Israel/Palestine

CUNY SHOULD CONTINUE TO CONDEMN HATE SPEECH WHILE PROTECTING FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, SAYS ANTI-SEMITISM REPORT

...The report found that much of the offensive speech – even if featured at die-ins, mock checkpoints and student signs and banners – was protected under the First Amendment. “As a public university, CUNY is limited in the ways that it can respond to hate speech, whether the words are anti-Semitic, racist, anti-Muslim, or anti-LGBT,” the report stated.

“CUNY cannot punish such speech unless it is part of a course of conduct so pervasive or severe that it denies a person’s ability to pursue an education or participate in University life. It cannot mandate civility or sanction isolated derogatory comments,” the attorneys wrote.

“But what CUNY cannot punish, it can still condemn,” they said. They noted that “as a general rule, CUNY’S Administrators and College Presidents have spoken out against anti-Semitic comments. That practice must continue; hate speech must be challenged promptly and forcefully lest it breed.”

The report added, “What CUNY can sanction is threatening conduct that puts a community member in fear for his safety.” It said actions that go beyond offensive speech – like threatening violence or forcibly pulling signs from the hands of a demonstrator – should be punished if the persons responsible are identified.....

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“There is no finding of a pervasive atmosphere hostile to Jewish students which significantly interferes with their educational opportunities, but there is documentation of many examples of hateful speech and protest by individuals and by some student organizations that are troubling,” Yudof and Waltzer said in a letter to Chancellor Milliken. “The messages are hurtful to Jewish students even if they are constitutionally protected. A few other actions beyond protected speech, the report affirms, involved conduct bordering on assaults.”

http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2016/09/09/cuny-should-continue-to-condemn-hate-speech-while-protecting-first-amendment-rights-says-anti-semitism-report/