{"id":2116871,"date":"2023-12-05T19:46:02","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T00:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-semitism-hearing-highlights-ivy-league-hypocrisy-on-free-speech\/"},"modified":"2023-12-05T19:51:17","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T00:51:17","slug":"anti-semitism-hearing-highlights-ivy-league-hypocrisy-on-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/anti-semitism-hearing-highlights-ivy-league-hypocrisy-on-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Ivy League&#8217;s Free Speech Hypocrisy Exposed in Anti-Semitism Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fanti-semitism-hearing-highlights-ivy-league-hypocrisy-on-free-speech%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2116871&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><blockquote>\n<h2>\u2018In what world is a call for violence against\u200c Jews\u200d protected speech, but a belief that sex is biological and binary isn\u2019t?\u2019<\/h2>\n<figure><figcaption>Liz Magill, president \u200cof University of Pennsylvania, testifies before \u2062the House Education and Workforce\u2062 Committee (Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<h3>The\u2064 Battle Against \u200bAnti-Semitism on College Campuses<\/h3>\n<p>The presidents of \u200cHarvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and MIT appeared before Congress\u200b on Tuesday to discuss the rising anti-Semitism on their\u200c campuses. It \u2062did not go well for them.<\/p>\n<p>Faced with\u2062 hostile questions \u200dfrom\u2063 the Republican-controlled House\u2064 Committee on Education and the Workforce, whose members include Harvard alumna Elise\u2062 Stefanik (R., N.Y.), the\u200c presidents struggled to explain why\u200b their institutions\u2014which have repeatedly denounced, \u2063disinvited, and punished professors for airing conservative views\u2014suddenly discovered the value of free speech \u200cwhen \u2064students\u2062 and\u200c faculty began defending Hamas.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In\u2063 what world is a call\u2063 for violence against Jews protected \u2063speech, but a belief that sex is biological \u2062and binary isn\u2019t?&#8221; Rep. Tim Walberg (R., Mich.) asked Harvard president Claudine Gay.\u2063 The school\u2019s diversity administrators\u200b had \u200cthrown a fit when\u200d Carole Hooven,\u200d an evolutionary biologist at Harvard, stated on Fox\u200b News that there are only two sexes, causing such a firestorm that she had to take a leave of absence. Gay \u200ddidn\u2019t answer\u200c the question.<\/p>\n<p>The\u2064 exchange captured the tenor of the contentious hearing, &#8220;Holding Campus Leaders \u2062Accountable and\u2063 Confronting Anti-Semitism,&#8221; \u200cwhich was unusually well-attended and \u200bwidely viewed on \u200csocial media. Along with \u200cPenn president Liz\u2062 Magill and MIT\u200d president Sally \u2062Kornbluth, \u200dGay repeatedly argued that calls\u200c for &#8220;intifada,&#8221; no\u2063 matter how hateful or offensive, were protected\u200d by academic freedom. Each time they\u2064 did, the committee would throw those words back in their faces,\u200b rattling off all ways in \u2063which the schools had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/musk-releasing-files-on-how-twitter-suppressed-free-speech\/\" title=\"Musk Releasing Files On How Twitter Suppressed Free Speech\">suppressed free speech<\/a> and created an ideological monoculture.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You\u2019re speaking \u200dout of both sides of your mouth,&#8221; Rep. Jim \u200dBanks (R., Ind.) told\u2064 Magill. The Penn \u200cpresident stated throughout the hearing that Penn\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/we-have-a-diversity-bureaucracy-in-the-wake-of-yale-law-brouhaha-prominent-scholars-say-we-need-a-free-speech-bureaucracy-too\/\" title=\"We Have a Diversity Bureaucracy. In the Wake of Yale Law Brouhaha, Prominent Scholars Say We Need A Free Speech Bureaucracy Too\">free speech policies<\/a> &#8220;follow the Constitution,&#8221; even as the university attempts \u2064to punish Amy Wax, a tenured law\u200c professor, for a\u2064 bevy of constitutionally\u200b protected remarks, including her criticism\u200b of diversity programs. The school has not tried \u2063to sanction Huda Fakhreddine,\u200b a\u2062 professor of Arabic literature who told Jews to &#8220;go\u200b back&#8221; to &#8220;fucking Berlin,&#8221; or \u2064Ahmad Almallah, a creative writing instructor who \u2062led chants of\u200c &#8220;intifada revolution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The fact \u200bis that Penn \u2063regulates speech that \u2063it doesn\u2019t like,&#8221; Banks added.