"The Senate Condemns Student Groups as Backlash to Pro-Palestinian Speech Grows"

ON FRIDAY, THE U.S. Senate passed a unanimous resolution condemning what it called “anti-Israel, pro-Hamas student groups” across the country following a day of walkouts. Hundreds of students, led by Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, walked out of classes at Columbia University, Princeton University, New York University, and dozens of other colleges in what they described as a demand for a ceasefire in Gaza and end to U.S. military support to Israel. The Senate resolution condemned student groups for ostensibly supporting Hamas as part of a broader government and corporate pushback on protests over the war...

Recent weeks have seen pressure by government officials against student activist groups, the creation of public blacklists in multiple industries, and a wave of politically motivated firings over people’s publicly stated views on the conflict.

“We are seeing people being fired from their jobs, being investigated by HR over their social media posts or conversations with colleagues, and having job offers rescinded. There is a clear trend that people’s jobs are being targeted right now,” said Dima Khalidi, the founder and director of Palestine Legal, an advocacy organization that seeks to preserve the civil rights of supporters of Palestinian rights in the United States.

Khalidi said that her organization has dealt with roughly 2,200 cases of speech suppression between the years 2014 to 2022. Yet in the last two weeks alone, they have fielded 300 new requests for legal assistance, a figure that usually matches their level of requests during a full year. “There is an exponential increase in the need for legal support,” she said. “It is a direct result right now of the kind of incitement that our own elected officials are engaging in, as well as the failure of universities and employers to push against pressure.”...

A FULL ACCOUNTING of the speech suppression across multiple industries would be difficult given the incredible scope of retaliation, which expands daily. But across the media and technology sectors, the arts, academia, and even generally nonpolitical industries like aviation and public relations, there has been an obvious effort to threaten, ostracize, and remove individuals from jobs based on their stated views on the subject...

There have been a few cases of genuine prejudice and hate speech underlying these incidents. But the vast majority of recent retaliation appears to be based on what is considered protected speech and advocacy in normal circumstances. These attacks have extended from corporate America deep into the cultural world as well. Numerous writers have had their events canceled or been forced to shift venues based on past or present statements they have made deemed to be supportive of Palestinians or critical of Israel, including the political analyst and author Nathan Thrall and the novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen, who was scheduled to speak at 92NY.

The climate of fear in the art world has led many to wonder how to balance the pressure to take a public stand with the fear that retaliation over politics may end their careers early. Many filmmakers have reported feeling pressured to delete social media posts and Instagram accounts out of fear of surveillance from peers in their industry...

The fear of adding one’s name to a public letter is particularly acute since the traditionally authoritarian tactic of blacklisting has returned with a vengeance to target critics of Israel. A number of new websites have sprung up in recent weeks listing names of university students and corporate employees accused of issuing or endorsing sentiments deemed hostile to Israel, adding to an already rich cottage industry of such sites, including the notorious academic blacklist Canary Mission...

A NUMBER OF major donors to Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania have also threatened to pull funds following student protests and public statements in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas and subsequent bombing of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military...

Despite the growing climate of repression, legal advocates committed to defending free speech on the issue say that they will continue to promote the Palestinian perspective on the conflict with renewed urgency given current events in Gaza.

“There are many people speaking out and refusing to be intimidated by this McCarthyist-style purge,” said Khalidi of Palestine Legal. “It’s really important for people to think beyond the immediate moment and tap into our moral compass here, because we are witnessing immense war crimes, and if we don’t stand up and speak out about them, then we are also complicit.”