Over objections over academic freedom and free speech, the California State Assembly passed a controversial resolution (HR 35) that calls on universities to crackdown on criticism of Israel. Passed by a voice vote, the resolution includes language that equates criticism of Israeli policies and actions as “anti-Semitism.” While the resolutions original purpose is laudatory and does include clear expression of anti-Semitism, its drafters decided to include criticism of Israel and its human rights record in a measure that at a minimum chills free speech by professor and students alike. Drafted by Republican Linda Halderman, there was no hearing or debate allowed on the resolution. Just a voice vote.
It should be kept in mind that this is a non-binding resolution and, as such, has little coercive impact on universities. However, as public institutions, these schools are likely to take such a resolution as a guideline for the future to avoid the animus and possible retaliatory measures from the legislature. It describes anti-Semitism that should “not be tolerated in the classroom or on campus, and that no public resources be allowed to be used for anti-Semitic or intolerant agitation.”
The key “whereas” provisions lists the acts are deemed evidence of the need for greater action from universities in combatting anti-Semitism:
WHEREAS, Over the last decade some Jewish students on public
postsecondary education institution campuses in California have
experienced the following: (1) physical aggression, harassment, and
intimidation by members of student or community groups in
student-sponsored protests and rallies held on campus; (2) speakers,
films, and exhibits sponsored by student, faculty, and community
groups that engage in anti-Semitic discourse or use anti-Semitic
imagery and language to falsely describe Israel, Zionists, and Jews,
including that Israel is a racist, apartheid, or Nazi state, that
Israel is guilty of heinous crimes against humanity such as ethnic
cleansing and genocide, that the Jewish state should be destroyed,
that violence against Jews is justified, that Jews exaggerate the
Holocaust as a tool of Zionist propaganda, and that Jews in America
wield excessive power over American foreign policy; (3) swastikas and
other anti-Semitic graffiti in residential halls, public areas on
campus, and Hillel houses; (4) student- and faculty-sponsored
boycott, divestment, and sanction campaigns against Israel that are a
means of demonizing Israel and seek to harm the Jewish state; (5)
actions of student groups that encourage support for terrorist
organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah and openly advocate
terrorism against Israel and the Jewish people; and (6) suppression
and disruption of free speech that present Israel’s point of view;
and
Such anti-Semitism includes speech accusing Israel of “crimes against humanity”; “language or behavior [that] demonizes and delegitimizes Israel”; claims that Israel engages in forms of “ethnic cleansing”; statements portraying Israel as a “racist” or “apartheid” state; statements “applying double standards by requiring of Israel a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation;” “actions of student groups that encourage support for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah”; and “Student and faculty-sponsored boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel.” These are some of the cited examples that are then the basis for the resolution to encourage universities to take further steps to protect Jewish students from such speech.
This makes criticism of Israel the same as a hatred for the Jewish people and human rights activists (and various United Nations figures) bigots.
College campuses are places where such issues of human rights and politics have long been debated under the protection of academic freedom and free speech. The legislature’s intrusion into this protected space is both unwelcomed and unwarranted. These schools already have robust discrimination and hate speech protections.
If these are examples of anti-Semitic or hate speech, then United Nations officials like Judge Richard Goldstone and Jimmy Carter (as well as groups like Amnesty International) would be barred from campuses as anti-Semitic bigots.
This is not to say that these groups or these individuals are correct in their views. Rather they are not criticizing Israel out of anti-Semitism but good-faith view on human rights and civil liberties — just as their critics hold good-faith opposing views. Notably, proponents for Israel do not win this debate by demonizing critics or seeking to silence such speech. The resolution is particularly troubling in California, which is the home of so many leading academic institutions with a long history of political protests and discourse on campus.
What is most striking is that objections were made publicly to this language before passage with even some sponsors expressing concerns. It would have been an easy thing to edit that graph to eliminate areas of legitimate public policy differences and debate but the language was kept in the resolution.
Here is the resolution:.