<\/p>\n<p>The three schools have \u2064been\u2063 at the center\u2064 of\u200d a national controversy about how universities have handled \u200canti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas&#8217;s \u200dOct. 7 \u200bterror \u2062attacks. At \u200dHarvard, 34 student groups signed an open letter blaming \u200cIsrael for Hamas\u2019s rampage, and an Israeli business school\u200d student was \u2064assaulted when he\u2062 tried to record a\u200d &#8220;die-in.&#8221; At Penn, numerous donors have cut ties \u200dwith the school over its slowness to \u2063condemn anti-Semitism and its students\u2019 open support for \u2062terrorism. And at MIT, foreign students who held an unsanctioned protest \u200cagainst Israel got off with a \u2062slap on\u2063 the wrist. Suspending those students, MIT president Kornbluth said, might have caused &#8220;visa \u2064issues.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The hearing, which came \u200done day \u2064after Harvard screened footage of\u200c Hamas\u2019s Oct. 7\u2064 atrocities, sent \u2063an\u200b unmistakable message to other \u2064universities:\u2062 ignore the\u2063 double standards at your peril. Some congressmen, including Reps. Bob Good \u200c(R., Va.) \u2064and Joe \u2062Wilson\u200c (R.,\u200d S.C.),\u2063 wondered aloud why Harvard, Penn, and MIT should continue \u2062receiving federal funds, while \u200bothers battered the hapless presidents with yes or no questions\u200d that left them talking in circles.<\/p>\n<p>In one \u2064especially\u2063 uncomfortable \u2062exchange,\u200c Elise Stefanik (R., \u200dN.Y.) \u2063pressed Gay on whether\u200b calls for genocide violate Harvard\u2019s code\u2062 of conduct. Gay\u2014who helped oust Harvard Law professor Ronald Sullivan from an administrative post after he served\u200c on \u200dHarvey \u2063Weinstein\u2019s defense \u200bteam\u2014wouldn\u2019t answer.<\/p>\n<p>Other examples of free speech hypocrisy include Penn\u2019s decision in 2013 to \u2064cancel \u200da talk by Narendra Modi, the prime minister \u200bof India, over \u200dhis anti-Muslim remarks; Harvard\u2019s \u2062decision\u2064 in 2017 to rescind\u200c the admission\u2064 of students who posted offensive memes in a group chat; \u2063and MIT\u2019s decision\u2064 in 2021 \u2063to cancel a talk by Dorian Abbot,\u2064 a geophysicist at the University of Chicago who had been invited to speak about\u2062 climate change, because his criticisms \u2064of affirmative action offended graduate students.<\/p>\n<p>Several\u2063 congressmen \u200bdrew a connection between this hypocrisy and the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs ubiquitous on college campuses. Rep.\u2064 Burgess \u200dOwens (R., Utah) \u200cused his time to grill Kornbluth, the\u2064 MIT \u2064president, on the school\u2019s racially segregated dormitories,\u2062 including a blacks-only dorm called &#8220;Chocolate City.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Is\u200b it okay also for whites to set up a white-only dorm where\u200b minorities\u200c are excluded?&#8221; Owens asked.<\/p>\n<p>Kornbluth didn\u2019t say \u2062no.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our students affiliate \u200dvoluntarily with\u2064 whichever dorm they want \u200cto,&#8221; she told Owens. &#8220;It\u2019s not exclusionary. It\u2019s actually positive selection by students.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> <\/p>\n<h2> How did the \u200cRepublican-controlled House Committee on\u200b Education\u200b and the Workforce question the presidents of \u2064Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania,\u200d and \u200cMIT regarding their\u200c institutions&#8217; handling of\u200c free \u200bspeech?<\/h2>\n<p><span>  The rising anti-Semitism on college campuses has\u200d become a cause for concern, prompting the presidents of Harvard University, \u200bthe University of Pennsylvania, \u200dand MIT to appear before Congress to address\u2063 the issue. However, their testimony faced hostile questions from the Republican-controlled House Committee on Education and the\u2063 Workforce, with members like Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), who are Harvard alumna, challenging them on their institutions&#8217; handling of free speech.<\/p>\n<p>One particularly\u200c pointed question asked by Rep. Tim Walberg (R.,\u2063 Mich.) to Harvard president Claudine Gay struck\u2064 at the heart of the matter: &#8220;In what world is a call for violence against Jews protected speech, but \u2064a\u2063 belief that sex is biological and binary isn\u2019t?