As the controversy grows over three university presidents refusing on Dec. 5 to clearly condemn advocacy of genocide against Jewish people as contrary to their codes of conduct, the highly partisan political battle moved from the halls of Congress to the halls of Penn, where its president, Liz Magill, resigned on Dec. 9, and onward to Harvard, where high-profile calls for the removal of President Claudine Gay were rejected by the university’s board.
While it is satisfying for many to see leftist academic elites get their comeuppance before Congress on something as fundamental as genocide, calls for the limitation of free speech are a double-edged sword that could ultimately hurt everyone, most especially conservatives.
On the Israel–Hamas conflict, both sides in the United States are increasingly blinded by emotion and the daily video of violence, which leads to cancel culture that harms their ability to engage in reasonable discussions that lead to growth and education, the core role of the university.
The terms “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and “intifada” are arguably a rejection of Israel’s right to exist and given frequent historical massacres of Jewish people from the 19th century to the present, including by Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization, a call for “freeing” Palestinians to do as they please in “Palestine” threatens genocide against the Jewish people.
Likewise, the phrase “globalize the intifada” is unconscionable support for global violence against Jews. All of these terms are shocking to the conscience and appalling to the highest degree, especially given the history of the Holocaust and more recent antisemitic atrocities. The phrase “from the river to the sea” has been used by multiple terrorist organizations, including Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and so carries symbolic rather than just literal meaning.
Yet approximately 100 protestors at Harvard took part in a rally that chanted “from the river to the sea” on Dec. 10, five days after the congressional hearing made clear how genocidal the phrase is. As if to taunt Harvard’s embattled president, the rally took place at her office.
By Anders Corr
