WASHINGTON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. Education

Department on Thursday noted concerns about discrimination

against Muslim, Arab and Palestinian students at Emory

University in Atlanta, Georgia and reached a settlement with the

institution to resolve the issue.

The university agreed to revise its nondiscrimination

policies and procedures, including pertaining to protests and a

definition of harassment that includes harassment based on

actual or perceived shared ancestry. The university also agreed

to develop training and surveys while assessing its response to

campus protests that erupted last year against U.S. support for

Israel's war in Gaza, the Education Department said.

The university said no wrongdoing was found on its part,

adding it voluntarily signed a resolution agreement to improve

policies addressing discrimination.

Rights advocates have noted rising anti-Palestinian,

Islamophobic and antisemitic incidents since Israel launched its

assault on Gaza after Islamist group Hamas' deadly Oct. 7, 2023,

attack.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars racial

discrimination in U.S. education programs that receive federal

funding.

U.S. universities saw months of protests in which

demonstrators demanded an end to U.S. support for Israel and to

college investments in companies that allegedly supported

Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

In April last year, law enforcement at the behest of

university administrators deployed Tasers and tear gas against

student protesters at Emory University, activists said at the

time.

The Education Department said it "is concerned that the

gratuitous violence of the law enforcement activity reflected in

widely publicized videos from the arrests during the April 2024

protests may have created a hostile environment within the

campus community for Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim university

members."

U.S. government agencies have reached similar settlements

with other institutions and firms since the Gaza war began,

including with universities like Johns Hopkins University and

the University of California.

On Thursday, the Justice Department reached a deal with

DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Orlando at SeaWorld in Florida to

resolve allegations of discriminatory policy against hosting

Arabs.