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LDB Urges University of Texas to Condemn Recent Attack on Free Speech
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Yesterday, the Brandeis Center sent out a letter to University of Texas at Austin President Gregory L. Fenves urging him to condemn a recent attack on free speech on his campus. The Center wrote in response to an event on Friday, November 13, in which an anti-Israel student group brazenly disrupted an academic discussion of Israel.
LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus commented, “This incident unfortunately reflects a nationwide trend in which campus radicals attempt to silence, disrupt, or intimidate one side of the debate in higher education. More often than not, these incidents involve discussion of Israel and the Middle East. It is critical for university leaders to stand up for freedom of speech and academic freedom in the face of such assaults.”
Last Friday, November 13, Professor Ami Pedahzur, the Founding Director of the Institute for Israeli Studies at UT Austin hosted an event with Stanford University’s Dr. Gil-Li Vardi, to present a study on, “The Origin of a Species: The Birth of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Military Culture.” Twelve members of a so-called “Palestine Solidarity Committee” reportedly disrupted the event, creating a human wall in the back of the room, not allowing the event to begin.
The Brandeis Center charged that free speech at UT Austin is being imperiled by anti-Israel extremists. According to video evidence, anti-Israel activists tried to prevent the speaker from presenting her viewpoint by heckling her with canards such as “The IDF represents the ethnic cleansing of over 800,000 indigenous Palestinians.” When Dr. Pedahzur and Dr. Vardi attempted to quiet them down and asked them to listen to the presentation, they made statements including, “You are a former IDF soldier, we do not listen to you.” Dr. Pedahzur repeatedly stated, “Sit down and listen, sit down and learn… Listen to a professor…,” however the students would not cease disrupting the presentation. Before leaving the room, the video shows students screaming a series of troubling chants: “Free Free Palestine!;” “Long live the Intifada!”; and “We want [19]’48, we don’t want two states!”
LDB’s Kenneth L. Marcus explained that “such brazen efforts to silence Dr. Pedahzur and Dr. Vardi not only violate basic civility norms but, more troublingly, also represent a threat to academic freedom and the freedom of speech. This is an affront to the right of all members of the university community to express their opinions in accordance with the First Amendment.” Moreover, the Brandeis Center argued that the hecklers’ call for an “intifada,” a term long-associated with violence against Jews, could reasonably lead to incitement to violence, raising concerns about the safety of Jewish and Israeli students on campus.
Unfortunately, the silencing of pro-Israel speakers by anti-Israel groups on college campuses appears to be part of an unfortunate trend in recent years. Two weeks ago, at the University of Minnesota Law School, an event featuring Israeli professor Moshe Halbertal was notoriously interrupted by anti-Israel extremist protestors, who reportedly yelled anti-Israel slurs for nearly forty-five minutes before Professor Halbertal could begin. Several of the protestors were apparently arrested for disturbance of a public meeting. At UC Irvine several years ago, anti-Israel students prevented Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren from speaking, in violation of California law, and were prosecuted and found guilty for their actions.
Marcus added, “University leaders must be forceful in standing up for freedom of speech and academic freedom against such assaults. If this is allowed to stand at the University of Texas, we will be seeing such tactics increasingly throughout the country.”
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