Don't Lose Your Grip over Gaza
What will it take for activists to see the damage they are doing benefits no one?
While the real victims of the conflict in Gaza between Israel and Hamas are of course those directly affected by being killed, wounded, taken hostage, or displaced, another symbolic element of its collateral damage is the destruction of the already eroded atmosphere of openness and tolerance of free speech, particularly on academic campuses. Since the beginning of this terrible war, the majority of articles I've written have addressed the issue of protecting the free speech of all regardless of one's particular stance or lack thereof on the Israel-Palestine conflict. I've always been clear that the line to cross that departs from freedom of speech is when threats, blackmail, or intimidation are employed, or when the protest becomes physically violent and causes harm to someone else of their property. From the very beginning there were examples of violations of those very basic definitions. But I feel now more than four months later there is an awakening to how toxic and violent the pro-Palestine movement can be, with the unfortunate realization that its evolution into coercive and violent behaviours is now a mass movement as opposed to just a niche issue.
To understand how heated the atmosphere surrounding the war in Gaza has become, it is necessary to demonstrate that the reactions are occurring in places that previously were unlikely, sometimes with tragic results. So it was that this past Saturday on the Jewish sabbath a middle-aged Orthodox Jewish man in Zurich was stabbed by a 15 year-old, who was described as being of a Muslim background and allegiances to ISIS. In Paris the same day another victim, also an Orthodox Jew in his 60s, was assaulted by a passerby. Switzerland, unlike France, has rarely seen terrorism or hate motivated assaults in the recent past. In the previous newsletter I also addressed the unfortunate suicide by self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell and the violent activities of other pro-Palestine activists in Australia that happened during roughly the same period. This past week in Peru an Iranian Revolutionary Guard operative and two local accomplices were arrested for plotting to attack an Israeli. And of course I also wrote an open letter to Glenn Greenwald back in November warning him that the movement that he is a prominent voice within includes a violent element that feels that the time for speech has passed. Of course, I picked Greenwald because he is one of the few people on his side that is committed to free speech.
Ironically, some free speech advocates are recognizing the toxicity of the pro-Palestine movement from behaviour that is coercive but doesn't rise to the level of full-on terrorism. Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and a major free speech advocate on college campuses, coauthored last week with FIRE colleague Angel Eduardo an article calling for the expulsion of rioting students at the University of California - Berkeley for their role in disrupting and causing the cancellation of an event featuring an Israeli soldier. I don't know whether they were making the case for this back in October when the war had just erupted and such events were commonplace, but it's good that someone is today. Unfortunately, this behaviour has become all too common in academic settings, and it certainly is not restricted to issues of Middle Eastern geopolitics. Here is a short list of some of the most recent incidents:
Prof. Asaf Pe'er, an Israeli physicist had his guest lecture at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas cancelled due to protesters flooding the venue and chanting. Pe'er's lecture subject was black holes, and he told protesters he would be fine talking politics after he concluded, but police nevertheless escorted him off campus for his own safety.
On March 4 Dr. Moshe Farchi, a professor of mental health, had his keynote address at a conference in Queensland, Australia cancelled due to a similar bullying campaign.
A lecture by US Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma was cancelled on Feb. 20 after pro-Palestine protesters burst in and shouted him down. His lecture topic: civility in public discourse.
While in the Berkeley case the incident reached national consciousness, many of the others barely are known beyond the local level to anyone besides those most tuned in to the issue, namely partisans on either side of the debate. Yet clearly this does not only affect those interested in the Israel-Gaza, three examples included lecture topics that had nothing to do with it. The people who attended them would have likely been just as willing to hear a speaker on mental health or black holes if the speaker was any other nationality, but the protesters wanted them to be aware that they were listening to someone who was born or lived in a country that is to be ostracized, whether or not he is personally involved in the alleged crimes of which it's accused.
Another tactic the activist groups have used, which is piggybacking off of previous trend-setting causes such as the climate protests of Greta Thunberg and the George Floyd #BLM protests, is the school strike or walkout. What better way to motivate students that are otherwise poorly motivated than to appeal to their urge to skip class and cancel assignments in the name of a good cause? I have yet to hear a good explanation for why not going to school furthers any cause. Yet numerous students in grade school and universities have embraced it as a way to help the people of Gaza in places such as Oakland, New York, Chicago, Teaneck, NJ, Columbus, Australia, the UK and points beyond. Apart from the walkouts, in school systems such as Berkeley, Oakland and New York students and teachers openly mix their politics with their schoolwork and harass their Jewish peers, with one example being that a second grade class in Berkeley USD was tasked with writing Post-It notes for Gaza which were then placed on the door of the one Jewish teacher. At Origins HS in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn students voice their Jew hatred in the hallways by taunting a Jewish history teacher and giving Nazi salutes. At Hillcrest HS in Queens several months ago there was a student riot that targeted a Jewish teacher for attending a pro-Israel rally. She had to be barricaded and escorted out of the building for her own safety.
We have been fortunate until now that the violence has been generally disorganized and seemingly spontaneous, rather than deliberate attacks. However, that may be changing. The kidnapping orchestrated by Laura Allam had to be premeditated, and details about the crime are still being withheld from the public. Three men have been charged with assault during an October 9 protest that turned ugly at Sydney's Opera House against a pro-Israel counterdemonstrator. In Edinburgh, Scotland authorities stood by as activists scaled a public building and replaced the Union Jack with the Palestinian flag. In London a branch of the Tesco supermarket chain was mobbed by demonstrators inside who accused the store of "supporting genocide" because it stocks some products origininating in Israel. In Manhattan on January 17 activist Nerdeen Kiswani and her group Within Our Lifetime chanted accusations of complicity in genocide at Sloan Kettering Hospital's cancer treatment area as patients including a small child were visible watching from the windows. Incidents of such harassment or harm committed by pro-Israel persons exist but are rare.
I don’t speak with forked tongue on this issue, and when pro-Palestine voices are silenced for lawful speech I have no problem defending it. At this point their position is being voiced by many celebrities to the point that the sympathetic Northern Irish rap group Kneecap did so on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. What is the point of documenting and repeating all of this? I aim to point out that their movement often transgresses into abuse and violence. Perhaps at some point there will be some self-reflection among the Intifada crowd where they realize that violence and coercion abroad don’t help the people of Gaza and do harm to people that otherwise have no involvement in the conflict. But on the more likely chance that there isn’t, I think that it serves to warn the general public to be on the lookout for people taking part in this latest mass hysteria.