An Illinois woman filed a lawsuit this week alleging she receiving “thousands” of threatening calls for expressing support for Palestinian people, according to the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
At a press conference Thursday, Kinza Khan, a lawyer and pro-Palestinian advocate, said she faced targeted online harassment in November after she and some friends were filmed in the Lake View neighborhood near where a man she didn’t know was taking down posters of Israeli hostages that read “Kidnapped by Hamas.” She said she was not taking down posters herself, but the man filming, who was identified in the lawsuit as Wayne Levinson, only focused on her and her friends.
According to the complaint, Levinson taunted them as they hid inside a nearby Mariano’s grocery store for two hours, allegedly saying he would tell police they assaulted him. No charges came of the incident.
A friend of Levinson’s posted the video on Instagram. In the video, Khan and a friend stand near where the unknown man is taking posters off a light post. Levinson asks her what her name is, and upon learning it replies, “Kinza, I’m going to make sure you never have a job again.” Khan walks away, saying she’s calling the police.
The video, along with screenshots of her social media pages and contact information for her employer, led to “thousands” of phone calls, emails and texts sent to both her and her workplace, some including death threats and sexual harassment, Khan said. Edited pictures of her made to look like Adolf Hitler were also posted online, according to the more than 100 pages of social media screenshots filed in court Friday.
“As a consequence of the emotional distress which she experienced due to Defendants’ public harassment and doxing, Plaintiff has suffered substantial life disruptions and serious economic injury,” the complaint reads. Khan now seeks $75,000 in damages, in addition to other costs and fees, and a legal restraint on the alleged harassment.
“This was completely out of line,” Khan said at the press conference. “And has continued since for those who support Palestine.”
Levinson, a former Washington state resident, said he was “appalled” by the “baseless complaint,” saying he never posted the video. A friend posted it and credited him, he said.
He added that he had no connection to the suit’s other defendant, Canary Mission — a website that claims it “documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews” — and that he is exploring filing a countersuit. He also said he called police after Khan and her friend allegedly battered him, adding that Chicago police “ignored” his case.
“To prepare [for the case], I have made my account private, a step [Khan] could have taken to avoid her claimed damages,” Levinson said in a statement to the Sun-Times Friday. Khan “is using her legal expertise to promote personal viewpoints and continue her attack on the hostages she targeted by participating in tearing down their poster’s [sic].”
The video was also posted on Canary Mission’s site accompanied by 30 screenshots of Khan’s social media pages, including several of her sharing pro-Palestinian messages. In one post, she equates the relationship between Israel and Palestine to a domestic violence case.
In January, the Sun-Times reported that several students and recent college graduates had been struggling to find work or lost job offers because of their pro-Palestinian activism, in addition to being posted on Canary Mission and other pages. A University of Chicago student faced threats after being posted on the site.
Canary Mission didn’t respond to requests for comment.
CAIR executive director Ahmed Rehab said his clients and everyone at the organization stood against “anti-semitism and all other forms of bigotry,” and that the accusations were diminishing those who had actually faced anti-semitism.
“This is a dangerous game that’s being played,” Rehab said. “The definition of anti-semitism is being stretched in all the worst ways. … Not only does it hurt good people, but it hurts actual victims of anti-semitism.”
CAIR Chicago’s legal director Phillip Robertson said the new Civil Liability for Doxing Act, which went into effect in January, allows cases of alleged doxing to be handled without the help of law enforcement.
“We don’t have to wait for law enforcement or any social media platform, our clients can take care of it themselves,” Robertson said.
Robertson said the case was one of the dozens they’ve received in recent months, and among thousands they’ve received over the years. Until the new law passed, though, they didn’t have the legal “tools” to pursue them, and are now pursuing two other similar cases.
“We have two individuals who are indicative of many, many more,” Robertson said. “Keep these lawsuits coming.”
