Helyeh Doutaghi, a scholar in international law, began a new job in 2023 as the deputy director of a project at Yale Law School.
As an activist who had championed pro-Palestinian causes in both published papers and public appearances, Dr. Doutaghi seemed to fit into the left-leaning mission of the Law and Political Economy Project, which promoted itself as working for “economic, racial and gender equality.”
Last week, though, she was abruptly barred from Yale’s campus in New Haven, Conn., and placed on administrative leave. She was told not to advertise her affiliation with the university, where she had also served as an associate research scholar.
Yale officials cited the reason as allegations that she was tied to entities subject to U.S. sanctions. It was an apparent reference to Samidoun, a pro-Palestinian group placed on the U.S. sanctions list last year, after the Treasury Department designated it a “sham charity” raising money for a terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
The decision came three days after a news site, powered at least in part by artificial intelligence, published a story about Dr. Doutaghi’s connections to the group.
The news site called her a member of a terrorist group, citing postings referring to appearances she made on panels at Samidoun-sponsored events, but a lawyer for Dr. Doutaghi said she is not a member of Samidoun, a global organization that sponsors meetings and protests supporting Palestinian causes.
In an interview, Dr. Doutaghi, 30, called herself a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights. “I am a scholar,” she said, adding, “I am not a member of any organization that would constitute a violation of U.S. law.”
The swift action against Dr. Doutaghi illustrates the tightrope American universities are walking as the Trump administration takes aim at higher education. Yale’s peer institution, Columbia, lost $400 million in federal funding last week after being named on a list of schools accused of tolerating antisemitism. On Monday, the Trump administration announced that Yale was among 60 schools that could face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.
In a statement Tuesday, Yale Law School described the allegations against Dr. Doutaghi as reflecting “potential unlawful conduct.”
“We take these allegations extremely seriously and immediately opened an investigation into the matter to ascertain the facts,” said the statement, issued by Alden Ferro, a spokesman for Yale Law. “Such an action is never initiated based on a person’s protected speech.”
Dr. Doutaghi said the actions against her are part of an attempt to silence scholars. “This is the type of thing that happens under fascist dictatorships, which Donald Trump is trying to establish,” she said in the interview.
The article about Dr. Doutaghi was published on March 2 on Jewish Onliner. On its website and on Substack, Jewish Onliner says it is “empowered by A.I. capabilities.” It does not identify any reporters on its site.
An effort to reach Jewish Onliner for comment elicited a response from “JO,” which identified itself as an A.I. assistant developed by Jewish Onliner. Later, emails from the site said that, while it uses A.I. to enhance research, fact-checking and rapid content creation, the final edits are done by humans.
The identities of the news site’s staff were kept private out of concern for “professional repercussions, doxxing, etc.,” the site said.
In January, the Israeli publication Haaretz questioned the reliability of such A.I.-powered platforms that it said worked to promote Israel’s cause online.
Eric Lee, the lawyer representing Dr. Doutaghi, also questioned the reliability of Jewish Onliner’s reporting in correspondence with Yale.
In his letter last week letter placing Dr. Doutaghi on administrative leave, Joseph M. Crosby, Yale’s senior associate dean, raised concerns about her activities. “As you are aware, the university is reviewing serious allegations regarding your activities with various entities that are subject to U.S. sanctions,” said the letter, dated May 5, which was reviewed by The New York Times.
Samidoun, based in Vancouver and London, says that its primary mission is to support Palestinian prisoners and to amplify the voices of Palestinian advocates of justice and human rights.
The impact of U.S. and European Union sanctions on Iran was the topic of Dr. Doutaghi’s dissertation for the Ph.D. she obtained from Carleton University in Ottawa, which was officially awarded after she joined the Yale project.
Amy Kapczynski, a Yale Law professor who co-founded the project, which is funded by outside grants, envisioned the project as an effort to understand the structures that led to the election of Mr. Trump and a counter to neoliberal thought in America, according to posts on its website. Ms. Kapczynski did not respond to a message seeking comment.
Dr. Doutaghi joined in October 2023, about a week before the Hamas attack on Israel. An Iranian and a Muslim, she said Yale knew about her views when they hired her.
“In fact, at the time I believed that this quality would be an asset for the project I was hired to help lead,” she said.
The Law and Political Economy Project appeared to embrace Dr. Doutaghi’s views, featuring her last year in a virtual event titled, “A Political Economy of Genocide and Imperialism.” The page describing the discussion has been scrubbed from the project website, but it referred to the “genocide in Palestine,” a characterization that some pro-Israel groups have called antisemitic.
Within 24 hours of the Jewish Onliner article’s publication, Dr. Doutaghi said, she began to receive harassing and threatening messages online. She was also asked to meet with Yale officials to explain her position. She decided to retain a lawyer, Mr. Lee, who is based in Southfield, Mich., and asked for additional time to prepare for the meeting with Yale because she was fasting for Ramadan and dealing with harassment.
But three days after the Jewish Onliner published its article, Dr. Doutaghi was barred from campus and placed on administrative leave by Mr. Crosby, who told her the move was necessary because “we have not received any responses or factual explanations from you.”
Mr. Lee said he hoped Dr. Doutaghi’s job and access to emails and campus would be restored, and he is asking the school to take “public action to restore her reputation.”
