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Friend --
As you may know by now,
President Trump signed an executive order (EO) yesterday that is designed to
suppress criticism of Israel under the guise of fighting
anti-Semitism. Much of the national reporting on this EO missed the
mark, focusing on what was misunderstood as an effort by the
Administration to redefine Judaism. But what this EO does is expand
the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel,
restricting free speech on a political question in a blatantly
unconstitutional manner.
We have been fighting against this
politically motivated attempt at expanding the definition of
anti-Semitism for years, working with civil rights and civil liberties advocates to explain what's wrong with the so-called "Anti-Semitism
Awareness Act" (which sought to legislate what this EO imposed by
decree) and helped to put a stop to it last year. Over the
last 24 hours, we engaged with several media outlets to center the correct story, and defend
free speech, and we have issued a memo exposing the groups that pushed for this EO,
which were misidentified in The New York Times as "education,
civil rights and religious organizations," when in fact many of them
are ideologically motivated groups who traffic in bigotry to suppress
free expression.
To better understand issue, see our full statement below:
AAI
Opposes Unconstitutional Executive Order Designed to Suppress Advocacy
for Palestinian Human Rights
President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that constitutes a
direct assault on academic freedom, First Amendment rights, and
advocacy for Palestinian human rights.
AAI has long opposed efforts to stifle criticism of Israel and
advocacy for Palestinian rights under the guise of combatting
anti-Semitism, including congressional efforts like the “Anti-Semitism
Awareness Act.” These are anchored in efforts to legitimize a
working definition of anti-Semitism, since adopted by the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), that was never
intended for use in the United States. The author of the definition
himself, Ken Stern, testified
to Congress that his working definition has been
“abused” and “employed in an attempt to restrict academic freedom and
punish political speech.”
As the Supreme Court held in FEC
v. Wisconsin Right to Life, “the First Amendment requires us
to err on the side of protecting political speech rather than
suppressing it.” Accordingly, it would be inappropriate to list
criticism of Arab countries as examples of hate toward Arab Americans,
just as the Executive Order adopts criticism of Israel as an example
of anti-Semitism. One must be able to freely express criticism of our
own government, any foreign government, or any policies we deem
objectionable—whether on college campuses or in the halls of
Congress.
Instead, the Executive Order requires the Department of Education
to consider this problematic working definition in “identifying
evidence of discrimination,” which includes “the
targeting of the state of Israel” within the definition of
anti-Semitism. While Section 5 of the Order attempts to allow
proponents to claim it will not be used for unconstitutional ends, it
ultimately promulgates federal policy that will chill conduct and
cause individuals to self-censor. This order will in effect censor
those defending Palestinian human rights until a lawsuit is brought
and the slow machinery of the judiciary strikes down the action.
In 2017, AAI opposed
the nomination of Ken Marcus to lead the Office of
Civil Rights at the Department of Education—a chief proponent of the
abuse of this working definition as a means of curtailing criticism of
the Israeli government. In a piece for The
Jerusalem Post, Marcus explained that he is “creating a very
strong disincentive for outrageous behavior by students in particular.
Israel-haters now publicly complain that these cases make it harder
for them to recruit new adherents… Needless to say getting caught up
in a civil rights complaint is not a good way to build a resume or
impress a future employer.” After Marcus was confirmed by a
party-line vote in 2018, AAI warned his
confirmation would in time lead to a “propensity to use the authority
of the federal government to suppress criticism of a foreign
country—Israel—under the guise of combatting anti-Semitism.” That time
has come.
Notably, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights,
Title VI’s prohibition
of discrimination based on race, color, or national
origin already “protects students of any religion
from discrimination, including harassment, based on a student’s actual
or perceived: shared ethnicity or ethnic characteristics, or
citizenship or residency in a country with a dominant religion or
distinct religious identity.” That existing federal civil rights laws
already protect Jewish students from discrimination on campus should
cast doubt on the purported intentions behind this Executive Order.
Rather than protecting Jewish students from burgeoning anti-Semitism,
the goal of this Executive Order is to protect Israel from criticism
and suppress advocacy for Palestinian human rights under the threat of
federal civil rights enforcement.
AAI Executive Director Maya Berry stated the following:
“Anti-Semitism is a real and
growing problem. As AAI reported
last month, law enforcement agencies reported a record number of
violent anti-Jewish hate crime offenses in 2018. It is imperative that
the Department of Education, which has rightly interpreted Title VI to
extend protections against anti-Semitism, maintain a focus on real
civil rights violations. Unfortunately, today’s Executive Order makes
no effort to actually address this deadly problem. Instead, it
furthers a definition of anti-Semitism that was written as a working
definition by a State Department official specifically for non-legally
binding foreign applications. Today’s action is just the latest
instance of how this working definition has been intentionally
laundered through an echo chamber of bills, resolutions, agencies, and
bodies in hopes of granting the appearance of legitimacy to the
politically motivated desire to conflate the real problem of
anti-Semitism with criticism of the state of Israel.
We must not be distracted by
sensational headlines or tweets. The crux of the problem is the
application of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. In utilizing this
definition, President Trump’s Executive Order is dangerous because it
is designed to restrict pro-Palestinian advocacy, violates our First
Amendment right to free speech, and draws the Department of
Education’s limited focus and resources away from addressing actual
civil rights violations on our college campuses. This politically
motivated order will harm civil rights, will be challenged, and will
be overturned. AAI will continue our important work to improve
hate crime data collection and combat
the rise in white nationalist violence. We welcome the partnership
of all government agencies in those efforts, which are aimed at
ultimately reducing the number of victims of hate, instead of creating
a subterfuge to protect Israel from critical treatment on American
campuses.”
Arab American Institute
http://www.aaiusa.org/
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