US politicians attacking free speech to shield Israel from criticism
Congress recently trampled over Americans’ rights to political speech by passing the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2023 on behalf of the Israel lobby and government.
This bill would drastically change the definition of antisemitism as it is currently defined in the Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2016, as “discrimination, prejudice, or hatred toward Jews.”
The 2023 Act would make it a federal crime for an educational institution receiving federal funds to allow American students to criticize Israel or pro-Israel students, falsely conflating criticism of Israel, a foreign sovereign nation, with hating American Jews. It is a cynical attempt to shut down dissent against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians that is spreading across the nation.
Without any evidence of Jewish students being harmed or even harassed by student protestors, House Republicans joined with Democrats to weaponize the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights with the authority to penalize colleges and universities that fail to prevent students who make or imply statements critical of Israel.
The new definition is “antisemitism is the perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.” If this legislation becomes law, colleges and universities that want to avoid Title VI investigations, or the potential loss of federal funding, could end up suppressing protected speech criticizing Israel or supporting Palestinians.
“Perversely, a law meant to protect Jews would actually hurt some of the largest Jewish communities in the United States, stifling their freedom of speech and cutting off funding to their institutions,” wrote the Torah Jews in a letter to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
In 2019, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act was expanded to include to antisemitic acts (of violence) to protect Jewish Americans against hate crimes. In 2022, there were 11,643 hate crimes based on race, religion and sexual identity. Among the victims, Blacks accounted for 29%, Jews; 9.6%, gay males, 9.2%; whites, 8.1%; Latinos, 6.3%; Asians, 6%; and lesbians, 5%.
In 2018, a white male planned and killed 11 Jewish worshippers in the Tree of Life Synagogue. In January and February 2023 there were 12 violent attacks on synagogues in the U.S. by White supremacists.
Jewish people were the targets of 51.4% of 1,590 religiously motivated hate crimes reported in 2021, but Congress took no action until student protests erupted. Although no Jewish student or faculty have been harmed or attacked by college protestors, Congress promptly introduced this new Act, claiming that Jewish students don’t feel safe, which isn’t protected by the Constitution.
Congress is exploiting antisemitism as justification to protect the interests of Israel, and it is likely motivated by money. To date, the pro-Israel lobby has donated $89 million to Republicans and $145 million to Democrats. It also has donated $182 million to all congressional candidates that tow the pro-Israel line. U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker has received $716,975 and U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith, $145,607. Candidates who have refused their loyalty to Israel have been targeted and defeated by the Lobby.
Congressional Democrats sent a threatening letter to a university demanding it violate students’ right to protest. Under pressure from Congress, many universities have brought in the militarized police force to terrorize, beat and conduct mass arrests of students and faculty, treating them as enemy combatants. Student protestors are deceptively labeled misguided and ignorant of history and influenced by China and Russia even though many of them attend Ivy League colleges that traditionally place their graduates in senior level positions in the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court and multi-national corporations.
In a 1969 case regarding the Vietnamese War, the Supreme Court ruled neither teachers nor students “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Freedom of speech includes the right to use certain offensive words and phrases to convey political messages and to engage in symbolic speech. The laws of our nation allow for everyone to express themselves, only when that expression turns into a specific threat toward others does it become a hate crime, according to the FBI.
If political leaders were not being controlled by Israel and its lobby, they would engage students in an open dialogue and adopt a fair Middle East policy. Instead, they masquerade as protectors of Jewish people while supporting Israel’s hatred and extermination of Palestinians.
Students are the conscious of this nation and its future leaders, and many of them leading the charge are Jewish.
— Getty Israel is an MPH population health specialist of Jackson.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: US politicians attacking free speech to shield Israel from criticism
