protecting freedom of speech.

On April 17, 2024 a protest for Palestine, which involved the forming of an encampment, rocked the Columbia University campus. Soon large encampment protests spread to universities across the country. Tensions on campuses have remained high. The question on many’s minds is: how is freedom of speech gong to be protected in these turbulent times?

What spurred these protests?

As brooklynites.NYC reported, Israel was attacked by the Palestinian terror militia, Hamas, on October 7, 2023. Since then Israel has led a full-scale military assault on Gaza to remove any trace of Hamas. Meanwhile, Hamas refuses to acknowledge how many hostages remain in their clutches. The April 17 Columbia University protests started in response to Israel’s military defensive and call for a ceasefire to end Palestinian casualties.

Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of American democracy.

America’s freedom of speech is historically such an unprecedented right in world history. It is important for individual liberty, but more importantly society at large. Free speech fosters dialogue and the exchange of ideas, which facilitates arriving at truth. It encourages the exchange of ideas because what you say is protected. Unsurprisingly, people aren’t afraid to express their thoughts when they are not punished for them.

Freedom of speech allows you to criticize the church and not be pilloried. You can safely criticize any government or religious official or institution, political group, America itself, anyone or anything. It even guarantees your right to express your derision or hatred for any group of people and anything. America represents a fraction of a fraction in history and the entire world. Many Americans take this right for granted and don’t understand how precious freedom of speech truly is.

Protests have been a crucial part of university culture for a long time. Many readers will be surprised to know that student protest dates back as far as the year 1209 and took place at the University of Oxford in England. In more recent times, students led protests against the Vietnam war in the 1960s and 70s, along with many others. Student protest is a sign of vital campus life and strengthens American resolve to preserve freedom of speech.

How is the health of free speech on university campuses?

Despite appearances, the state of university free speech is not robust. Many reading will recall that in November, Representative Elise Stefanik questioned the presidents of the Ivy League universities Harvard, MIT, and Penn State. During the investigation none could bring themselves to condemn anti-Semitic speech on campus. This is a bit scandalous since it’s well known that universities across America have been actively suppressing the speech of conservatives and Christians while endorsing extreme rhetoric of liberal students. It’s been noted that Harvard University has the worst free speech score possible.

As mentioned earlier, the purpose of free speech is to encourage discussion, which is supposed to ultimately lead to truth. All political topics are propagandized to a degree. What happens though if a subject is so heavily propagandized is there can’t be any agreement or acknowledgement of any truth.

There is reasonable doubt about pro-Palestine protesters’ motivations. Many protesters chant “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” Another popular chant goes “globalize the intifada.” But when asked which river and which sea many are left at a loss for words. Some refuse to engage with questions altogether. When pressed, many don’t know why they are protesting or what it’s accomplishing. Unfortunately freedom of speech can be abused, which recent pro-Palestine protests demonstrate.

What are these protests about?

On the surface the protests appear to be against Israel’s defensive war on Hamas and Gaza. Since the initial attack by Hamas there have been all kinds of aspersions lobbed towards Israel. For example, there have been claims that the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) have killed more women and children than the entire population of Gaza. This libel was even promoted by the president of Brazil. Another common lie asserts that the IDF intentionally kills civilians.

Here at brooklynites.NYC we support holding any potential war crimes under the utmost scrutiny, which ever military participated. There are glaring contradictions with much of the pro-Palestinian rhetoric however. Protesters demand a permanent ceasefire, yet not the immediate release of the hostages still held in Gaza. Many can’t even bring themselves to condemn the October 7th attack or will deny that it ever happened. Pro-Palestine protesters have demands, but have no interest in reciprocity.

Many times if you scratch under the surface of pro-Palestine activists you will find a true anti-Semite. Many proudly display their barbaric or anti-Semitic views, leaving no room for doubt. Activists hold posters at protests across America comparing Israel to the Nazis. There are posters saying “rape is resistance.” Extremely honest posters blatantly say “Hitler should have finished the job.” One charming activist made a poster saying “Al-Qassam’s next targets” with an arrow pointing directly to a group of Zionist protesters. Al-Qassam was a West Bank terror group.

Unfortunately brooklynites.NYC didn’t get to witness the Columbia protests.

Pro-Palestine encampments feel more like insurrection than an example of free speech. — Mein Kampus (a play on the title Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitler). Pro-Palestine encampments feel more like insurrections than an example of free speech.

Mein kampus.

