‘The Palestine Exception’: How anti-Israel voices cry suppression while silencing others - opinion
Their activism and tactics have undermined and threatened to erode well-established principles of academic freedom and free speech on a growing number of US campuses.
Students attend a protest encampment in support of Palestinians at University of California, Berkeley on April 25, 2024. (photo credit: Carlos Barria/Reuters)ByROBERT HORENSTEIN
In September 2015, a 124-page report was issued by the far-left Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and an organization called Palestine Legal. The report, entitled, “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech,” described a movement in support of Palestinian rights that is “under attack in the US.” It alleged that pro-Palestinian activists were being systematically silenced by “Israel advocacy groups.”
Although the report garnered little attention from the American Jewish community at the time, the claim that Palestinian voices are being suppressed should sound very familiar nine years later. Notably, both the CCR and Palestine Legal, which vocally supported the Hamas-friendly protests that erupted on college campuses after October 7, 2023, are continuing to allege that an organized (Read: Zionist) campaign is censoring pro-Palestinian faculty and student speech.
The claim has gained traction. A petition initiated in December 2023 by the Faculty for Justice in Palestine at Syracuse University denouncing “the increasingly repressive climate on our campuses across the US” has been signed by over 1,150 scholars. In November, several schools and departments of Portland State University co-sponsored a screening of The Palestine Exception, a film directed by two PSU professors about university policies that are purportedly stifling pro-Palestinian activism.
And it’s not just the college campuses. Teachers’ unions, such as the Portland Association of Teachers, are organizing “Know Your Rights” programs to counter what they say are efforts to suppress pro-Palestinian voices in middle and high school classrooms. Accordingly, teachers have the right to wear a keffiyeh or put up a large Palestinian flag in their classrooms, whereas Jewish parents and students have absolutely no right to complain about anti-Israel bias.
In fact, the notion that the voices of pro-Palestinian activists are being suppressed is patently absurd. According to a study by Harvard and the University of Connecticut, in the first eight months after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel there were 12,400 pro-Palestinian protests throughout the US, more than five times the number of pro-Israel events, many of which were vigils or protests for the release of the hostages.
A CHALKING at a Students for Justice in Palestine event at the University of Maryland includes a Palestinian flag along with ‘From the river to the sea.’ (credit: KEREN BINYAMIN)
Additionally, there are now over 300 active Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters on college campuses. Their protests are often amplified by pro-Palestinian faculty, anti-Zionist Jews, and radical local labor unions. While it’s true that a small number of SJP chapters have been suspended by their universities, it’s because of repeated harassment of Jewish students, including threats of violence.
The claim that the pro-Palestinian movement is being silenced isn’t merely unfounded, it’s truly the height of hypocrisy. After all, just who is trying to silence whom? What about the Zionism exception to free speech?
The National SJP and many SJP chapters have called for “Zionists” – any Jewish students who identify or have any association with Israel – to be removed from campus spaces or from universities altogether. SJP chapters have also called on universities to ban Hillel from campus and terminate Israeli visiting scholar programs.
For years, the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, of which SJP is a chief driver, has routinely disrupted pro-Israel speakers on college campuses, organized campaigns to boycott Israeli academic institutions, and engaged in actions that impede the ability of Jewish university students to freely express their Zionist identities. Their activism and tactics have undermined and threatened to erode well-established principles of academic freedom and free speech on a growing number of US campuses.
In one particularly egregious case, Law Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of California Berkeley voted in 2022 to adopt a bylaw in their constitution stating that they “will not invite speakers who have expressed and continue to hold views – or host/sponsor/promote events – in support of Zionism.” Twenty-two other law student groups followed suit. No exception was made, even for Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, who considers Zionism integral to his Jewish identity.
On a personal level, I, too, have experienced BDS tactics firsthand. After I had been accepted to speak on antisemitism/anti-Zionism at the annual Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference in Portland in October, I was informed by the organizers that the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) had implored them to have me removed from the schedule. When that failed, a group of JVP activists stood in front of the Oregon Convention Center, where the conference was held, urging attendees to boycott my talk (I had the highest attendance of all the morning breakout sessions).
The “Palestine exception” claim fits in with all the other false narratives perpetuated by the BDS movement – claims of apartheid, genocide, settler colonialism. The pro-Israel community needs to find more effective ways to counter these lies and distortions. It starts with vigorously challenging the Zionism exception.■
The writer is chief community relations and public affairs officer for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland.
