Antisemitism and Free Speech on Campus

Eugene Volokh
Volokh Conspiracy, Reason Magazine

Excerpt: Newsweek (Matthew Impelli) reported today on this incident, which involved "a graduate student" instructor "at UC Berkeley's Department of Ethnic Studies." (The story may have been first broken by Israelly Cool [David Lange].) Fortunately, UC Berkeley promptly rejected this; when I e-mailed the media relations office, I was informed that:

“As soon as the administration was made aware of the assignment it moved quickly to ensure that it would be changed. The situation has been remedied, the assignment has been changed and there are now a number of options for extra credit, not just one.”

Foundation for Individual Rights in Expression

Excerpt: The government cannot force public colleges to derecognize Students for Justice in Palestine chapters. That's just what State University System of Florida Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, reportedly at the direction of Gov. Ron DeSantis, is trying to do.

There’s no indication from the chancellor’s letter that any action from Florida’s Students for Justice in Palestine groups went beyond expression fully protected by the First Amendment. This directive is a dangerous — and unconstitutional — threat to free speech. If it goes unchallenged, no one’s political beliefs will be safe from government suppression.

Heather Perlberg, Janet Lorin and Bloomberg
Fortune

Excerpt: First it was Apollo Global Management’s Marc Rowan blasting the University of Pennsylvania, then Dick Wolf of Law & Order followed by former US diplomat and businessman Jon Huntsman and billionaire Ronald Lauder.

Now it’s David Magerman, who helped build the trading systems of Renaissance Technologies. He castigated Penn’s “misguided moral compass” in a letter to President Elizabeth Magill and board chair Scott Bok, citing the school’s hosting of the Palestine Writes Literature Festival last month and its response to the Hamas attack on Israel in October.

Yascha Mounk
Persuasion

Excerpt: On October 7th, the world witnessed the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Many people, of all faiths and convictions, have recognized the enormity of these crimes. Numerous world leaders denounced the terrorist attacks in clear language. Private citizens shared their grief on social media. Millions mourned. But despite the outpouring of support, there has also been a large contingent of people and organizations who stayed uncharacteristically silent—or went so far as to celebrate the carnage.

Some of the most famous universities in the world—including Princeton, Yale and Stanford—only released statements after they came under intense pressure on social media.

Editorial Board
Wall Street Journal

Excerpt: In the face of Hamas’s atrocities, some U.S. college administrators at first said little or issued equivocating mush, such as what Dartmouth College put out Tuesday in its “Statement on the Israel-Gaza War.” A notable exception: University of Florida President Ben Sasse.

Here’s what Mr. Sasse wrote Tuesday in an email addressed to “Jewish Gator Alums,” which deserves to be quoted at length:

“I will not tiptoe around this simple fact: What Hamas did is evil and there is no defense for terrorism. This shouldn’t be hard. Sadly, too many people in elite academia have been so weakened by their moral confusion that, when they see videos of raped women, hear of a beheaded baby, or learn of a grandmother murdered in her home, the first reaction of some is to ‘provide context’ and try to blame the raped women, beheaded baby, or the murdered grandmother. In other grotesque cases, they express simple support for the terrorists.

“This thinking isn’t just wrong, it’s sickening. It’s dehumanizing. It is beneath people called to educate our next generation of Americans. I am thankful to say I haven’t seen examples of that here at UF, either from our faculty or our student body. . . .

“In the coming days, it is possible that anti-Israel protests will come to UF’s campus. I have told our police chief and administration that this university always has two foundational commitments: We will protect our students and we will protect speech. This is always true: Our Constitution protects the rights of people to make abject idiots of themselves. . . .

“When evil raises its head, as it has in recent days, it is up to men and women of conscience and courage to draw strength from truth and commit ourselves to the work of building something better—to the work of pursuing justice and pursuing peace. That is what we aim to do through education, compassion, and truth here at the University of Florida.”

Maggie Hicks
Chronicle of Higher Education

Excerpt: On Tuesday afternoon a bright-red graphic popped up on a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill student group’s Instagram page. The post, by the campus’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, advertised a “Day of Resistance” protest on Thursday. Behind bold, capital lettering, a group of cartoon protesters held up peace signs and posters. A silhouette of a paraglider flew above.

Similar images appeared on several other organizations’ pages throughout the day next to statements reflecting the same sentiment — that deadly attacks by the Hamas militant group in Israel over the weekend had been justified and a direct result of the Israeli government’s oppression of people in occupied Palestinian territory. Those statements have been met with fierce criticism on social media calling on colleges to denounce the groups.