New York Post

Uni Double Standards

- ALAN DERSHOWITZ & ANDREW STEIN

COLUMBIA University’s president and other college administra­tors have stated that the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is permissibl­e political speech.

On an abstract level, they are correct. It is also permissibl­e for white supremacis­ts to demand all blacks be sent back to Africa and all Muslims to Saudi Arabia.

The First Amendment protects homophobic, sexist and transphobi­c speech too.

But would any school permit such bigoted chants?

Imagine what would happen if a group of white-supremacis­t students demanded South Africa be returned to white apartheid control: “From the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, South Africa should be free of BLACKS and returned to WHITE control!”

Would any school tolerate such a chant?

Would it take action against such racists? Of course it would. The racist diversity, equity and inclusion bureaucrac­y and its bigoted brother “intersecti­onality” would demand it, and the school would comply.

So the issue is not one of abstract free speech. It is whether the school applies the same standard to Jews, blacks, gays and other minorities.

And with these universiti­es the answer is clearly no.

What is permissibl­e to say against Jews and Israel would not be permissibl­e to say against blacks or gays. That is the reality.

Universiti­es, whether public or private, should apply a single standard of free speech, harassment and tolerance for dissenting views.

As the Supreme Court has held, there’s no such thing as a false idea under the First Amendment.

There is also no such thing as a true or good idea that is given preference over false or bad ideas.

There must be what we’ll call “a circle of symmetry.” And what is outside and inside the circle must be based on neutral principles.

Columbia and other universiti­es must decide whether to ban or permit all racist, sexist, homophobic, antisemiti­c and other offensive speech.

They cannot punish anti-black racism while tolerating anti-Jewish racism, even if the First Amendment protects both.

Columbia and other universiti­es must make a decision: apply the First Amendment and permit all forms of bigotry; or design symmetrica­l neutral rules that protect all groups equally.

What is unacceptab­le is what most universiti­es are doing today: protecting some minorities favored by DEI and intersecti­onality over Jews and other minorities disfavored by DEI.

This double standard cannot be allowed to become the accepted standard, as it has at Columbia, Harvard and other universiti­es.

Jews are explicitly second-class citizens under DEI and intersecti­onality.

These ideas have been the source of some of the worst antiJewish and anti-Israel demonstrat­ions, petitions and harassment.

As long as these bigoted bureaucrac­ies continue to hold sway at universiti­es, corporatio­ns and other institutio­ns, Jews will continue to be the object of discrimina­tory treatment in speech, admissions, hiring and other decisions.

These bureaucrac­ies must be dismantled, uprooted and delegitimi­zed if real equality and meritocrac­y are ever to be restored, as they should be in every institutio­n.

But many universiti­es are doubling down on their commitment­s to these dangerous ideologies.

Presidents, professors and administra­tors in most schools are too terrified to challenge these powerful bureaucrac­ies.

But they must if the future of America’s great universiti­es is to be preserved.

Alan Dershowitz is a professor emeritus at Harvard Law School and author of “War Against the Jews: How to End Hamas Barbarism.” Andrew Stein, a Democrat, served as New York City Council president, 1986-94.

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