A Jewish authorized advocacy group hailed a authorized breakthrough in court docket battles towards antisemitism after a US federal choose final week equated the Israeli flag with “the Jewish race.”
The choose’s resolution units a brand new authorized commonplace that can be utilized to guard Jews focused in anti-Zionist assaults, mentioned the Nationwide Jewish Advocacy Heart, a nonprofit that represented the plaintiff.
Professional-Israel Jewish activist Kimmara Sumrall filed the lawsuit in a federal district court docket in Washington, DC, final month. Sumrall alleged that she was attacked at a pro-Israel demonstration in Washington in November 2024 whereas carrying an Israeli flag tied round her neck as a cape.
An anti-Israel activist on the protest approached Sumrall from behind and yanked on the Israeli flag, briefly choking Sumrall. A police officer witnessed the incident and arrested the assailant on the scene, the criticism mentioned.
The anti-Israel protest was organized by Code Pink, a far-left activist group that usually demonstrates towards Israel. Each the assailant and the pro-Israel activist frequently attended dueling protests within the capital. Sumrall mentioned she had acquired loss of life threats associated to her activism after the assault, inflicting her to concern for her security.
The lawsuit argued that the assault was discriminatory, in response to the IHRA definition of antisemitism.
The lawsuit, like others filed by Jewish Israel supporters across the US, argued that Zionism is a aspect of the religion and never a political place. Jewish authorized advocates have used the interpretation of Zionism to guard pro-Israel Jews and fight anti-Zionism underneath US civil rights protections that cowl faith, race and nationwide origin, however not politics. The argument has been broadly utilized in instances involving Title VI of the US Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination in packages that obtain federal monetary help, reminiscent of universities.
The lawsuit mentioned Sumrall had been focused within the assault as a consequence of her race, faith and nationwide origin, and sought damages and a restraining order barring the assailant from approaching Sumrall.
Legal professionals for the defendant argued that she had been acquitted of assault costs in felony court docket. The protection mentioned that the defendant’s keffiyeh had tangled with Sumrall’s flag when the 2 ran into one another on the protest, and that there had been no malicious contact between the 2. The authorized group additionally argued that the lawsuit was “conflating trustworthy and widespread criticism of Israel’s insurance policies in Palestine with anti-Jewish hate,” and that the incident was not discriminatory.
A protester in Washington, DC holds an indication studying “Zionism is terrorism,” after Israel resumes airstrikes in Gaza amid its struggle towards Hamas, on March 18, 2025. (Andrew Harnik / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Photos through AFP)
The restraining order would forestall the alleged assailant from attending protests, violating her First Modification rights, since each girls attend the identical occasions on opposing sides, the protection mentioned.
The choose within the case, District Choose Trevor N. McFadden, sided with Sumrall, saying that the defendant “purposefully discriminated towards her on the idea of race” and that she had doubtless dedicated battery, citing testimony from the arresting police officer. The officer had declined to testify in felony court docket, the place assault must be confirmed past an affordable doubt, a better bar than in a civil case.
“That battery was direct proof of discrimination that doubtless wouldn’t have occurred however for racial animus,” the choose mentioned in a court docket submitting final week.
“Purposefully yanking on an Israeli flag tied round a Jewish individual’s neck to choke them is direct proof of racial discrimination. The Star of David— emblazoned upon the Israeli flag — symbolizes the Jewish race,” the choose mentioned, evaluating assaults towards the Star of David to utilizing racial slurs towards Black folks, and dismissing the protection’s argument that such an offense might be “an objection to state insurance policies.”
The defendant “didn’t have motive to suppose Sumrall was herself affiliated with the Israeli authorities. Somewhat, it’s more likely that she was deliberately attacking a Jewish individual carrying a Jewish flag as an emblem of her racial heritage,” the judge said, upholding a restraining order towards the defendant.
Matthew Mainen, Sumrall’s lawyer, mentioned the choose’s ruling marked “the strongest language a federal court docket has come out with but that anti-Zionism is clearly antisemitism.”
Illustrative: Israel supporters throughout a vigil in New York Metropolis, October 8, 2023. (Luke Tress/Instances of Israel)
“For him, there was no grey space between it. For him, it was clearly probably the most racist factor,” Mainen informed The Instances of Israel. Mainen is a litigation counsel with the Nationwide Jewish Advocacy Heart.
Mainen mentioned the ruling was vital as a result of it established case regulation equating assaults towards the Star of David and Israeli flag with antisemitism. Case regulation is shaped by judges writing opinions on particular person instances that information authorized interpretations in future instances. Case regulation differs from authorized precedents in that precedents are binding, that means they’re rulings that courts should adhere to, whereas case regulation serves as a guidepost.
In future lawsuits alleging antisemitism stemming from anti-Israel activism, for instance, plaintiffs will be capable to cite the Sumrall lawsuit as proof that there’s a authorized commonplace equating anti-Zionism with anti-Jewish discrimination. Mainen mentioned the case would doubtless be “closely cited” sooner or later.
The lawsuit additionally made novel use of an obscure federal authorized provision courting again to the Civil Struggle period geared toward combating racial discrimination. The supply, first enacted because the Civil Rights Act of 1866, ensures equal rights for all racial teams, and Jews have been acknowledged by the Supreme Courtroom as a race for functions of civil rights regulation. The supply elevates racially motivated assault from state court docket to federal court docket.
“If I’m on the road and I hit somebody, assault and battery, that’s not likely a federal crime. That’s a state crime. But when I’m on the road and I hit somebody due to their race, this regulation federalizes that violent act,” Mainen mentioned. “It permits you to sue in federal court docket when there’s a hate crime element to it. This case in DC was the primary post-October seventh case, and it’s probably the primary ever antisemitism case to make use of this to use it to antisemitic violence.”
Code Pink decried the choice in a press release, saying, “The lawsuit’s harmful declare that criticism of Israel’s authorities and its flag — a political image of a state at present chargeable for mass civilian deaths in Gaza — quantities to antisemitism.”
“This false conflation seeks to criminalize political speech, although many critics of Israel’s insurance policies are themselves Jewish. It’s an effort to erase the important distinction between opposing a authorities’s actions and attacking a faith,” Code Pink mentioned.
The lawsuit marked one other growth within the evolving authorized battle over antisemitism and anti-Israel activism in US courts. Professional-Israel and pro-Palestinian activist teams have filed dozens of lawsuits towards their opponents, together with universities, nonprofits and people.
A few of the techniques deployed by Jewish teams, together with the Nationwide Jewish Advocacy Heart, for the reason that begin of the struggle in Gaza embody suing nonprofits that facilitate illegal protests, utilizing a regulation meant to protect abortion clinics to cover synagogues, and expanding civil rights protections for Jews to new arenas reminiscent of sports activities venues.
