December 12
GUESTS: Two students from Bard College talk about their participation in a Students for Justice in Palestine rally and how the college as well as some outside hate organizations are trying to undermine their freedom of speech on Palestinian rights.SJP Bard College
The war against free speech is heating up again on campuses, including at Bard College. Supposedly known for its "liberal" atmosphere, Bard has been threatening students with disciplinary action after a campus rally for Palestinian rights.
My heart goes out to these students. Despite worries about their academic status on campus and about career opportunities after graduation, they simply forge ahead and do the right thing. They and their group, Students for Justice in Palestine, rallied against a Zionist speaker with a long history of racist statements. They held up protest signs in the audience. Now the college accuses them of being anti-Semites.
We covered a lot of areas in the interview. I hadn't know that the campus president was also employed by the State of Israel (Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra). I was also unaware of the financial pressures that Bard was under, making the college even more hesitant to allow a voice for Palestinians on campus. Some well connected Zionist alums had supposedly demanded that the Students for Justine in Palestine be disciplined.
One of the two students is Jewish, and his expression of solidarity with the Palestinian cause was quite moving. It's a good interview in that it gives listeners an inside look at campus censorship and the resistance against apartheid Israel.
