Robert Reich: Protesting the massacre in Gaza, as students in the US are doing, is not anti-Semitism

By Robert Reich, Former US Secretary of Labor, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, The Guardian

Let’s get a few things straight shall we? Protesting this massacre is not anti-Semitism. It’s not hate speech. It does not endanger Jewish students.

Education should provoke. Without being provoked, even young minds can get bogged down in old stereotypes. The most important thing I teach my students is to seek out the people who disagree with them. This is important because the essence of learning is to test ideas, assumptions and values. And what better place to test ideas, assumptions and values ​​than the university?

Apparently Columbia University President Minush Shafiq doesn’t share my opinion. Last week, she bowed to House Republicans and promised to discipline faculty and students who took part in protests against the ongoing massacre in Gaza, which has so far killed some 34,000 people, most of them women and children. The next day, she called the New York City police to arrest more than 100 students participating in a peaceful protest.

Let’s get a few things straight shall we? Protesting this massacre is not anti-Semitism. It’s not hate speech. It does not endanger Jewish students. It’s doing what universities should do – taking a stand against something perceived as wrong, provoking discussion and debate.

Education should provoke. Without being provoked—excited, prodded—even young minds can remain stuck in old stereotypes.

The war between Israel and Hamas is horrific. The atrocities committed by both sides demonstrate all the inhumanity that human beings are capable of and show the vile consequences of hatred. Namely, it provides an opportunity for students to revise their preconceptions and learn from each other.

If Columbia, or any other university now reeling from student protests, had done what it needed to do, it would have become a hotbed of debate about the war. In such a debate, dissent is welcomed, demonstrations are welcomed, arguments are welcome, and differences would be explored.

The mission of the university is to guide students how to learn, not to tell them what to think. It consists in inviting debate, not suppressing it. Truth is a process and a method—more a verb than a noun.

I like my students to take issue with something that I or another student has said, starting with “I don’t agree!” and continuing with the reasons why. Disagreement doesn’t mean being disagreeable. Disagreement breeds reflection and discussion. It challenges students to reconsider their positions and explore them more deeply.

This is why universities should encourage and protect unpopular views. This is why speakers of unpopular theses should be invited and welcomed to universities.

That’s why students should not be protected from what we often casually call “microaggressions.” Being edgy is actually being sensitive and open to new ideas.

This is precisely why peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged, not violently suppressed. It is never a good idea to call in armed police to arrest participants in a peaceful student protest.

Finally, universities should do their best to tolerate the expression of viewpoints that might make some people feel uncomfortable. Branding all offensive speech as “hate speech” removes a major pillar of education. Of course it’s offensive. It is designed to offend.

There are limits, of course. Speech directed at specific students, intended to hurt them as individuals, does not encourage learning. This is a form of intimidation. It should not be allowed.

I am now old enough and have been a professor long enough to see universities erupt in anger—against bigots like George Wallace when he ran for president, against the horrors of the Vietnam War, against apartheid in South Africa, and against attempts to limit free speech.

Some of these protests were noisy. Some caused inconvenience. Some of the protesters took over the university buildings. But most were not violent. Nor did they attempt to harm or intimidate individual students.

Whenever university chancellors called the police and students were arrested and expelled, the academic process came to a complete halt. All of this brings me to the key role of university faculties, and that is to protect free expression. This role is especially important now that the work of university presidents and trustees has degenerated primarily into fundraising— usually by wealthy alumni who have their own short-sighted views about what speech should be allowed or banned on university grounds.

The administration of Columbia University has every right—and, in my opinion, an obligation—to protect free expression at Columbia University by seeking a vote of no confidence in Shafiq to end her tenure.

The administrations of Yale, New York University and other universities that have been gripped by protests against what is happening in Gaza should do everything in their power to use these inconveniences as an occasion for learning, not for repression.

Translation for “Voices”: Julia Semir al-Hakim

Source: “The Guardian”