This is evident from the statement of opinion of the heads of the research universities in Israel regarding the statements of the presidents of universities in the United States in Congress In it they argued that freedom of expression prevails over the content
Since the terrible massacre of October 7, a wave of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism has been rising on the campuses of many of the universities in the United States, including the elite universities. Instead of empathy and support for Israeli students and Jews for the terrible disaster that befell the Jewish people in their country, the campuses are abuzz with demonstrations calling for the destruction of the State of Israel ("from the river to the sea"), for terrorist activity against the citizens of Israel ("the Intifada"), and for hatred of Jews and Israelis everywhere. Jews and Israelis fear walking around campuses in the United States, speaking Hebrew, or being identified in any way based on their religion or origin. Memories of dark days in our past come back and rise.
In this reality, the importance of a firm leadership in American universities that will say: "Enough" stands out. Unfortunately, this leadership is lacking these days. Aside from a few academic leaders who condemn anti-Semitism loud and clear, and work against it as much as they can, many others remain silent. In an embarrassing hearing held in the American Congress two days ago 5/12/2023, the presidents of three leading universities in the United States (Harvard, MIT and Pennsylvania) appeared, who were questioned as to their position on the severe anti-Semitism on the campuses under their responsibility. Although the presidents condemned expressions of anti-Semitism on campuses, they insisted that a significant part of these expressions cannot be prevented due to their being covered under the protection of freedom of expression. At the climax of the debate in Congress, the presidents were asked if calling for the extermination of the Jewish people (genocide) is consistent with the code of conduct at the universities they head, and to everyone's astonishment, they found it difficult to answer simply: "No." Instead, they twisted with quasi-legal formulations, saying that it "depends on the context". Yes, that's right. The question of the legality of calling for the extermination of a nation depends on the context!
A day after the hearing, the president of Harvard University published a brief clarification that manifestations of anti-Semitism are prohibited at her institution. A similar clarification was issued by the president of the University of Pennsylvania.
The position of the presidency as reflected in their testimony in Congress, according to which expressions of anti-Semitism and calls for the extermination of a people may be protected under the protection of freedom of speech, does a terrible injustice to the American Constitution. Woe to the people whose constitution allows a call to exterminate a people in the name of freedom of speech. Woe to the nation whose constitution allows the persecution of Jews - and other minorities - in the name of freedom of expression. Freedom of speech is not absolute freedom: it retreats in the face of expressions of incitement, hatred and calls to violence. Certainly he retreated before calling for the extermination of a people. So in the United States, and so in the other democratic countries of the world.
The crushing failure of the presidency in the congressional hearing reflects the exhaustion of their hands, and that of the presidency and other presidents, in dealing with anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli acts on the various campuses in the United States. It is not enough to apologize and express regret, clear and decisive actions are required. At the hearing, the presidency detailed a number of steps that have already been taken or are about to be taken at their institutions, aimed at protecting the safety and well-being of Jews and Israelis on campuses. It is their responsibility to make sure that these steps are effective and sufficient. The burden that now rests on their shoulders is to show their students, their companies and faculty members, and in fact the entire public, that the universities they lead excel not only in research and teaching, but also in upholding universal humanist values and protecting the rights of minorities wherever they may be. Thus, everyone will know that calling for the extermination of a people is strictly prohibited at Harvard, MIT, and Pennsylvania universities, as well as anywhere else in the world.
Prof. Aryeh Tsavan, President of Bar-Ilan University, Chairman of the RA
Prof. Ehud Grossman, president of Ariel University in Samaria
Prof. Daniel Haimowitz, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Prof. Alon Chen, president of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Prof. Asher Cohen, president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Prof. Uri Sion, president of the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology
Prof. Ariel Porat, president of Tel Aviv University
Prof. Leo Cory, president of the Open University
Prof. Ron Rubin, president of Haifa University
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How interesting to see the leftist media bubble burst in the face of all leftists and expose the ugly face of progressive academia and its toxic ideology. So first, what we saw is absolutely not a "failure", as the programmers say "it's not a bug, it's a feature". And now for some unpleasant facts:
Freedom of speech no longer lives in academia in the US and the Western world. Harvard received a nice and round score of 0 out of 100 in the freedom of expression index and was ranked last among all US universities. I'm sure you didn't read about it in "Hidan".
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12487771/Harvard-named-WORST-school-free-speech.html
These are institutions that have long since lacked a significant amount of faculty members with a conservative worldview. These are institutions whose people destroy people's careers if they dare to address someone by the pronoun of their non-preferred gender and claim that it is an expression of hatred. Only now do they suddenly care about freedom of expression, but only when it concerns, of course, harming Jews and Israelis.
These are institutions that have been receiving support from Saudi Arabia for decades and more recently from Qatar, and these countries make the contributions in controlling the syllabus and the way history is taught on the campuses. Is it any wonder that a brainwashed generation has grown up with anti-Semitic views who have no clear idea of what is happening in the Middle East? (Or even where it is on the world map?). No. What is surprising is all the multitudes of Jewish donors who suddenly make a surprised Picchu face. They had no idea what was taught in "their" universities.
These are institutions that abandoned the American way of "free market" and adopted a strain of progressive post-modernist neo-Marxism. They divide the world into "good" and "bad", and the lines of division are many and varied: the "whites" are the bad oppressors and the "blacks" and all the rest are good. The men are oppressive and bad and the women - exploited and good. The straights are good, and all other members of the LGBTQIA+++ communities are of course oppressed and good. You can accumulate points and get significant benefits if you accumulate enough suppression points. They will prove Karin Jean-Pierre - the incompetent spokeswoman of the White House who was chosen for being a non-straight black woman, or the vice president of the United States who, apart from laughing annoyingly, is also able to do... well, nothing, but she is a non-white woman, and that What determines the democrats and progressives.
In this situation, and in view of the simplistic worldview to the point of depression, it is clear that the Jews will be attached to "whites" as the ultimate evil of the 21st century and will be blamed for all the harms to the earth and the universe (and global warming). What happened at the hearing is like lifting the inspection lid of a city sewer and smelling and watching all the filth flowing down. You really had no idea this was happening? Are you that disconnected? That's how much you consume YNET, and "Haaretz" and the "New York Times" and CNN and the BBC, and that's how much the content you receive is filtered and managed by Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, and by the Chinese on TikTok?
And now the heads of the Israeli universities are writing letters that are sloppy and minimally dishonest, when they are a significant part of the problem. These are exactly the ones who allowed pro-terrorist demonstrations on campuses on the days of remembrance for the martyrs of Israel's systems, but forbade even the waving of Israeli flags because it causes a "trigger" for the poor Hamas students, not to mention lectures on behalf of "If You Want" (which is not a racist movement or some kind of propaganda lie Other).
We need to demand from these heads a thorough system overhaul on their campuses and make sure that the study material is less biased, that the faculty is much less one-sided, and that freedom of expression is preserved, even for positions that do not match the views of Amira Hess.