Victory for State-Funded Hate Speech at UMass
Jew Haters Celebrate
A Massachusetts state court has refused to block the University of Massachusetts, Amherst from hosting an anti-Semitic panel featuring Linda Sarsour and Roger Waters. The court’s opinion recognized that “[t]he Verified Complaint and supporting legal papers reflect a genuine concern by the plaintiff students who filed this motion that the panel discussion will engender anti-Semitism.” Unfortunately, the court also ruled that Plaintiffs had a very high bar to overcome before the court could order the antisemitic event off campus. They had to prove that the speakers were likely to incite or produce “imminent lawless action” at the event, or that “any expected speaker has personally threatened any of the Plaintiffs with physical harm or any other type of harm.”
Anti-Israel hate groups like Jewish Voice for Peace have attempted to mischaracterize this lawsuit as an attack on their First Amendment rights. But, according to Karen Hurvitz, the attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jewish students, the lawsuit never challenged their rights to engage in free speech. It challenged the use of taxpayer monies to pay for discriminatory hate speech. Private individuals like Linda Sarsour are free to advocate for discrimination against Jews, and even for the destruction of the Jewish state. The Plaintiffs never tried to restrain that freedom. But government entities, like UMass Amherst, should not be free to involve themselves in private discrimination by placing their power, property, and prestige at Sarsour’s disposal.
“The decision by the court to allow tax payer funds to host a panel of nationally known anti-Semitic haters is a victory for state-sponsored hate speech,” said Dr. Charles Jacobs, President of Americans for Peace and Tolerance.
The event might proceed as planned, but the University of Massachusetts, as a state entity, should be held to account for any violations of the Fourteenth Amendment and anti-discrimination laws that happen as a result.
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