The Israeli Response

The Israeli Response

Students in campuses have a right to express their opinions, this is a primary role university campuses have in society

The Israeli Response

  • What is freedom of expression?
    • freedom to contribute money to political campaigns, to wear armbands or clothes to school to protest a war, and even to use certain offensive words, phrases and symbolic actions to convey political messages
    • especially important on University campuses to allow a diverse range of opinions to be heard
    • Does not include the incitement of violence
    • The US Supreme Court defines it as speech that “is directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.”
  • It is not freedom of expression that students are demanding when it comes to the topic of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
    • Students at Ivy league universities have engaged in conduct designed to harass, intimidate, and terrorize Jews
    • Pro-Palestinian groups have harassed and assaulted Jewish students at Tulane, UPenn and Cornell universities
    • Protesters have chanted and projected onto university buildings slogans like “from the river to the sea,” “globalize the intifada,” and “glory to our martyrs.” at UW-Madison
    • All three phrases are calling for either partial or full genocide of the Jewish people, which is by definition an incitement of violence
    • MIT, Harvard and UPenn presidents have acknowledged in the United States Congress that calling for the genocide of Jews does not violate their code of conduct and does not require taking any action
    • This is NOT a call for freedom of speech, this is inaction against outright calls for massacre
    • Students have often used speech in a manner that goes against school rules and undermines the proper functioning of the university
    • Students are not allowed to shut down events, disrupt classes, or otherwise interfere with university programs.
    • Protesters have interrupted courses and taken over buildings at Columbia University
    • Students have torn down posters of missing Israeli children at Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh Universities, which infringes upon the rights of the pro-Israel supporters to express their views
    • This is not considered a protest but rather a disruption, which empowers a “heckler’s veto” - merely another form of censorship
  • Even when speech is technically protected, some speech is simply morally reprehensible
    • Groups of students have marched through campus cheering for Hamas
    • This is no different than a group of students celebrating the Nazis’ persecution and elimination of homosexuals or the Rwandan Genocide committed by the Hutus
    • This is morally inconsistent since these are often the same students who become extremely upset by ‘microagressions’ towards the LGBTQ or black communities
    • Ivy League professors have called Hamas’s attack “exhilarating” and “awesome”
    • This is no different than the support of the murderous thugs of the Khmer Rouge allegedly given by the United States
    • Even though being excited from the mass execution of the Cambodians or killing of Jewish children in their beds is technically protected speech, these professors serve as role models for their students, for whom this is highly morally disorienting
    • Students have torn down posters of kidnapped Israeli children
    • it is impossible to support saving Palestinian lives on humanitarian grounds while remaining hostile towards kidnapped Israeli children posters
    • This is a cynical use of a ‘humanitarian cause’ for exercising hostility towards Jews
    • This is true even if the posters were on public property

From the media

How the monthly rate of antisemitic incidents changed after October seventh
How the monthly rate of antisemitic incidents changed after October seventh
Congress questions Harvard, MIT and UPenn Presidents on Campus Antisemitism

Resources

Conclusions

The safeguarding of freedom of speech is crucial for a healthy society, but this notion is often exploited to attempt to justify behavior that is either outright illegal or morally reprehensible. Part of protecting free speech is to punish students who violate the rules that make free speech possible for everyone else.

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