There should be no place for hate speech

I ATTENDED the Yom Ha’atzmaut concert at The Baxter on May 1 and was confronted by a motley gang of ruffians demonstrating against Israel, who blocked entrances to ticket holders, uncaringly jostling children and the elderly.

The anti-Semitism crisis rolls on at UCT and other universities.

People at campus gatherings regularly spout hideous lies and libels about Israel.

Many of us are horrified that these things are being allowed at all.

They are racist, prejudiced, bigoted, offensive and hurtful. These demonstrations of intolerance should be utterly beyond the pale.

At the same time, many of us are horrified at the way opposing points of view are being shut down.

Such attempted censorship is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes. In a liberal society, free speech is a sacred value.

Universities, in particular, should encourage the unrestricted exchange of ideas.

Permit dubious speech, yes, but opposing speech should be protected, which it is not. When freedom of speech descends into hate speech, it should be restricted by law.

The purpose of a university or school is to foster the exercise of reason, encourage intelligent thought and promote the dissemination of knowledge.

Bigotry always rests on malicious fabrication and has no place in a place of learning as this denies reason and is inimical to thought and knowledge.

Demonstrable untruth has no legitimate claim on public debate. A school or university has no obligation to spread proven lies or group libels.

But schools and universities do have an obligation to ensure that demonstrable falsehoods are robustly countered.

The main problem is that the range of views this implies is too often absent.

If places of learning were true crucibles of reason and knowledge, it wouldn’t occur to those participating in them to stage such malevolent presentations as experienced at the Baxter on Monday night.