An Israeli researcher alleged discrimination at California’s Stanford University in a lawsuit filed on Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal California court, said a lab at Stanford had falsely accused Dr. Shay Laps of sexual harassment, tampered with his research, and forced him out of his position, due to his Israeli and Jewish identity.
The university said the charges had been investigated and were unfounded.
Laps enrolled at Stanford as a post-doctoral student in the spring of 2024 to work on a diabetes treatment. When he arrived, a lab staffer connected to anti-Israel campus activists told Laps not to speak with her in person, refused him a seat with other colleagues at lunch, and told friends to ostracize him in common areas. Laps was the only Israeli in the lab and the staffer treated her other colleagues respectfully. When another researcher asked Laps where he was from, and Laps said he was from Israel, the other researcher turned his back and never spoke to him again, the lawsuit said.
Part of the staffer’s role was to order research materials for Laps, but she was hostile or noncooperative, hampering Laps’s work. The staffer later tampered with Laps’s research results by introducing insulin to compounds he was testing for diabetes treatments, and later asked him to destroy the irregular samples, potentially setting him up for allegations of fraud, the lawsuit alleged.
The leader of the lab later said the issues with the staffer were minor errors, although the alleged tampering was not investigated, the lawsuit said.
Laps approached his lab leader about the problems, who told Laps he was under investigation for sexual harassment by the university’s Title IX office, that his research appointment could be ended, warned he could lose his visa, and encouraged him to “resign quietly.” Laps contacted the Title IX office, which told him there was no investigation and that he was in good standing.
The lawsuit said that members of the lab knew Laps was Jewish and Israeli, that all other members were not subjected to hostile treatment, and that the staffer giving him problems was part of an anti-Israel activist social circle. The issues also took place within a broader campus context of anti-Israel activism and antisemitism. The lawsuit did not include instances of antisemitic or anti-Israel rhetoric directed at Laps, though.
Laps made formal complaints, saying he was being discriminated against. The university probe said that Laps was not “discriminated against because he was Jewish or Israeli,” although the lawsuit said the investigation was thin.
Laps was eventually removed from the lab, had a research grant revoked, and was forced to leave the country due to visa issues, causing severe damage to his career and reputation, the lawsuit said.
Stanford denied discrimination in a Thursday statement to The Times of Israel.
“Stanford takes any allegation of antisemitism very seriously. In this instance and based on all the allegations that Dr. Laps reported directly to the institution, a thorough internal investigation found that they were unsubstantiated,” a university spokesperson said.
Laps was highly credentialed, with top recommendations, before attending Stanford. In Israel, Laps received an academic fellowship from the IDF that allowed him to defer his military service to study chemistry, then did national service in place of military service, teaching disadvantaged high school students. He has a PhD from Technion, one of Israel’s premier universities, and has received several awards for his academic achievements.
The lawsuit argued that the hostility toward Laps was part of a broader trend of antisemitism and discrimination against Israelis on the campus. A May 2024 internal report found that such discrimination was widespread and charged the university with a “failure to respond to the rising wave of antisemitism.” The lawsuit said Laps was in contact with other Israelis on campus who reported similar treatment.
The lawsuit seeks damages, including unpaid wages, a declaration that the lab defamed Laps, and an injunction preventing Stanford from discriminating against Jews or Israelis, among other measures.
Laps was backed by The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit that uses legal means to advance Jewish civil rights. The center and other Jewish groups have regularly filed lawsuits against universities and other entities for alleged discrimination.
Some of the lawsuits are settled quietly, others are dismissed, and some result in public commitments from universities. On Monday, Barnard College in New York City, an affiliate of Columbia University, announced measures to combat antisemitism while settling a lawsuit filed by Jewish students.
Anti-Israel activism has been widespread on US campuses before and since the October 2023 invasion of Israel, but the science fields are seen as less prone to turmoil than social sciences, like ethnic studies.