Time for Universities to Stop the Campus Brown Shirts

The latest incidents of campus thuggery have taken place at Northeastern U. in Massachusetts, where the school finally cracked down and suspended the Students for Justice in Palestine for a year and the University of Michigan, where pro-Palestinian students occupied the student government space and allegedly threatened Jewish students. Yesterday, the AMCHA Initiative appeared before the California State Assembly and spoke about anti-Semitism on California campuses. The situation is getting worse on North American campuses for Jewish students. The culprits? Pro-Palestinian students who are acting like brown shirts. It is time to fight back.



University of Michigan Student Lounge


I don't mean fighting back by similar methods. I mean that the universities need to make it known that while they respect free speech, they will not tolerate violence, thuggery, hate speech, and  intimidation. Students who cross the line from exercising their free speech to the above transgressions should be swiftly expelled and prosecuted if their actions warrant it.


Concordia University Montreal September 2002


Secondly, if Students for Justice in Palestine or the Muslim Student Association chapters can sponsor speakers, so can student groups who support Israel-and America. Instead, most Hillel chapters around the country are afraid of fighting back-preferring to engage in fruitless dialogue with ideologically driven student radicals. It is time to bring in speakers who defend Israel and America and are not afraid to call anti-Semitism out. If the pro-Palestinian bullies want to disrupt, let them. Let the campus police be present to do their job, and let the university take strong punitive action against them. Neutral or uninvolved students can see for themselves which side opposes free speech and which side acts like brown shirts.

If the students or local Jewish organizations won't stand up and hold the universities' feet to the fire, it is up to the community to get involved. Come to attend the anti-Israel events. Videotape them and put them out on social media. If the public doesn't know what is happening, they can't demand change from the universities, especially the public ones they support with their tax dollars. If a university is deemed hostile to Jewish students, they will go elsewhere.

Wishful thinking? Perhaps. Under the current cultural climate, it is not likely. The universities are under the thumb of liberal political correctness with radical left-wing misfits as faculty and spineless administrators hiding under their desks. It took thirty or forty years to get to this point, and that culture can't be changed overnight. But we should insist that universities provide a safe and comfortable environment for all students-including Jewish students.

And that should happen overnight.