Case in point – the ACLU is preparing to sue Northeastern University in Boston on behalf of the Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP). The university stands accused of violating the free speech rights of the pro-Palestinian students who disrupted a lecture being given by Israeli Defense Force (IDF) representatives.
WGBH radio describes the incident as such:
“Back in April, the group Students for Justice in Palestine staged a walkout of a presentation by Israeli soldiers inside a lecture hall at Northeastern. Their goal, they say, was to protest human rights abuses in the Middle East. More than 20 students marched out. Some captured video with their smartphones. Others heckled the soldiers, calling them criminals.”
"They’re not welcome on our campus," some shouted. "Free! Free! Palestine!"
The Boston Globe, WGBH, and the blogosphere are alight with outrage over Northeastern’s sanctions which include putting the SJP on probation and asking them to draft a civility statement. The common theme is that the university’s actions constitute a “chilling effect on free speech." Apparently the free-speech rights of the SJP protestors trump those of the IDF presenters and the interested folks in the lecture hall.
Why is it so tempting to side with the SJP protestors? Because they are small and Northeastern is large? Because the Palestinians for whom they toil are few and Israel is many? Is there no application of logic to balance a knee-jerk sympathy?
Let’s take this situation and tweak the actors a bit. In a hypothetical situation, imagine New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, as head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, presenting a lecture at Northeastern University. As he begins a full-throated call for increased gun control, an assemblage of Student Republicans stand to shout him down, waving signs which depict Bloomberg as a modern-day Hitler. The university sanctions the student group, putting them on probation and asking them to draft a civility statement. What will the ACLU do? Where do you stand?
Or this…
Planned Parenthood is delivering a policy lecture at Northeastern University. Within moments, a delegation of Catholic pro-life students rise up, displaying signs depicting aborted fetuses and decrying the murder of children. The university sanctions the student group, putting them on probation and asking them to draft a civility statement. What will the ACLU do? Where do you stand?
Freedom of speech does not depend on the popularity of various positions. It is not limited to only aggrieved groups. In the foregoing real and hypothetical examples, it extends to not only the protestors, but to the presenters and the audiences (yes, the freedom to listen is part of free speech). So before maligning and suing Northeastern University, perhaps the principles being applied should be elevated over political sympathies.
It is so terribly difficult to be objective. But we must try.
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