Gaza and Charities at War: Campus Speech Codes Gain New Supporters

Suddenly, everybody is in favor of campus speech codes regulating the way students and other stakeholders talk about the war in Gaza.  Representative Jason Smith, Chair of House Ways and Means rather pointedly warned universities two weeks ago that there might be consequences and repercussions to Universities’ tax exempt status soon.  He was “disgusted” by certain campus speech, he said, before adding, “Congress and the American people will not forget on what side these institutions stood the day the largest number of Jewish people were killed since the Holocaust, and they must be held to account for their implicit, vile support of Hamas terrorists and violence against the people of Israel.”  His press release ended with these bullet points:

Background:

• • In the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel, 34 Harvard student organizations issued a joint statement holding Israel at fault for the attack on their own people. Harvard University subsequently dragged their feet until finally condemning the Hamas terrorist attack three days later.
  • A student group at the University of Virginia released a statement expressing support for the “right of colonized people everywhere to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary.” That statement came after the “means” used included the kidnapping of women and children and numerous other unspeakable acts of horrific violence.
  • Northwestern University Students for Justice in Palestine released a statement stating Israel is not the “aggrieved party.” The statement went on to read that Israel could not “by any logical construct, claim victimhood” following an attack where 40 Israeli babies were brutally killed by Hamas terrorists.
  • In an appalling act of antisemitism, the same student group’s chapter at U.C. Berkeley released a statement stating, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.”

Suddenly, more and more people are becoming ardent supporters of campus speech codes.  Presidential candidate Nikki Haley pretty much said the same thing last week.  “What we’re seeing on college campuses is that they are not being held accountable.  And if they’re going to do this, if they’re not going to acknowledge the hate that’s on their campuses, I think their tax-exempt status needs to be revoked.”

darryll k. jones