A former DEI manager and Instagram model is suing the University of Minnesota for firing her over a photo that showed her posing near an Israeli flag emblazoned with swastikas.
In the filing this week, Mashal Sherzad accused the school of violating her First Amendment rights as well as discrimination, the Star Tribune reported.
She also asked to have her job reinstated and wants more than $75,000 in damages.
Sherzad is also known for posting saucy fashion photos online, including a glam photo shoot of her carrying a Palestinian flag during an anti-Israel protest.
She started working as a program manager for diversity, equity and inclusion at the university’s School of Public Health at the end of October.
She was terminated in January, when the university became away of photos on her Facebook page that showed her at a December protest against the Israel-Hamas war in Barcelona, Spain.
One of the pictures showed Sherzad in front of an Israeli flag with swastikas painted on it.
During a news conference on Friday, she insisted that the flag belonged to someone else.
“I cannot be responsible for somebody else’s intellectual property,” she said.
In the lawsuit, Sherzad also claimed that she posted the photos to her private Instagram, and that they were automatically shared on her public Facebook without her knowledge.
As of Saturday morning, the photos from the protest appeared to have been deleted from her profile.
In the letter of termination dated Jan. 10, School of Public Health Dean Melinda Pettigrew told Sherzad that “your conduct directly undermines your credibility in this role.”
“I find that continuing your employment would create a real risk of significant disruption to School and University activities,” the letter viewed by The Post read.
“This is particularly true given the current climate around the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, within the University community and around the globe, and the highly inflammatory nature of the image you posted.”
Sherzad’s discipline file also included a November post in which she referred to Israel’s retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip as genocide, the Star Tribune revealed.
On Friday, Sherzad’s supporters said they felt that she was being unfairly targeted for her pro-Palestinian stance.
“The facts of this case are completely unbelievable. It is a dark day for freedom of speech,” said Jaylani Hussein, the executive director for Minnesota’s chapter of the Council for American-Islamic Relations.
The University of Minnesota declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
Though the original flag photo is no longer available, Sherzad’s public profile has multiple recent posts regarding the ongoing war.
Earlier this week, she reposted a series of images including a graphic that read “Zionism = Nazism,” with the caption “all of this.”
