Larry speaks with Gerard Filitti, Senior Counsel at THELAWFAREPROJECT.ORG

He joined The Lawfare Project after working as a litigator in private practice for over 15 years, including at Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP and Osen LLC.  He has broad experience in commercial and complex litigation across a wide variety of practice areas, in both state and federal courts. Representative clients include Johnson & Johnson, DePuy Orthopaedics, Janssen Pharmaceutia, Honeywell, Alcon, Travelers, Allstate, MetLife, and ADP.  More recently, he pursued civil counter-terrorism litigation with an emphasis on money laundering investigations, and represented victims of international acts of terrorism in litigation brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act (“ATA”), the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (“JASTA”), and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”).

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is a podcast from WOR.Here's Larry Minti with more of the WOOR
Saturday Morning Show. Welcome back toSaturday Morning. The pro Palestinian protest at
Columbia University, City College and collegesand universities across the country have dominated the
news. Many are stunned at theanti semitism displayed on college campuses, but

(00:25):
not the people at the Lawfair Project, an organization that provides free legal service
to protect the civil rights of Jewsaround the globe. Lawfair has been fighting
anti semitism on America's college campuses foryears. Joining us now is Gerard Felidi,

(00:46):
Senior counsel at the Lawfair Project.Girard, thanks so much for joining
us. If we can start,sir, with just your general reaction to
the protest at college campuses, bothhere in New York and all across the
country. It's both shocking and unsurprisingthat we've gotten the point where these protests
have escalated to violence. Many peoplehave been warning about it for months,

(01:07):
that college administrators were not doing enoughto calm the atmosphere and calm the rhetoric
of anti semitism, and now we'vegotten to the point where this has become
out of control. I have interviewedattorneys with the Lawfair Project before and although
and you said you were surprised atthe violence, but you're not surprised at
the anti semitism on campus. Isbecause the attorneys I spoke with it at

(01:32):
the Lawfair Project before have been fightingthis for some time. Right, We
have been and we are not surprisedby the anti semitism on campuses. This
has been systemic for many years now. We have seen this as a problem
at many schools. At Columbia,for example, we filed the Title six
complaint with the Office of Civil Rightsback in twenty nineteen about conduct that is

(01:53):
substantially similar to what we see todayand nothing changed in four years. So
we are seeing this as a deeplyrooted issue. Let's deal with Columbia,
excuse me university for a moment.There are news stories that these protests originated
in the classrooms and with pro Palestinianprofessors. Do you know that to be

(02:13):
the case? Is that's what happeningacross the country and is that common?
We know that at Columbia for many, many years, there were professors like
Edwards Ta'id and Professor Masad who havebeen spewing anti Israel and anti Semitic rhetoric.
And for the length of time thatthis has been going on, it's
really had a profound effect on thestudents and on faculty. As the years

(02:37):
have gone on, these professors havebrought in like minded individuals and the atmosphere
is got worth for Jewish students.So it's not at all surprising to see
that this starts in a classroom becausethere's that history of academia which with some
very anti Semitic professors. Now Iknow we're talking about Columbia right now,
is that also the case at universitiesacross the country. It is. Law

(02:59):
For Project followed lawsuit against San FranciscoState University many years ago for substantially the
same thing, where we have hadvirulent anti Semitic professors and graduate students who
were spewing hate. We've seen thisat Rutgers. We've seen that this had
quite a few institutions of higher learning. We're talking with Gerard Felidi, who
is the senior counsel at the LawSenior Council at the Lawfair Project. Also

(03:23):
from interviews I've done with Lawfair,I know your organization has real concern with
the influence that Arab countries, especiallyCutter, has on college campuses. Could
you explain that there's a lot ofdark money that comes into higher learning and
this is money that needs to bedisclosed by universities according to federal law.

