Freedom of Speech on the College Campus
Written on March 1, 2010 from the desk of Rabbi David KomerofskyThe following article was written by Jay Rubin, CEO of the Jewish Community Association of Austin. He is addressing an unfortunate event that happened at UC Irvine. This week Texas Hillel will host our 12th Annual Israel Block Party, and will be protested (as usual) by those who deny Israel’s legitimacy.
“California Screaming”
Michael Oren is an award winning historian and scholar. He has spoken in Austin a number of times, most recently delivering the keynote address at the 25th anniversary of the Austin Jewish Book Fair in October 2008.
His best known books are Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East and Power Faith and Fantasy:
The United States in the Middle East, 1776 to 2006. I highly recommend them.
Oren is a riveting speaker with solid academic credentials. He has an undergraduate degree and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. He completed a Ph.D. in Near East Studies at Princeton University. He has taught at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Harvard University , Yale University and Georgetown University.
Nine months ago, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Oren as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States.
Last month, the University of California-Irvine Law School and Department of Political Science invited him to address the prospects for peace in the Middle East. The Muslim Student Union at UC-Irvine had other ideas.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video can be priceless. I urge you to stop reading at this point and view a short YouTube video of Oren’s efforts to speak at UC-Irvine by typing the following URL into your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w96UR79TBw. Eleven students were arrested during the disruptions.
How have mainstream Muslim-American organizations responded to the disturbances at UC-Irvine?
The Muslim Public Affairs Council has called for an investigation not into the disruptions, but into the arrests. According to Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director, the students were exercising their First Amendment rights, and “had the courage and conscience to stand up against aggression.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a letter stating that the student-voiced political views “expressed the gravity of the charges leveled against Israeli policies, and falls within the purview of protected speech.”
Wayne Firestone, Hillel International President, characterized this argument as “a candidate for worst idea of the year.” “[I]f a precedent is set on this issue, then any group that opposes any speaker can literally stop [any] discussion and debate from taking place” on a university campus.
How have mainstream Jewish-American organizations responded to the free speech arguments?
Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called for a boycott of the University of California-Irvine. Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, opposes a university boycott as an inappropriate way to respond even to legitimate concerns. “We are surprised that those who call for a boycott fail to recognize that it is a double-edged sword that legitimizes a tactic so often used against Jews and Israel, particularly in academic settings,” he declared. Shalom Elcott, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Orange County, California, is taking a wait and see attitude and will “intensely monitor” the response of the university.
What would an appropriate response be in Austin?
On Wednesday, March 3, from 3:00 -9:00 p.m., Texas Hillel is sponsoring the 12th annual Israel Block Party on the South Mall of the UT Campus. The Block Party celebrates Israel’s diversity and achievements through educational exhibits, music, dancing, a marketplace and food. The Israel Block Party coincides with the annual orgy of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic campus activities known as “Israeli Apartheid Week.”
We need to support the pro-Israel UT community by attending the Israel Block Party in droves this year.
As the psalmist says: “Don’t mess with Texas.”