By Don Sweeting | DonSweeting.com
Fierce campus debates swirl around the Israel-Hamas war. One of them is a debate about the extent of free speech. Should there be restrictions on those protesting Israel’s military actions or its right to exist? Protesters’ voices vary, with some being pro-Palestinian and others pro-Hamas. Some are calling for a cease-fire, while others call for the end to the Jewish state. Freedom of speech is a precious right guaranteed in our Constitution’s First Amendment. The right to discuss, debate, inquire and even protest on a university campus should be cherished and protected. But are there limits?
When Columbia University President Minouche Shafik started clamping down on pro-Palestinian protesters, students, faculty and a university oversight panel criticized her, claiming that any restriction on protesters is a violation of free speech. About 30 faculty members from Harvard Law School criticized the administration there for “discriminatory enforcement of rules and viewpoint discrimination.” What are we to make of this? Who is right? I take a particular interest because of my role as a university chancellor.
When the three university presidents testified before Congress on Dec. 5, they defended their unwillingness to condemn calls for genocide on the basis of free speech. The problem is, these schools routinely limit free speech in their disciplinary policies when it comes to race or gender and sometimes conservative or traditional viewpoints. This double standard revealed that there is significant antisemitism at these elite universities. When Columbia’s president testified before Congress more recently and was asked if calls for genocide against Jews would violate campus policies, she responded differently, with a definitive “yes.”