(03:43):
The problem is when you have acountry like Qatar that has values often inimical
to America's not a democratic country,they don't respect the same US that we
do, and they're providing billions ofdollars to US colleges. They needs to
be accounting of what that money goesto because a lot of the time we
have seen that colleges that receive themost money have had rather dramatic rise in

(04:05):
anti semitism. So it's a verylegitimate concern to identify what that foreign money
is doing on our campuses, whatit's buying, what Qatar is getting for
it is the law Fair Project tryingto get that information or some of those
financial documents. We are, althoughagain this is very this is called dark
money for a reason. It's noteasy to pinpoint where it comes from and

(04:28):
how it's used. In one ofour lawsuits against Carnegie Mellon University, we
are looking to see exactly what thatfunding has done, because that is a
university that has received significant amounts ofmoney from Qatar and has a campus presence
in Qatar, and it has seena tremendous increase in anti semitism that affected
our client. Do you believe thatQatar's influence is partially responsible for what we've

(04:53):
seen now in the protest at Columbiaand other campuses. I think the influence
collectively of all the money and allthe academic thinking that's coming in is affecting
it. Yes, I think moneyis only a small part of the problem.
The bigger part of the problem ishow we've been responding to it or
not responding to it at places likeColumbia. And it's not just the money

(05:14):
that matters. It's also the peoplewe know, and Mayor Adams has confirmed
that they're outside actors who came intocampus at Columbia and were helping influence things.
The question is are these people beingfunded by foreign governments or foreign terrorist
organizations? And we don't know theanswer to that. So you believe,
even though you don't have proof ofit, you believe that not only were

(05:38):
there outside agitators, but this hasbeen coordinated across the country, and it's
been funded that it's been coordinated acrossthe country. We know because the organizations
involved are groups like Students for Justicein Palestine and Jewish Voice or Peace,
the groups that are funded by thesame organizations, groups that have the same
communications style, and groups that ultimatelyall claim allegiance to the same radical ideals

(06:01):
that are spread by terrorist groups likeCOMMAS and the PFLP. So there is
certainly coordination in what's going on acrosscampuses. The deeper question, and one
that perhaps Congress or the federal governmentneed to answer, is whether this coordination
is being directed by foreign powers orby foreign terrorists. Yeah, there's going
to be house hearings on that,and that's interesting. I hope Lawfair Project

(06:23):
is involved in that. Are youconcerned though, that now that the police
have moved in and squelled many ofthe protests, people might get the false
impression that the problem of anti Semitismhas been dealt with, or at least
that it's out of sight, outof mind. Well, first of all,
we're not really seeing an end ofthe situation right now. The fact
that police is clearing out campuses likeColumbia or like UCLA, only pushes the

(06:47):
problem onto city streets. I hada client, Joseph Haddad, who is
an Israeli Arab, and he wasassaulted outside of the gates of Columbia two
weeks ago because there was no controlover what was happening those city states.
So we expect to see more violenceand more escalation outside of college campuses leading
into summer. And it's questionable,quite frankly, whether police and cities like

(07:10):
New York will be able to keepup with it. But you're right,
ultimately, this doesn't address anti Semitism. What it has done is expos it
and it's providing people with the opportunityto take action to change the campus atmosphere.
Well, it's been fascinating to talkwith you as we end. Could
you just give a I gave athumbnail explanation of what the Lawfair Project is

(07:30):
at the top in my intro,but I believe it's worth further explanation.
Please tell us about the Lawfair Project. The Lawfair Project is a nonprofit based
here in New York City that focuseson fighting to uphold the legal rights of
the Jewish people worldwide from discrimination fromantisemitism from all the horrors that we see.
And we do that through, amongother things, strategic legal action like

(07:53):
we filed on college campuses and likewe fill against some employers to keep people
safe and make sure that our civilrights as a minority people are upheld.
How can people get involved in supportwhat you do? People could go online
to the Lawferproject dot org. That'sthe Lawfer Project dot org, or on
social media at Loaffer Project. Wonderful. Thank you very much, sir for

(08:15):
your time. Thank you Gerard Felidi, Senior counsel at the Lawfair Project.
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