Following The Jerusalem Post’s report on Students United for Palestinian Equality & Return University of Washington (SUPER UW)’s call for supporters to materially support “the Lebanese resistance,” Civil Rights Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon announced on Tuesday that she had ordered an investigation into the university’s handling of antisemitism.
Dhillon said on X/Twitter that SUPER UW was holding a fundraiser for the “Lebanese resistance,” and that the group “has a history of violent antisemitic activity on [the] University of Washington’s campus.”
SUPER UW said on Tuesday that there had been a coordinated attack by the media and the federal government against it and that Nidal Seattle had framed its film screening and its Palestinian Cultural Resistance Festival as a fundraiser for the “Lebanese resistance.”
“This is obviously untrue. The money we are raising is to support the steadfastness of the people of Lebanon who refuse to leave their homes amidst violence,” SUPER UW said on Instagram. “These attacks are a continuation of Zionist attempts to criminalize humanitarian and cultural work for Palestine.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) argued on social media on Tuesday that the Department of Justice was operating past its lawful bounds, with the group, though suspended from campus, nevertheless operating off campus.
“The federal government is not empowered to demand universities serve as roving monitors of private off-campus expression, and it recognized as much in its 2020 Title IX regulations,” said FIRE. “The Supreme Court likewise made clear that institutional responsibility relies on control over the actors and the setting.”
A 'crucial time to deeping our understanding of the Lebanese resistance'
SUPER UW urged supporters to join its April 21 “Fundraiser for Lebanon” because it was a “crucial time to raise funds to materially support as well as deepen our understanding of the Lebanese resistance.”
Held at the Cherry Street Village interfaith community center, the fundraiser screened The Last Sky documentary, which, according to its website, “broaches a topic generally considered too controversial for public discussion in the West – the ‘armed resistance’ against Israel – and examines why it is so popular amongst large segments of Palestinian and Lebanese society.”
SUPER UW posted on Instagram, “This movie is about the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and the Lebanese resistance to Zionism, with content from the past few years.”
During the event, a Nidal Seattle activist said, “I grew up in Palestine hearing about Lebanon, and how they’re fighting against the Israelis, and after the [Al-Aqsa] Flood [October 7 massacre] I saw that [with] my own eyes.”
“I saw how these people [are] sharing the battles with us, as a Palestinian,” the activist continued, according to a Nidal Instagram story.
The group is also holding a merchandise and bake sale to “fundraise for mutual aid in Lebanon” with the goal of raising $1,500.
The fundraiser follows SUPER UW and other Seattle pro-Palestinian groups’ commitments to support what appear to be legitimate charities in Lebanon. The charities are reportedly aimed at supporting those displaced by the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
On March 9, SUPER UW promised to match up to $1,500 in donations to the Al Naqab Center fund, Solidarity Network Lebanon, and the Ainata Municipality.
At another event in which SUPER UW is involved at the same community center, the keynote speaker scheduled for a Seattle Palestinian cultural festival is Raed Abduljalil, an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades terrorist, released as part of a ransom for hostages held in Gaza, according to event promotional images.
Abduljalil is set to call from Egypt to give a speech to participants in the April 25 Palestinian Cultural Resistance Festival organized by Seattle University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Nidal Seattle, and SUPER UW.
According to Quds News and Wattan, the Fatah-affiliated terrorist was released last February after serving 23 years of a life sentence in prison, responsible for participation in terrorist attacks that resulted in deaths and injuries.
In an Instagram post on Tuesday, SUPER UW said that the Post’s report characterized the platforming of Abduljalil as “hosting a terrorist,” which was “racist and untrue.”
In May 2025, the Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism announced another review of alleged antisemitic activity at UW, which, according to the university, included a review of grants.
The announcement followed a several-hour occupation of the UW interdisciplinary engineering building – organized by SUPER UW in protest of ties with Boeing and against the defense company’s business with Israel. Around 30 people blocked entrances and ignited fires in two dumpsters on the streets outside. Eventually, UW police and other law enforcement units cleared the protesters from the premises.
Twenty-one students were arrested, suspended, and banned from all UW campuses, and non-students were banned from the UW Seattle campus. However, in January, 20 students had their suspensions ended, according to the UW Nightly and SUPER UW.
SUPER UW is affiliated with a network of organizations tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States.