A group of civil rights organizations – including Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild, Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, and others – submitted a letter to over 200 universities cautioning administrators against heeding calls to censor or stifle expression criticizing the state of Israel or advocating for Palestinian human rights.
Acknowledging the pressure on universities to police and punish viewpoints critiquing Israel, the letter offers legal guidelines to help schools respond. The letter emphasizes that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has soundly rejected allegations that advocacy for Palestinian rights constitutes harassment of Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
“There is no civility exception to the First Amendment” explains Liz Jackson, co-author and staff attorney at Palestine Solidarity Legal Support, “universities cannot restrict student speech because they are nervous about views that challenge state violence, or express anger about Palestinian suffering.”
The letter warns universities against the now endemic use of the vague and highly subjective concept of “civility” as a tool to limit free speech on campus, specifically speech that is critical of the Israeli occupation. This term has been used recently by university administrators to justify the termination of Professor Steven Salaita’s tenured appointment at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; to condemn political expression at Ohio University; and in remarks by Chancellor Dirks at UC Berkeley attempting to define the boundaries of campus speech – ironically on the anniversary of the Free Speech Movement.
Emphasizing the university’s obligation to protect the free speech of its students and faculty, the letter states:
“Debate, disagreement, and free expression, including protests, demonstrations, and other expressive activities, embody the highest values of a free university and a democratic society.”
The letter comes at a time when students’ rights to advocate for Palestine are increasingly threatened. This past year, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country have been told to dilute their message, told not to use the word “Palestine,” burdened with fines and security fees for their events, accused of “incivility” and anti-Semitism, investigated and suspended for time-honored forms of political protest, and more.
Gosh , zionists are such pillars of civility.
I am convinced the term “thou dost protest too much”was created with Zionists in mind.These people will whine and complain about anyone that shows them for what they are.
A bunch of whining,racist, bigoted self serving land grabbing murdering supremacist uncivilsed reprobates.(no civility intended)
It is mind boggling how a piddling little parasitic nation, can make our officials jump through hoops, go against the US constitution and their own principles, and can threaten US officials, and decide exactly who gets what post in our government. It is also shocking that administrations in our colleges, who are supposed to allow free speech, and criticism, can be totally intimidated by the agents of that nation.
Our policies are dictated by an alien nation that bulldozes their way into our American system, controls what goes on here, and makes us do their bidding, which usually protects them and their interests. We are controlled by zionists.
Great pushback action and resource.
Are there specific remedies for frivolous claims under Title VI and do you all have the funding to pursue them if there are?
wow, I hadn’t actually read the Dirks letter until today. The “cornerstone of our nation and society” requires that we not offend our rapists and ethnic cleansers!
that’s because our “nation and society” was built upon the ethnic cleansing of the natives, the ownership of blacks, and the use&abuse of women (why do we put up with that?) !!!
it’s civil not to “divide” people into the oppressed and the oppressor. it’s civil to kill and bulldoze and rape and enslave, but don’t don’t don’t piss off the people doing it!
I’d take that “cornerstone” and throw it in his face. I think it’s time our “nation and society” gets dismantled because it does not include the majority of the people in it. F*** civility!
one of the best things to come out of Mattie Freidmans recent expose of the AP Jerusalem bureau and more important follow up in The Atlantic is the unexamined and un-investigated nature of the many and assorted (some estimates put the number in the 1000s) NGOs and so-called Human Rights Organizations that feed the press as constant sources for figures and facts on the I/P conflict (as well as many other issues)
Freidman makes the point that the press has not done any credible reporting on ANY of the so-called Human Rights Organizations for funding sources, biases, secret sources for journalism, and so on and so forth. And it doesn;t just cut one way with groups like HRW , SJP, and other Palestinan propaganda outfits. It equally encompasses groups that advocate pro-Israel as well like CAMERA
I would think that all concerned would want full disclosure on exactly who is funding all these ngo’s that serve as source material for hard journalism pieces. People need to know e.g. wether the head of a Zionist organization came from a background with the JDL and/or a group that advocates for violence as well as being told wether the leader of a UN organization for Palestinians has a dual position as a chief propaganda specialist with an anti-Zionist organization.
In other words-either full disclosure or bust. And this goes for primarily US so-called ‘human rights groups’ as well. JVP? who from? SJP? Standwithus? Money? Background? Are they propaganda/PR outfits using the cache that ‘human rights’ lends then or really a non-biased HROrg? Everybody-anti-Zionist and Zionist alike should want the truth right?