&#8221; This question alluded to the recent \u200dcontroversy at Harvard, where an evolutionary biologist, \u200bCarole Hooven, faced backlash and had to take a leave\u200b of absence after stating on Fox News that there are only \u200ctwo sexes. Rep. Walberg&#8217;s\u2062 question remained unanswered.<\/p>\n<p>The heated exchange between\u200b the Congress members and the presidents of these prestigious universities exemplified \u200dthe contentious nature \u200cof the hearing titled &#8220;Holding \u200cCampus Leaders Accountable and Confronting Anti-Semitism.&#8221;\u200d The \u2064hearing \u200ddrew substantial attention,\u200b garnering wide \u2064viewership on social \u2063media platforms. Each time the university presidents argued that calls \u2062for violence and \u200dhatred, such\u2064 as those\u200b calling for &#8220;intifada,&#8221; were protected by academic freedom, \u2063the committee would highlight instances where these\u200d same institutions suppressed free speech and fostered an ideological monoculture.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) accused Penn president Liz Magill of speaking &#8220;out of \u200bboth sides of [her] mouth.&#8221; Magill repeatedly claimed that\u2064 Penn&#8217;s free speech policies &#8220;follow the\u200d Constitution,&#8221; while \u2062the university attempts to punish\u200c tenured law professor Amy Wax for constitutionally protected remarks,\u2062 including \u2063her criticism of diversity\u2064 programs.\u2064 Meanwhile, the university has not taken disciplinary action against \u2063professors\u200d like Huda Fakhreddine, who told Jews to &#8220;go back&#8221; to &#8220;f******\u2063 Berlin,&#8221; or Ahmad Almallah, who led chants of &#8220;intifada revolution.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Banks underscored the hypocrisy, stating, &#8220;The fact is that Penn\u200d regulates speech\u200b that it doesn\u2019t like.&#8221;\u2062 Similarly, Harvard and\u200d MIT \u2064have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-defends-his-economic-vision-amid-impeachment-inquiry-hunter-biden-indictment\/\" title=\"Biden stands by economic vision amidst impeachment inquiry and Hunter Biden indictment.\">faced controversies surrounding<\/a>\u2062 their handling of anti-Semitism. \u200dAt Harvard, student \u200bgroups blamed Israel for Hamas&#8217;s terrorist attacks, and\u200d an Israeli student\u200c was assaulted when attempting to record a protest. At Penn, the slow condemnation of anti-Semitism \u2062and open support for terrorism by some students\u200c has led numerous donors\u2062 to cut ties with the university. MIT faced criticism for not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tech-mogul-stabbed-to-death-in-san-francisco\/\" title=\"Tech Mogul Stabbed To Death In San Francisco\">taking stronger action<\/a>\u2063 against foreign students who protested \u200bagainst Israel without permission, with \u200dtheir leniency justified by potential visa \u200cissues.<\/p>\n<p>The testimonies of these university\u200c presidents shed light on\u2063 the challenges higher education institutions face when dealing with\u2064 anti-Semitism on their campuses. The debate\u200d surrounding free speech rights, academic freedom, and the responsibility \u200bof universities to protect their students from discrimination and hatred\u200d remains a complex issue that requires careful consideration and attentive policies. It is essential for universities to demonstrate \u200dconsistency, fairness, and a commitment to preserving an \u2064inclusive and respectful environment for all students and faculty \u2063members.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, questions the world where advocating violence against Jews is considered protected speech, while believing in the biological and binary nature of sex is not. She, along with the presidents of Harvard University and MIT, testified before the House Education and Workforce Committee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":184,"featured_media":2116872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2116871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/184"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2116871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2116871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2116872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2116871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2116871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2116871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}