College campuses nationwide have become the hottest battleground over the question of freedom of speech. That once would have seemed unlikely because free expression on all issues is a basic precept of higher education. Among topics fiercely but openly debated have been war and peace, sexual orientation and separation of church and state.
Nothing has been more hotly contested than the policies of the new state of Israel in Palestine. I’ve found it raises a broader question: Can this subject even be discussed? Zionists and Israel sympathizers have said no and silenced such dialogue at some schools, threatening it at the University.
I’ve seen evidence of it – personal experience that suggests a growing pervasiveness of those willing to halt speech to stop such criticism. Much of it has come from the campaign designed by a writer for the New York Post, Daniel Pipes, who encourages students to create an aura of suspicion around anyone who questions Israel’s behavior.
When an Oregon student wrote him to allege that a sociology instructor, Doug Card, had made such a statement in class, Pipes went on the attack. He described Card as anti-Semitic in the Post. Card sued Pipes and fellow defendant, Jonathan Schanzer, and the case was settled out of court. As part of the settlement, Card condemned anti-Semitism. He also agreed to criticize any professors who use classrooms to promote anti-Jewish bigotry, as if that were some common cancer on campus.
The most visible example of such interference with free speech on campus came when a talk by South Africa’s Bishop Desmond Tutu was cancelled at St. Thomas University in Minnesota. The school said it had received complaints about Tutu criticizing Israeli behavior in Palestine. Public reaction got the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s talk rescheduled.
I interviewed author John Mearsheimer on his book about Israel’s brutality in Palestine. It was at a news conference in the Portland Hilton prior to his public talk there. Not one other reporter attended. Mearsheimer told me he was not surprised, having seen Zionists influence the news media against him, as well as object to his campus appearances.
In a related controversy here, complaints from local persons who identified themselves as Zionists cost one group, Pacifica Forum, two sponsors for its meetings on campus. Its programs frequently deal with the conflict in Palestine. The Wesley Foundation and the Survival Center withdrew space they had provided rather than deal with such complaints.
Fear was at play – fear of being subjected to further pressure from a group that alleges discrimination in the absence of evidence. Through fear it wields power and diminishes free expression.
The strategy is to reject dialogue – a tactic fine-tuned by Pipes and his fellow propagandists who try to insulate Israel from free inquiry by any source. Victims of such efforts to quell free speech have included Bishop Tutu, Card and even a Jewish son of Holocaust survivors, professor Norman Finkelstein of DePaul University.
The true victim is freedom of expression, which is made voiceless when attacked with the weapon of fear. The college campus might have been immune once. It no longer is.
George Beres
Eugene, Ore.