Source: ABC
know a lot about hate don’t ya, ralphie
Another typical Leftist rubbish article from Jonathan Turley. Turley pretends to “know” that Goldstone, Carter, and Amnesty International “are not criticizing Israel out of anti-Semitism but good-faith view of human rights and civil liberties.” Turley and the other Leftists are wrong, as usual.
There is NO distrinction btween those who hate Israel–like Goldstone, Carter, Amnesty International, and the many other Leftists and Leftist organization–and those who hate Jews. Goldstone, Carter, Amnesty International, and all the other Leftists and Leftist groups don;’t give a crap about human rights or civil liberities. Just the opposite. They HATE human rights and they HATE civil liberties.
Do these Leftists spend their time or Internet articles attacking China, Saudi Arabia, or any of the many Leftist governments that constantly attack human rights and civil liberties? Of course not. They LOVE it! The intensity of their focus on little, tiny Israel is, in a way, understandable. Israel is the ONLY civilized nation in the Middle East. The Leftists HATE that. They would much prefer every place in the world be like Libya, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Cuba, and so on.
Jewish people thrive, of course, in environment that are civilized and where liberty is cherished. Not only do they thrive in such environment, but they excel. That is why Jews had such a prominent role in helping to establish the United States of America.
Make no mistake about it, those who attack Israel, hate Jews. They are envious of Jews and their accomplishments in art, music, literature, science, medicine, law, mathematics, business, and on and on. So, while some Leftists like to pretend that they only hate Israel, not Jews, those are just phonies. They know deep down, as Leftists, that they hate Jews just as much as they hate Israel, because they are antithetical to their Leftist “values.”
JD_FL,
I do get the picture and I would guess that you are a racist, misogynist, who hates immigrants and will vote for Romney. However, I defend your right to say what you feel and be who you are. 🙂
This legislation is merely a stupid politician playing to the crowd. It signifies nothing. As to the use of “semitic” to signify Araba or Jews, I personally never use it. It was dreamed up by 19th Century eugenics types and from the beginning was meant to disparage those of Middle Eastern heritage as being different racially from the “higher” evolved Aryans.
This story is much sturm und drang over nothing and the legislation certainly unconstitutional if the fools who supported it tried to make it binding.
Of course this is ridiculous.
Then again so is calling anyone who does not agree 100% with Obama a racist.
So is calling anyone who is against taxpayer funded abortions, taxpayer-paid for contraceptives, or believes abortion to be akin to murder a misogynist
So is calling anyone who is against immigrants not following the rules, racist.
So is calling… well you get the picture.
The resolution has all the hallmarks of the Sedition Act. Is this a test bubble for a new Sedition Act? Would such an act follow the NeoCon NWO?
http://www.studyworld.com/sedition_act_of_1798.htm
While such a resolution has no real force of law, it’s very easy to see where this is leading.
LOL…..
Melisha, the laywoman (her own correction- Layperson) is frothing. It seems that is what happens to the Typo-Correctional Queen when she claims to know more about the others than about herself.:-). Did I do my smiley thingy right this time? Thanks for the correction anyway.
Melisha, a piece of advice to the Typo-Correctional Queen. Check your facts before babbling. The assembly woman is a devout Jewish.
I would still suggest you sharpen your English comprehension skills so you can understand what was said.:-) Make knowledge your best friend, rather than your worst enemy. My saying, “I am not an Arab”, was a pun. I have many Arab friends too. Many people think I am an Arab because of my last name, but your deep knowledge of ALL things should have made you get that, especially the one who has Arab friends.:-). With your sharpened comprehension skills, you may get that one day.
Lastly, I admire your ire. You express it beautifully.
I’d like to see the Governor draft a non-binding statement of opposition to this motion, including a declared intent to veto anything like it. By this metric, most Israelis would be considered anti-semites.
I’m an atheist now, but I grew up Jewish and I fully support your right to make bigoted remarks about me, Jews, Israel and anything else you want to make bigoted remarks about. I am, of course, still free to debate your remarks — which is how a free society and our society is supposed to work, thanks to our brilliant, beautiful Constitution.
It is essential that we use our free speech and that we fight violations of it, because every time there’s a chill on free speech, it makes it easier and easier for free speech violations in the future.
