9, October 2015 Free Speech & Academic
Freedom
There has been
mounting efforts to stifle free speech of Palestinian activists on college
campuses claiming that criticism of Israeli policies constitutes anti-Semitism.
A new report by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal has
documented hundreds of cases of Palestinian activists being harassed and
threatened for their support of Palestinian rights. For example, Steven Salaita’s
tenured position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign was
withdrawn after he posted tweets harshly critical of the 2014 Israeli assault
on Gaza.
His ouster caused
a firestorm with thousands of academics demanding Salaita’s reinstatement.
University Chancellor Phyllis Wise, and her second-in-command, the provost,
resigned in the ensuing scandal. Private emails accounts were surreptitiously
used to bypass freedom of information requests. This is an extremely disturbing
example of blind ideological commitments to Israel triumphing academic freedom.
The board was fully complicit in Wise’s duplicity, including the chairman
Christopher Kennedy, Robert Kennedy son. Even more egregious is the discovery
of a letter from the Simon Wiesenthal Center congratulating the board on firing
Salaita.
Following their
removal, a federal judge allowed a lawsuit filed by Professor Salaita to
proceed. The university would be wise to issue an apology to Salaita, reinstate
and reimburse him for lost earnings. Failure to do might trigger large punitive
damages. This should serve as a wake-up call to other US colleges to stop
harassing students and faculty who voice criticism of Israel’s actions and
policies.
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