As a follow-up to the August 6 post about Cambridge University Press and their libel lawsuit, it turns out that libel does not equal a death sentence for books in question.
Yale University Press (YUP) faced a lawsuit from a charity organization that raises money for Palestinian children and families, KinderUSA. The group alleged that Matthew Levitt, author of Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, insinuates that KinderUSA “funds terrorist or illegal organizations” in the book about the militant ruling party of Palestine.
Unfortunately for KinderUSA, Yale came out swinging, countering with an “anti-SLAPP suit” motion, which is a defense mechanism in some states to protect nonprofit organizations and publications from being silenced by groups with more financial resources. The university press stated that the charity organization had been the subject of federal investigations, which had already been heavily publicized, and that editors at YUP had not found any incorrect information within the work. According to the lawyer for the losing side, “Yale came at us hard.”
There are some distinct differences between the CUP and YUP suits, which are pointed out in the full news story from Insider Higher Ed.
