Yale Law School terminated the employment of a scholar over her refusal to cooperate with an investigation into her alleged ties to a terrorist entity, according to a university statement.
Associate research scholar Helyeh Doutaghi had been suspended in early March after the AI news website Jewish Onliner exposed her connections to the Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, which was sanctioned by the US Treasury in October as a “sham charity” fundraising for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The school said it does not take administrative action based on press reports, nor does it infringe upon protected speech, but Yale’s own review of the material, including a Samidoun text identifying Doutaghi as a member, drove it to the conclusion that further investigation was warranted.
As part of university protocol, Doutaghi was placed on administrative leave.
Yale said that for three weeks it had requested to meet with Doutaghi and her attorney to obtain clarity on the matter, but she allegedly refused to answer “critical questions.”
Doutaghi’s employment with Yale was set to expire in April but was terminated immediately instead.
In a March 12 statement, Doutaghi dismissed the claims against her as fabricated, AI-generated allegations. She accused Yale of accepting the allegations at face value without first investigating the source.
The actions against her were part of a crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus speech in the US.
Doutaghi's allegation
Doutaghi alleged that she was not afforded due process or reasonable time to consult with her attorney before being placed on leave, having her electronic access revoked, and being restricted from accessing the campus.
The Iranian woman lambasted the interview process. She said the lawyer who was retained to investigate her offers services related to Israel and aerospace and defense companies.
Doutaghi charged that this, alongside this specific lawyer, David Ring, having been previously appointed as a US State Department special compliance officer, indicated that “his career was deeply embedded in the very industries that sustain genocide and war crimes in Palestine.”
Doutaghi said Yale Law School (YLS) had dismissed her concerns about retaining such a counsel when she was public about her pro-Palestinian positions. She alleged that the attorney had refused to answer questions about procedural protections and denied religious accommodation for her Ramadan fast.
THE IRANIAN scholar also said she had suffered online harassment, death threats, and abuse due to the AI news site’s article.
“YLS’s singular concern was to maintain the approval of the Zionist backers who bankroll their complicity in genocide. [This] led the organization to pressure me into an interrogation that I had every reason to believe was designed not to uncover the truth, but to justify a predetermined outcome,” said Doutaghi.
“What is clear is that YLS actions constitute a blatant act of retaliation against Palestinian solidarity – a violation of my constitutional rights, free speech, academic freedom, and fundamental due process rights.
“I am being targeted for one reason alone: For speaking the truth about the genocide of the Palestinian people that Yale University is complicit in.”
While Doutaghi asserted that the claims against her were AI-generated, a 2022 Samidoun article described her as a “member of the international Samidoun network.”
According to Samidoun’s website, Doutaghi had given a speech prior to the Samidoun screening of Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight in a Tehran art gallery. Abdallah, a PFLP-affiliated Lebanese terrorist, was imprisoned in France for terrorist attacks.
The film featured interviews with Samidoun Europe’s coordinator and alleged PFLP operative Mohammed Khatib, PFLP leader and Masar Badil Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement founder Khaled Barakat, and Barakat’s wife and Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates.
Samidoun said that, in that same year, Doutaghi served as a webinar moderator for the International People’s Tribunal on US Imperialism. The tribunal was co-sponsored by PFLP-affiliated groups, including Samidoun, Masar Badil, and Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition – to which Kates was at once listed as a national board member.
Kates was also listed as a steering committee member for the tribunal in a 2023 Samidoun article.
Doutaghi joined Kates and others on a 2023 “fact-finding mission” about US sanctions on different states.
In October, Doutaghi organized and was featured on a panel alongside Barakat, who was sanctioned late that month alongside Samidoun for his affiliation with the group and the PFLP. The event was sponsored by Samidoun and Masar Badil.
Samidoun was sanctioned by the US and listed by Canada as a terrorist entity in a joint October 2024 action. The organization was banned in Germany in November of that year.
“Organizations like the Samidoun masquerade as charitable actors that claim to provide humanitarian support to those in need, yet in reality, they divert funds for much-needed assistance to support terrorist groups,” Bradley Smith, the acting under secretary for the US Treasury Department’s Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, said in a statement at the time.
“The United States, together with Canada and our like-minded partners, will continue to disrupt those who seek to finance the PFLP, Hamas, and other terrorist organizations.”
PFLP, the group allegedly behind Samidoun, has participated in the hostilities of the October 7 massacre and, since 1997, has been designated by the US State Department as a foreign terrorist organization.