Antisemitism on campus: free speech and double standards

Should university students be allowed to call for the genocide of Jews? The answer to that would be obvious to most people, said Noah Rothman in National Review. But not, it seems, to the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT. 

The three women appeared at a congressional hearing last week, where they were each asked whether such calls violated their schools' policies. None of them could give a straight answer. "It depends on the context," said Harvard's Claudine Gay. Their mealy-mouthed responses showed why the "antisemitic agitation" that has exploded on US campuses since 7 October has not been shut down. 

These responses drew rebukes from politicians of both parties. "It's unbelievable that this needs to be said," declared a White House spokesperson. "Calls for genocide are monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country."

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'Violating free speech'

The clips from the hearing look terrible, said Michelle Goldberg in The New York Times. Watch the whole thing, though, and it's clear that they were answering questions related to slogans such as "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and chants about "intifada". 

Abhorrent as some may find these, "their meaning is contested in a way that, say, 'Gas the Jews' is not". For universities to commit to disciplining those who use them would be "an egregious violation of free speech". 

'Double standards'

These expressions clearly enjoy First Amendment protection, agreed Jason Willick in The Washington Post – as, incidentally, does racist and sexist speech. The real issue here is double standards. University leaders would be on stronger ground if their institutions weren't so intolerant towards views that don't conform to progressive ideology. 

Campuses have become hostile places these days for those who stray from the approved line on gender or diversity. The political climate is even more oppressive now than during the McCarthy era. Around 100 professors were fired for their beliefs over a ten-year period of the "Red Scare", whereas in the past nine years the equivalent figure has been closer to 200. 

Universities must decide, said Bret Stephens in The New York Times: if they're seriously committed to free speech – which they should be – that "must go for all controversial views", including ones they don't like. The days of "having it both ways, at the expense of Jews, must come to an end now".