Free speech has to go both ways

Re “Criticism isn’t antiSemitism,” Opinion, May 26

Saree Makdisi condemns as an attack on academic freedom efforts to ask the University of California’s Board of Regents to adopt the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism.

I agree that the definition is too broad and would ensnare legitimate political discourse along with anti-Semitic conduct. Anti-Semitism — and Islamophobia for that matter — are real problems that need to be addressed, but not by stifling speech.

However, Makdisi would have made a stronger case if he also acknowledged and condemned the attacks on academic freedom by opponents of Israel, whether it be by students disrupting speakers on campus, questioning the impartiality of student leaders simply because they are Jewish, or urging academic boycotts of schools in Israel.

Change can best occur with dialogue and having American higher education impart its ideals of academic freedom and liberty to not only our own students, but also those of Israel and other Mideast nations. John Hanna

Santa Ana

Free speech is not an a-la-carte menu. In a free society, no individual, leader, religious figure, country or religion is beyond criticism.

Everyone seems to agree that drawing cartoons of religious figures, no matter how offensive they might be, is an exercise of free speech. Yet criticism of a foreign government is off the menu? Emily Loughran

Los Angeles

Perhaps Makdisi forgot that in 2010, 11 anti-Israel activists at UC Irvine attempted to deny then-Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren the right to free speech and to deny the audience the right to have a civil exchange of ideas.

He is also apparently unaware that at UC Davis in 2012, a Druze woman and an Israeli reservist were shouted down by hecklers.

These are only two examples of the “stifling atmosphere of intimidation at UC campuses,” where facts, discussion and scholarly scrutiny are each becoming endangered species.

Contrary to what Makdisi asserts, the principle of academic freedom at UC is under attack only by those seeking to shield antiIsrael activists by silencing academic debate. Julia Lutch

Davis, Calif.