation.”
What used to be diversity, equity and inclusion “is now being weaponized to silence students who speak uncomfortable truths,” Itkowitz told JNS. “That’s why so many Jewish students, and decent people who know right from wrong, stay silent.”
“But we can’t stay silent,” he added. “We have to speak up and call out these systems that claim to protect students while punishing those who dare to dissent.”
Harper also filed a complaint against Itkowitz in January after he entered the dining hall, and she told her manager that the Jewish student had been banned from the room—a claim that FIRE says is false. The manager told Itkowitz he had to leave. The latter recorded the incident. (JNS sought comment from West Virginia University.)
The dining hall staffer also alleged that Itkowitz called her “anti-Jewish” and said “racially inappropriate things to her while she was working,” the letter states. It notes that the Jewish student denies saying those things, and “none of the witnesses present heard Itkowitz say any of the comments Harper attributed to him or could even recall seeing Itkowitz interact with Harper at all.”
“But even if these allegations were true, they fall far short of the applicable legal standard for discriminatory harassment that needs to be met to justify WVU’s investigation,” FIRE stated in the letter.
“Because conducting unwarranted investigations with the threat of discipline chills students’ speech, we urge WVU to lift the no-contact order and refrain from investigating protected expression going forward,” the nonprofit said.
“This case aptly demonstrates that WVU’s policy of investigating wholly protected expression has allowed students and staff to weaponize the complaint process to silence their ideological opponents,” it added. “This is an unacceptable and unlawful outcome.”
Another instance of what FIRE called the public school allowing its complaint process to be used “as a cudgel to silence opponents” came in fall 2023, when the school launched a 10-month investigation of a student who protested against anti-Israel protesters.
The Muslim Students Association filed the complaint against the student, who subsequently left the university.