Former US president Barack Obama called on American universities to “stand up” against perceived threats to academic freedom posed by the Trump administration during a speech at Hamilton College last Thursday.
In his speech, he urged universities to ask themselves, “Are we, in fact, doing things right? Have we violated our own values, our own code? Have we violated the law in any way?”
He added, “We believe in freedom of speech, but do we stand up for it when someone says things that infuriate us, that are wrong or hurtful? Do we still believe in it?”
The former leader of the free world was not wrong. Academic limitations can only harm, and both sides of the coin are negative.
But while Obama seemed to be referencing the limitations pressed upon universities due to concerns over increased antisemitism and pro-Hamas sentiments on campus, his point reflects in the exact opposite direction.
He seemed to be suggesting that the students’ freedom of speech was being impeded upon, saying, “The idea of canceling a speaker who comes to your campus, trying to shout them down and not letting them speak, even if I find their ideas obnoxious, well, not only is that not what universities should be about; that’s not what America should be about.
“You let them speak, and then you tell them why they’re wrong. That’s how you win the argument.”
The problem here is that this happens practically every day when a speaker is Jewish, Israeli, or has simply expressed Zionist sentiments in the past.
As mentioned, Obama was right; academic freedoms must be protected. That includes protecting the safety and security of Jewish and Israeli professors and students alike on campuses and their right to freedom of speech, which has been harmed so significantly in recent years, in particular since the onset of the most recent war.
Just look at the now-famous Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at Columbia University who, in October, was barred from the school after he posted videos of himself confronting university officials about anti-Israel protests on October 7, the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s attack.
Meanwhile, Prof. Joseph Massad, who teaches at the very same institution, has not only been kept on staff after saying that the October 7 massacre was “astounding,” “awesome,” and “incredible,” but he is also teaching a course on Zionism.
This same professor, for reference, wrote an oped in the Electronic Intifada mere days after the brutal attack on Israel’s South, saying, “Perhaps the major achievement of the resistance in the temporary takeover of these settler-colonies is the death blow to any confidence that Israeli colonists had in their military and its ability to protect them.”
He stays; Davidai goes. Whose academic freedoms have been impacted?
Protecting Jewish and Israeli voices
Limiting Israeli researchers, professors, students, and professionals – who have had great successes and undertook great pains to reach their respective levels of distinction – from participating in US academia due to violent outbursts not only harms them; it harms those very institutions.
This is not limited to the US; the issue is global. Just last week, a French geographer was forced to leave his lecture by 20 masked and hooded pro-Palestinian students who called him a “Zionist” and a “terrorist.”
Exactly as Obama had described, he was giving a lecture – one that did not even relate to the subject of the Middle East conflict – and protesters burst in, screaming, “Racists, Zionists, you’re the terrorists.”
Obama’s argument was for academic freedom, and yet the protesters are exactly those imposing on academic freedoms. The voices that were seemingly being defended were the very ones infringing on others’ rights.
So when does defense turn into offense? When does protecting the liberties of one infringe on the liberties of the other? In other words, where does one draw the line?
While there is room to argue against the latest strategy being employed – aggressive arrests throughout college campuses as well as strict budget cuts – there is no room to ignore the severe pains suffered by Jews and Israelis worldwide, in particular in the US, because of these aggressive – and, indeed, offensive – rioters!
