If US President Donald Trump soon signs a free speech order for college campuses across America, as he said he would, he will be in effect allowing students, faculty and guests to air their views on any given number of topics. That would presumably include the Palestine cause – even though that issue was probably the last thing on Trump’s mind when he decided on the order. Not after he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, cut off Palestinian aid and is asking the Palestinians to accept his upcoming deal with Israel that Palestinians probably cannot accept. Rather, Trump was more concerned about complaints from those on the right and far right who for years have claimed that universities shun their ideas.
Trump had in mind people like Hayden Williams, a conservative activist, who was punched before he got to the stage at the University of California Berkeley where he was about to express a conservative viewpoint. Or white supremacist Richard Spencer who was disinvited to speak at Auburn University in 2017 after the campus police cited safety concerns. Or Milo Yiannopoulos, well known for his neo-Nazi and white supremacist views and who sparked protests last year again at Berkeley ahead of a planned appearance by the right-wing commentator.
What Trump probably did not count on are students, teachers and invited guests who criticize the Israeli government and advocate for Palestinian rights, people who will not allow a whitewash of a brutal decades-long military occupation that denies millions of Palestinians their most fundamental rights, including the rights to free speech.
Free speech over the Palestinian cause is what activists have been fighting for when attempting to raise the issue on US campuses for years. A growing number of students and teachers have been disciplined or threatened with discipline for engaging in actions in support of Palestinian rights or in opposition to Israeli policies. Students who engage in pro-Palestine activism are often faced with incredible obstacles to their free expression on campus. There’s evidence of university administrations deliberately preventing pro-Palestine students and staff from organizing.
The intimidating atmosphere faced by pro-Palestine activists on campus is also the product of serial anti-BDS actions. There are numerous incidents of off-campus groups engaging in intimidation, such as the far right Jewish Defense League.
Some universities invent new rules and regulations every single time they’d like to curb freedom of speech. Many have demonstrated blatant racism and Islamophobia by billing Palestinians and Muslims as terrorists. There is a disturbing reluctance to acknowledge that these are not isolated incidents. Though they may not all be perpetrated by the same people, they share an obvious and consistent aim: to intimidate and silence those who share minority goals and positions. This harassment is not random, or unpredictable, or unusual. It is a deliberate attempt to suppress a different political position. American political discourse needs the support of institutions devoted to free speech. If US universities refuse to explicitly defend the rights of minority groups, we can only conclude that the slogans of “rigorous open discourse” and “free speech” have become little more than hollow promises.
So, when Trump says he wants people with varying political views to have protection under the First Amendment, he likely means people like Yiannopoulos – which is fine as long as the other side gets the same opportunity to state their views. Trump says he plans to cut off federal funding, at least in part, to colleges that do not protect views across the political spectrum. Should Trump actually hand down such an order, universities will most likely find themselves treading the path between protecting serious debate and giving the microphone to those who spread misinformation and false allegations.
But rules are rules. If US universities will allow some people to speak, they will soon have to allow everybody to speak.