This is one reason I find it so important to support theFIRE.org, which defends civil liberties on campus — in turn, showing students that they can and must stand up for our rights, and instructing them on what those rights are and how they should play out in our lives and public institutions.
Oro Lee,
I almost broke my plethora laughing so hard! Even if I don’t have one! 🙂
Feemeister, go ahead and study it; there was this guy named Rainer Maria Rilke — you’ll want to find out all about him. I was THINKING of taking the name “Maria” for this blog, just to sound more masculine…but…
Oro Lee, you don’t have a plethora. But I do. 😉
“I feel it deep in my plethora”
I can’t even find mine, let alone feel it.
Malisha, TOO funny! Of course we all thought you were a man with such a manly name as you have! I don’t WANT to go study my history, as I am German . . .
Malisha, LOL
Teji, first off, don’t bother telling me when I “may” respond. Most people on the Turley blogs expect me to do just as I please if I am interested enough.
Second, it doesn’t bother me that you opine negatively on my English comprehension skills; I have misunderstood better writers than you are often enough and will continue to do so. (Although I will tell you gratuitously that Yann Martel told me that authors DREAM about having readers like me who “get” what they write.)
Third, let me deconstruct this, because I feel it deep in my plethora:
=================
“The Assembly woman is an idiot. I assume she is Jewish. It is sad to see that she does not know her own history. She does not know that both Arabs and Jews are Semites. It is important for her to learn her own history. No, I am not an Arab.
This resolution shows that some ethnic groups hate others expressing their views no matter how offensive they may be.
Can this be also called antisemitic?:-)”
==============
IF the assemblywoman is Jewish (I didn’t check because I don’t care), what do you call “her history”?
Did I understand so far, Teji?
Would her history be the history of a California legislator whose father was Jewish and mother was Christian, or the history of a California legislator whose mother was Jewish and father was Persian, or…oh well, I don’t have time for this. You tell ME what her history is and how sad it is that she doesn’t know it. (Oh wait a minute, isn’t there some requirement that California legislators study and know California history? I mean, maybe not)…
“She does not know that both Arabs and Jews are Semites” — wait, wait, does this resolution just say that ARABS who say stuff on campus that is disfavored go directly to jail and don’t collect their $200 or does it apply to all Muslims, whether Arab, Chinese or perhaps Moldovian?
“It is important for her to know her own history” — why? What’s HER HISTORY got to do with this? Couldn’t she be either a famous scientist or a reprehensible criminal regardless of what her history is? I mean, do you know what the meaning of IS is? What’s YOUR history?
“No, I am not an Arab.”
Thank god for that, Teji, because one of my best friends is an Arab and I don’t want him to feel embarrassed about this. (He’s got enough problems; just think about his HISTORY!)
Oh, and Teji, if you want that little thing you did with the punctuation to come out with a yellow smiley-face, you will need to put a space BEFORE it and a space AFTER it.
Why you want to know my gender is a mystery to me (because research shows that whereas certain diseases occur more often in one sex than another, certainly being wrong about what Teji has written is probably gender neutral) but I am a woman. If I had you wrong when I first read your first post, I have you wronger now that I’ve read your second.
BettyKath, layperson is the oldest profession. I never believed that prostitution was the oldest profession because I believe that rational savage societies predated all patriarchal property-based constructs. As in read Evelyn Reed. Prostitution, of course, is a natural and necessary part of all patriarchal societies. I think it’s important for me to go and learn my history now, so I’ll sign off…
If California’s liberal Democrats won’t come to the aid of Israel, it shouldn’t be surprising that Republicans do so. There’s votes and money in them thar hills doncha.
Next I imgaine that any person who denounces illegal immigrants will have to be barred from campuses and put in jail too. This is an old tactic that all authoritarians use when they know they are in the wrong. It is not confined to the right or left.
Israel is a “nation”. Judaism a religion. Zionism is a political platform.
To equate them all is idiotic and shows the motives here are disingenuous.
Extremists of a feather, they flock together. And everyone is hit with their droppings.