Law student Ryna Workman was offered to join the international law firm Winston & Strawn after completing her legal degree at New York University, but after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Workman wrote a pro-Palestinian statement in an email as part of her role as president of the Student Bar Association, stating that “Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life."
When the email was shared by other students, the firm withdrew the job offer, saying that her beliefs “profoundly conflict with [the firm’s] values."
Meanwhile, another law firm, Davis Polk & Wardwell, stated it would revoke three offers to students at Harvard and Columbia because of their pro-Palestine views as well. Other business people, including Bill Ackman, founder of Pershing Square, and the heads of companies, including food chain Sweetgreen and DoveHill Capital Management, threatened to do the same.
Law firms such as Sullivan & Cromwell claimed they do not tolerate bias, hate speech, or discriminatory remarks by employees as they amp up internal background checks and as they look into applicants’ social media posts and affiliations to student societies.
Read next: Harvard deprives 13 students of graduating over Pro-Palestine protests
This comes amid a recent estimate by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which states that this is the largest drop in a decade in hiring new graduates this year – down 5.8% over the last year alone.
This also speaks volumes regarding employers’ rights to examine the beliefs of candidates seeking a job.
According to a survey of 1,268 US business leaders conducted by the higher education publication Intelligent.com, 64% of employers have expressed increased concern about hiring graduates over the past five years.
Nearly a third of employers are particularly concerned about hiring recent graduates who have attended pro-Palestinian protests in the past six months, and 22% are reluctant to hire graduates who have participated in these demonstrations.
About 21% of business leaders surveyed expressed eagerness to hire graduates who have attended protests because they appreciate their outspokenness, strong values, dedication to a cause, and political beliefs that resonate with their own. Meanwhile, 57% of leaders remained neutral on the topic.
On the other hand, over in Europe, nine European nationals are to be deported from Greece for partaking in pro-Palestine protests on the campus of the University of Athens School of Law last month.
The students hail from Germany, Britain, France, Italy, and Spain, and they were among 28 people detained on charges of disrupting the operation of a public entity and assistance in damaging foreign property, as reported in court documents.
Evidence against them includes leaflets, Palestinian flags, smoke flares, gas masks, helmets, paint cans, and banner poles, alongside a statement on a website in Greek and English calling on others to join the protest.
The Greek nationals who took part in the protests were released pending trial last week, but the nine foreigners – one man and eight women, aged 22 to 33 – are still in custody pending an administrative decision on their deportation.
Their lawyers released a statement noting that deportation orders had been issued, preventing the defendants from attending their own trial.
Lawyers Ioanna Sioupouli and Anny Paparoussou argued that their clients, who live and work in Greece, plan to appeal, while lawyer Vassilis Papadopoulos, representing a 33-year-old Spaniard, called the decision "arbitrary and illegal."