Social justice law professor defends anti-Israel protesters who blocked traffic to Chicago airport

A liberal law school professor who sparked controversy last spring during the campus unrest is helping organizers who staged a large anti-Israel protest near one of Chicago’s airports with free legal services.

Sheila Bedi, a Northwestern law professor who leads the school’s Community Justice and Civil Rights Clinic, is representing four of the protest organizers who were arrested during the mayhem, according to legal documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Bedi’s clinic is offering pro bono services to the activists who were part of the massive protest that caused traffic delays for travelers heading to Chicago O’Hare Airport last spring. The demonstration lasted for several hours before being broken up by police. 

According to the school’s website, her clinic aims to provide law students “with the opportunities to work within social-justice movements on legal and policy strategies aimed at redressing over-policing and mass imprisonment.” 

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Bedi also praised the Northwestern encampment, calling it “beautiful” and posting photos of it with her son, in a now deleted post on X.

A spokesperson for Northwestern told the Washington Free Beacon that Bedi’s legal work does not “necessarily reflect the views of the university or its law school.”

In videos and images posted on social media, protesters could be heard chanting “Free, free, Palestine,” while holding signs that read, “Your tax $ funds genocide.” 

Chicago Police previously told Fox News that 40 people were arrested. 

Ted Frank, the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute’s litigation director, slammed Northwestern over Bedi’s involvement in defending the activists. 

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“These are free legal services, or at least unpriced legal services,” Frank told the Free Beacon. “They’re paid for by the Northwestern budget, which in turn comes from tuition dollars, it comes from taxpayers, it comes from donations.”

“There’s an irony that these free lawyers, in a world where there’s so much legal need, devote scarce resources to defending people who want to destroy the very system of Western abundance in favor of barbarians.”

The group filed a class action lawsuit against what Frank called the “anti-American” organizers, arguing that they should have to pay civil damages to travelers who missed their flights or were forced to walk miles with their luggage to get to the airport. 

Palestine Legal “Justice Fellow” Rifqa Falaneh was also named in the lawsuit, claiming she was a top organizer of the protest.

Falaneh was also a frequent face at the illegal encampments on the school’s campus, the Free Beacon reported. 

Falaneh also reportedly has filed a number of civil rights complaints against the university on behalf of students who she says “have been the target of anti-Palestinian discrimination.”

The O’Hare protest was one of many that broke out across the nation as hundreds of anti-Israel agitators shut down traffic and disrupted cities while demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

In the wake of the campus unrest, several new bills in both houses of the Democratic-controlled state legislature aim to accomplish the goal by making it easier to sue colleges that don’t protect students from hate-based discrimination and attacks and requiring schools to hire an administrator to make sure they meet the requirements of federal civil rights law.

The move comes days after the Trump administration’s Department of Education announced an investigation into five prominent universities for allowing anti-Jewish hate to fester.

Fox News Digital reached out to Bedi, Palestine Legal and Northwestern University, but did not immediately receive a response. 

Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report. 

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. She covers topics including missing persons, homicides, national crime cases, illegal immigration, and more. Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected]