Editorial: Defend the Mass Movement Against Zionist Genocide

The American ruling class appears united in its attack on free speech and academic freedom on US campuses. Presidents at University of Pennsylvania, Stanford and Harvard have been forced to resign on charges that they were not sufficiently vigorous in opposition to the Hamas raid on October 7. Nor did they denounce and curtail the constitutional rights of students and staff opposing Zionist genocide. Unless you cry out in support of racist Israeli genocide against Palestinians, you are denounced as “anti Semitic”, or even un-American.

U.S. House Republicans on Tuesday pressed the presidents, all women, of three of the country's most prestigious universities on their efforts to combat “anti-Semitism” following the Oct. 7 raid by Hamas on Israel, with some suggesting their response to rhetoric that surfaced on campus was inadequate. The hectoring of the University Presidents and the assumed guilt obvious in the questions, was a stark reminder of the McCarthyism of the 1950s. At that time, Right wing demagogues using their congressional powers to intimidate and imprison those who fell into their grasp, nearly destroyed the socialist left and the trade unions.

Claudine Gay of Harvard University, Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania and Sally Kornbluth of Massachusetts Institute of Technology each denounced the Islamist militant group's

attack and affirmed their commitment to assuring Jewish students feel safe. At the same time, all three reiterated a promise to protect free speech on their campuses. (We at Socialist Action do not denounce the Hamas raid. According to the UN, an occupied and oppressed people have every right to take up arms against the oppressor. Israel’s lies about beheaded babies and rapes have all been exposed by personal and video evidence )

"We do not sanction individuals for their political views or their speech, but when that speech crosses into conduct that violates our behavior-based policy - bullying, harassment and intimidation - we take action," Gay said.

The university presidents are at the forefront of the latest battle over free speech on U.S. college campuses. Many have been roiled by clashing pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel demonstrations that have sometimes given way to anti-Semitic and Islamophobic rhetoric and assaults

In Canada, the imperialist government of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party has fully endorsed the US position of unqualified support to Zionist genocide. In Ontario, the thuggish, corrupt, anti labour Premier, Doug Ford brought a motion in the Legislature to censure an NDP MPP, Sara Jama, removing her right to speak in the legislature. Her crime was a call for a cease fire in Gaza. Like Claudine Gay of Harvard, Jama is a woman of colour. The NDP leader in Ontario, Merritt Stiles, then organized the expulsion of Sara Jama, claiming she was ungovernable. What Stiles means is that Jama refuses to compromise her principled defence of the oppressed as the NDP does on a continuing basis.

In a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights, at Harvard only 17 percent of undergraduates identify as conservative

The share is 13 percent at Stanford and 9 percent at Penn. This is the real problem for the US ruling class.

The right, including Trump, Biden and the rich and influential Zionist lobby are campaigning to silence the strong voice of youth who bravely denounce the US armed and directed systematic Zionist slaughter and expulsion of the Palestinian people from their own homeland. This generation is much less affected by the Israeli effort to justify their actions by a cynical and immoral use of the Nazi holocaust imposed on Jews in Europe in world War 2. Current young people do not feel the “guilt” so assiduously promoted by Zionism on the western working class to gain acceptance of their settler colonial project in Palestine.

They are not alone. Many unions and socialist groups around the world agree. Armies of young people, many who have never demonstrated before, are swelling the ranks of the global anti genocide movement into the millions. A substantial percentage of Jews believe Zionism is anti Semitic, that the brutal murder and gross mistreatment of the Palestinians over 75 years has nothing to do with Judaism. It has everything to do with deeply racist and cynical nationalism which lies at the very heart of

Zionism. Of course this right wing attack on democratic rights of free speech and free assembly is being applied across society. Anyone who takes a public stance for the rights of Palestinians may be denounced as “anti Semitic ” and their job threatened, their personal safety put in jeopardy.

To the demand for a free Palestine from the river to the sea, we must add the demand, Hands off the Movement for Palestinian freedom, Hands off student groups and Universities opposing Zionist murder. Down with the cynical and false accusations of anti Semitism against opponents of Zionism