University Demonstrations Against Genocide Are Not Anti-Semitic, nor Should They Be Construed as Supporting a Terrorist Organization

Let's limit this conversation to university campuses, because it's their students who are being dismissed, losing their graduation certificates, or their visas for attending demonstrations. These are young people from various nations being taught, in a nation that once knew better, that voicing an opinion against the systematic killing of an entire population, including women and children, on the basis of ethnicity, religion, political opinion, or social status, is somehow anti-semitic.

Really?

Anti-semitism is defined as ‘a hatred of Jews.’

Where is the argument? What stupid and historically illegal message is being delivered? These intelligent young men and women have no problem with Jews or Israel, their intense feelings are quite properly directed at a universally despised ethnic cleansing.

Prior to the ongoing murder and starvation of an entire civilian population of Palestinians, regardless of their support of Hamas, there were no student demonstrations against Israel. Many of the demonstrators are Jews. Are they anti-semites as well?

In fact, there are growing demonstrations inside Israel itself.

Does our current occupant of the Oval Office intend to cancel their ability to obtain a visa to the United States or attend its universities?

Possibly so, even though American universities have always been generally compliant with peaceful demonstration. It's part of what was once an honored educational support of the rights of free speech in our centers of learning.

In the U.S., student protest at public universities is broadly protected by the First Amendment (and by policies at many private campuses as well).

Schools may apply reasonable, content‑neutral time/place/manner rules, but they cannot suppress speech based on viewpoint. A few legal findings include:

• 1964–65 — UC Berkeley Free Speech Movement (no surprises there)
  Sit‑ins, rallies, and organizing pressure ended campus bans on political advocacy, and set the modern template for student speech rights.

• 2004 — Roberts v. Haragan (Texas Tech)
  A tiny “free‑speech zone” was struck down; the open, outdoor areas of campuses are public forums for student expression.

• 2015 — Chicago Principles (widely adopted)
  A policy framework, affirming a strong presumption for protest, dissent, and open debate, subject to neutral time/place/manner rules.

Someone should inform our Dictator by Executive Privilege.

It is he who has decided that anyone accusing Israel of genocide is an anti-semite. Apparently, that would include:

• (5 Dec, 2024) Amnesty International investigation concludes Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza

Amnesty International’s research found sufficient basis to conclude that Israel has committed, and is continuing to commit, genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip. The organization said as much, in a landmark new report published today.

• (BBC) Israel committing genocide in Gaza, world's leading experts say.

The world's leading association of genocide scholars has declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. A resolution passed by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) states that Israel's conduct meets the legal definition as laid out in the UN convention on genocide.

When the American rules of law descend into the hands of a single person, a dictatorship is underway, if not already achieved.

Not that it matters to those whose university educations were destroyed.

But it matters a great deal to the America we call home, and are losing bit by bit, to a tyrant who will not be stopped by law, not even the highest law of the land.

Sleep on that, and let me know how you feel in the morning.