Pro-Palestine legal aid requests stay high in 2025 amid US campus pressure

Palestine Legal reported a decrease in requests for legal support related to pro-Palestine advocacy from 2,184 in 2024 to 1,131 in 2025. Despite this drop, the organization stated that pro-Palestine activism persists. The group received 851 requests from individuals or organizations targeted for their Palestine-related advocacy and 280 more asking for guidance on conducting advocacy. University students and faculty accounted for the majority of requests, with a growing number of immigration and border-related cases. The rate of complaints in 2025 remained 300% higher than in 2022. This suggests that pro-Palestine activism continues to be a significant issue on US campuses, despite efforts by universities to restrict protests.

Palestine Legal, a civil rights group, reports that requests for legal aid related to pro-Palestinian activism in the US remain significantly higher than pre-2023 levels. While lower than the peak in 2024, the group logged 1,131 requests in 2025, a 300% increase compared to years before the Israel-Gaza war. The increase is attributed to continued university restrictions on student activism and a crackdown on dissent following Donald Trump's return to the presidency in January 2025. Most requests in 2025 involved student suspensions and campus bans related to Palestine advocacy, with universities facing pressure from the federal government. Palestine Legal is representing students facing disciplinary action for protesting, highlighting concerns that policies targeting pro-Palestine activism could be used against other protest movements.