US university presidents face firestorm over evasive answers on antisemitism

[Leroy N. Soetoro]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/07/university-presidents-
antisemitism-congress-testimony

The presidents of three of the nation’s top universities are facing
intense backlash, including from the White House, after they appeared to
evade questions during a congressional hearing about whether calls by
students for the genocide of Jews would constitute harassment under the
schools’ codes of conduct.

In a contentious, hours-long debate on Tuesday, the presidents of Harvard,
the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) sought to address the steps they were taking to combat
rising antisemitism on campus since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war.
But it was their careful, indirect response to a question posed by the
Republican congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York that drew scathing
criticism.

Student Palestinian Group Holds Rally At Columbia University<br>NEW YORK,
NEW YORK - OCTOBER 12: Columbia students participate in a rally in support
of Palestine at the university on October 12, 2023 in New York City. A
counter-rally in support of Israel was also held by students across the
lawn. Across the country and around the world, people are holding rallies
and vigils for both Palestinians and Israelis following last weekend's
attack by Hamas. On October 7, the Palestinian militant group Hamas
launched a surprise attack on Israel from Gaza by land, sea, and air,
killing over 1,200 people and wounding thousands. Israeli soldiers and
civilians have also been taken hostage by Hamas and moved into Gaza. The
attack prompted a declaration of war by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu, with ongoing airstrikes in Gaza that have killed over a
thousand people. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Walkouts, rallies, clashes: Israel-Gaza ‘war of words’ roils Columbia
University
Read more
In an exchange that has now gone viral, Stefanik, a graduate of Harvard,
pressed Elizabeth Magill, the president of UPenn, on Tuesday to say
whether students calling for the genocide of Jews would be disciplined
under the university’s code of conduct. In her line of questioning,
Stefanik appeared to be conflating chants calling for “intifada” – a word
that in Arabic means uprising, and has been used in reference to both
peaceful and violent Palestinian protest – with hypothetical calls for
genocide.

“If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment,” Magill replied,
in a reference to distinctions in first amendment law. “It is a context-
dependent decision.” Stefanik pushed her to answer “yes” or “no”, which
Magill did not.

The backlash was swift and bipartisan.

“It’s unbelievable that this needs to be said: calls for genocide are
monstrous and antithetical to everything we represent as a country,” said
Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson. “Any statements that advocate
for the systematic murder of Jews are dangerous and revolting – and we
should all stand firmly against them, on the side of human dignity and the
most basic values that unite us as Americans.”

The White House was joined by several Jewish officials and leaders in
condemning the university presidents’ testimony before the US House
committee on education and the workforce, at a hearing called by
Republicans titled Holding Campus Leaders Accountable and Confronting
Antisemitism.

Josh Shapiro, the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, said the simple
response was “yes, that violates our policy.” Speaking to reporters on
Wednesday, Shapiro urged UPenn’s board to meet soon, as a petition calling
for Magill’s resignation garnered thousands of signatures. According to
CNN, Penn’s board of trustees held an “emergency meeting” on Thursday.

The liberal Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe noted that he rarely
agreed with Stefanik, a far-right Trump ally, but wrote: “I’m with her
here.”

The Harvard president Claudine Gay’s “hesitant, formulaic, and bizarrely
evasive answers were deeply troubling to me and many of my colleagues,
students, and friends”. Tribe added.

Republican presidential candidates also seized on the episode, folding it
into their broader criticism of the US’s elite institutions as too “woke”
and liberal.

In an interview with the conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday,
Ron DeSantis, who has led the rightwing crackdown on higher education as
Florida’s governor, said the college presidents’ lack of moral clarity was
a reflection of the liberal orthodoxy permeating higher education.

“I think what this has revealed is the rot and the sickness that’s been
festering inside higher education for a long time,” said DeSantis, a
graduate of Harvard Law School who is running for president. He continued:
“They should not be these hotbeds of anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
But that’s what they’ve become.”

Amid a surge in youth activism around the conflict, university leaders
have struggled to balance the free speech of some pro-Palestinian
activists with the fears of Jewish students who say the rhetoric crosses a
line into antisemitism. In a number of cases, schools have responded by
banning campus groups supportive of Palestinian rights.

During their appearances, Magill, Gay and Sally Kornbluth of MIT all
expressed alarm at the rise of antisemitism and Islamophobia on college
campuses, some of which have triggered federal investigations by the
Department of Education. In response, the presidents said they had taken
steps to increase security measures and reporting tools while expanding
mental health and counseling services. They also said it was their
responsibility to ensure college campuses remain a place of free
expression and free thought.

In a new statement on Wednesday, Gay stated: “There are some who have
confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will
condone calls for violence against Jewish students. Let me be clear: calls
for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or
ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who
threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.”

Magill also sought to clarify her remarks to the committee in a video
statement, in which she said her response to Stefanik’s question was an
attempt to parse the university policies stating that speech alone is not
punishable. But in doing so she said she failed to acknowledge the
“irrefutable fact” that such speech represents a “call for some of the
most terrible violence human beings can perpetuate.

“I want to be clear, a call for genocide of Jewish people is threatening –
deeply so,” she said, adding: “In my view, it would be harassment or
intimidation.”

In the video, posted to X, Magill said the university’s policies “need to
be clarified and evaluated” and committed to immediately convening a
process to do so.

Her comments alarmed some free speech advocates, including Fire, the
Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which called it a “deeply
troubling, profoundly counterproductive response” to the anger generated
by Magill’s testimony at Tuesday’s hearing.

“Were Penn to retreat from the robust protection of expressive rights,
university administrators would make inevitably political decisions about
who may speak and what may be said on campus,” it said in a statement. The
result of placing new limits on speech, it said, would mean “dissenting
and unpopular speech – whether pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian,
conservative or liberal – will be silenced”.


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We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that
stupid people won't be offended.

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No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.
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Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the
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President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed
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