“There is a concerted movement to criminalize activism for Palestinian rights, and in that context hate crime charges are often a way of intensifying and escalating punishment,” said Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford University who has extensively studied hate crimes.

“[Hate crime laws] allowed politicians to simultaneously appear tough on crime and pro-civil rights,” said Sinnar.

“It’s not like the systemic biases within the police or prosecutors’ offices go away when it comes to hate crimes,” said Sinnar. The laws can also easily be appropriated by conservatives: In response to the Black Lives Matter movement, six states have passed laws that include “police officer” as a “protected class” in their hate crime statutes. (Two pro-Palestine protesters in Louisiana were arrested last year on “hate crime against law enforcement” charges.)