As mentioned, on April 17 pro-Palestine protesters formed an encampment at the Columbia University campus. It was mostly an anti-Semitic jamboree. Students largely were playing music and singing, doing interpretive dance and yoga to “free Palestine.” In between their play and snack times they would do genocidal chanting. How this would make a ceasefire happen when Hamas itself has refused every ceasefire agreement is unclear. It seems there has been some alarmist reporting on pro-Palestine demonstrations. There is much evidence to the contrary as well however.

Targeted Harassment of Jewish students.

Protesters at Columbia had been forming human chains, where they’d link arms, preventing Zionist or Jewish students from entering buildings to attend classes. These chains are discriminating and negatively impacting Jewish students, but sadly few taking part will face real legal consequences. There have been more malicious acts of violence perpetrated at California’s UCLA. On April 30th a Jewish woman was beaten unconscious at a UCLA pro-Palestine rally. In another instance of violence at UCLA a Zionist or Jewish man was tasered without any provocation from him.

There seems to be something inflaming about this issue in particular that drives people insane. When considering all of the chants, slogans, and general melee a pattern of anti-Jewish sentiment that emerges. There seems to be a deeper, more nefarious force behind all of this. It’s been noted how eerily similar the tents and posters at many of these encampments are, suggesting that someone with a lot of money might have funded them. There is also a question of how much of the violence has been instigated by outside agitators and not students themselves. While these are valid points, ignorant students who didn’t actively cast away such agents of chaos are still responsible.

The train has gone off the rails.

One should should avoid desperate, alarmist rhetoric if possible. Life after all comes with risk, so it isn’t healthy to never have your worldview challenged. When protesters are determined to violently act out their ideology things have gone too far however. The situation should have never been allowed to deteriorate to this point. The president of Columbia University, Minouche Shafik, has done an insufficient job.

A Columbia student named Khymani James organized the pro-Palestine protests. He was recently suspended from Columbia for saying “Zionists don’t deserve to live.” In an older video he was recorded saying “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” How are you supposed to study if your peer might murder you?

protester students will be a problem down the road.

Earlier on in these protests, Columbia suspended 108 students, including Representative Ilhan Omar’s daughter Isra Hirsi. The students were additionally arrested by NYPD. For a while however it seemed that Columbia was going to allow the protests to continue unabated. Finally on April 30th Columbia allowed NYPD to clear out the Mein Kampus and arrested 282 belligerent protesters. Of the 1200 arrested since these protests began, approximately half were found to be outside agitators. Unfortunately, the legal consequences that these ingrates face will likely be minimal. It is a hopeful sign that Columbia University is actively suspending many of the students who participated.

Pro-Palestine students and protests present a larger, societal problem. The protests have spread like wildfire to universities across the country. They all have the same pattern of encampments, occupying university spaces such as halls and libraries, and violence. The Palestine flag has been hoisted in place of the American flag in many instances. There are many signs that point to these protests being a form of insurrection. Will these protests eventually die down or will they become even more dangerous someday?

How to balance safety while protecting free speech.

These protesters largely do not support American, democratic ideals. They will eventually graduate and become politicians, lawyers, surgeons, teachers, and more. Would you trust someone who is pro-Hamas to perform surgery on you or teach your child? Even more alarming is the fact that some would gladly participate in an act of terror if given the opportunity.

One thing pro-Palestine agitators are counting on is the government overreacting to their antics, stifling free speech. This is a risky situation and the way we choose to handle this will aid or hurt democracy in the long run. These bigoted ingrates must not be given what they want. Clearly some must face legal consequences. Foreign students who have publicly made incitements toward Americans or Jews must be banished to their countries of origin. American students who have incited violence need to be placed on terrorist watch lists.

Freedom of speech isn’t free of consequences.

As stated earlier, freedom of speech allows you to say anything you want so long as it doesn’t incite violence. Pro-Palestine activists can advocate for Hamas and its actions. Where those rights end however is incitement or donating to Hamas. Hitler Youth have the right to say “we are Hamas” or “Zionists don’t deserve to live”, but their right to an Ivy League education or affluent job isn’t guaranteed. Violent bigots must be handled accordingly.

These pro-Palestine protests seem more like insurrection. The Hitler Youth were the same age many of these protesters are. Hitler Youths must have believed they were on the right side of history. It seems inevitable that there will be homegrown terror attacks in America’s future. Will the government protect freedom of speech and America from the threat within without becoming the threat itself?