New Lawsuit Alleges ‘Insidious, Malicious Discrimination’ at Stanford Against Israeli Researcher

Israeli chemist Shay Laps is suing Stanford University for forcing him out of his lab job  after he was targeted by workers in a campaign of anti-Semitic harassment that even included his supervisor fabricating sexual harassment charges against him.

The federal lawsuit, filed last week by the spunky Brandeis Center, says he endured  “discrimination and insidious, malicious conduct intended to permanently tarnish his reputation and career” at Stanford University, including “tampering with his lab results and manufacturing a bogus complaint against him, merely for being Israeli.”

“Our client, Dr. Laps, is an exceptional young scientist who came to Stanford hoping to create a type of insulin that could revolutionize diabetes treatment worldwide. His commitment to excellence, innovation, and humanity should have been a perfect fit” said Talia Nissimyan of the Los Angeles law firm Cohen Williams LLP, who is also representing Laps. “But when Dr. Laps suffered discrimination and retaliation at Stanford based on his religion, national origin, and ethnicity, the university preferred not to look. Instead, they attempted to bury Dr. Laps’ career, and when that didn’t work, to bully him into rescinding his complaints. Instead of upholding the values upon which it was founded, Stanford succumbed to the rising tide of campus anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias, costing Dr. Laps critical years of his career, and costing the world the potential fruits of his talents. No form of bigotry is lawful or acceptable, and what happened to Dr. Laps demonstrates why: because we all suffer. We intend to hold Stanford to its highest promise, and bring this action in the hopes that our client can finally secure the accountability he deserves.”

Brandeis Center lawyer Rachel Lerman told the California Globe that the mistreatment of Laps is part of a trend on how Israeli students are now abused on college campuses.

“We are used to seeing anti-Semtiism on campuses but we are seeing a trend of Israeli students at all levels  being subjected to bias and discrimination in egregious ways. It is important to understand the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects discrimination based on national origin. You can’t do that. It is a whole separate category that people are aware of . In addition to  his being Jewish and being protected on those grounds.”

The lawsuit says that  “Dr. Shay Laps, an accomplished chemist, came to Stanford in the spring of 2024 for a postdoctoral appointment to develop “smart,” bodily-responsive insulin that could revolutionize diabetes treatment worldwide. The goal was ambitious, but a perfect fit for Dr. Danny Chou’s Stanford lab. And Dr. Laps was well positioned, having risen through the ranks of prestigious institutions and garnered the support of elite chemists, including a Nobel laureate, who regarded him as a brilliant and promising young scientist.”

But he was almost instantly targeted by colleagues who knew he was Israeli on a campus that was roiled with anti-Semitic protests. “From the moment he stepped foot in the lab, he was surrounded by hostility,” the lawsuit says.

“In his first interaction with a lab staffer, Terra Lin, she introduced herself by telling Dr. Laps to never speak to her. When Dr. Laps tried to sit with colleagues at lunch, she told him to sit elsewhere. When Dr. Laps needed Ms. Lin to order materials, she delayed or snapped at him. Ms. Lin redirected her trash duties to Dr. Laps, and had her friends freeze him out in the limited lab common areas. Dr. Laps noticed that Ms. Lin’s social circle overlapped with activists, including one who sought out Dr. Laps to introduce herself as Palestinian before shunning him and never speaking to him again. He also noticed that he seemed to be the only Israeli in the building, and that Ms. Lin treated every other colleague kindly. In such a small environment, the difference, and the treatment, were impossible to miss.”

The lawsuit said Lin, who is from Saudi Arabia,  targeted Laps and “was hostile to him from the moment of his arrival because she, like the campus demonstrators who incessantly vilified Israel and Israelis, took issue with his Jewish faith, history, and heritage as well as his Israeli national origin.”

Laps tried to ignore the hostility. But Lin soon escalated things with a torrent of abuse and chicanery.  “At first, Dr. Laps kept his head down. He knew that Jews and Israelis were being driven off American campuses. But Ms. Lin escalated her behavior. She tampered with Dr. Laps’ research, secretly producing results that seemed promising but were, in fact, fraudulent—unbeknownst to Dr. Laps. Before he had a chance to discover it, Ms. Lin advised Dr. Laps to buck scientific standards and trash the proof. “

On July 31, 2024, Laps complained to lab director Danny Chou about Lin but he took “no steps” to address the situation, the lawsuit says.

Then, on August 26, Chou summoned Laps to his office and told him he was under investigation by Stanford’s Title IX office  because an undergraduate had charged him with sexual harassment.

Chou told Laps he needed to quit and leave the country because of the supposed  complaint.

“Dr. Chou was well aware that a complaint—including and perhaps especially a false complaint— of sexual harassment could ruin an academic’s career. On information and belief, the main purpose of the meeting was not actually to notify Dr. Laps of an investigation, but rather to attempt to hastily push Dr. Laps off campus and prevent further inquiry into wrongdoing at the Chou Lab.”

But the Title IX office later told Laps that nobody had filed a sexual harassment complaint against him. They had just received an email claiming he was violating Stanford rules.

The office refused to say who had sent the email. But Laps suspected it was Chou  “given that Dr. Chou came to Dr. Laps with this ‘report,’ from which he purported to read before encouraging Dr. Laps to flee the country, Dr. Chou was apparently involved with the scheme. The Title IX office saw it for what it was: baseless, and closed the matter. “

Laps responded by filing a discrimination complaint with Stanford about his treatment by Chou and others at his lab.  Chou quickly retaliated.

“Dr. Chou responded by immediately deactivating Dr. Laps’ badge access and locking Dr. Laps out of the Chou Lab. Dr. Laps’ postdoc seemed effectively over.”

He was eventually allowed back into the lab. But Stanford reneged on its promise to support his research for three years and dragged its heels on his complaint.
“Flouting the law, Stanford refused to investigate Dr. Laps’ retaliation claim for months, holding the claim hostage while using the grant as leverage to bully Dr. Laps to rescind his complaints so that Stanford would not have to investigate. Stanford made it clear that it would not protect Dr. Laps.”

He was backed into a corner. “Alone against a hostile institution prepared to destroy his career to avoid scrutiny, Dr. Laps had no choice but to resign,” the lawsuit says.

Stanford later  ruled that no discrimination had occurred. But the lawsuit calls that conclusion “predetermined.”

Brandeis Center lawyer Rachel Lerman elaborated that, “We don’t think the investigation was done properly. If they can’t find anti-Semitism or national origin discrimination here I am hard put to see where they would find it.”

Stanford said in a statement about the lawsuit that, “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.”