[rad-green] Trump’s order a cynical, harmful measure designed to suppress free speech on college campuses, not fight anti-semitism

*https://jstreet.org/press-releases/trumps-executive-order-is-a-cynical-harmful-measure-designed-to-suppress-free-speech-on-college-campuses-not-fight-anti-semitism/#.XfDsPy0ZO1v
<https://jstreet.org/press-releases/trumps-executive-order-is-a-cynical-harmful-measure-designed-to-suppress-free-speech-on-college-campuses-not-fight-anti-semitism/#.XfDsPy0ZO1v>*

*J Street          December 11, 2019*

*Trump’s executive order is a cynical, harmful measure designed to suppress
free speech on college campuses, not fight anti-semitism*

[image: image.png]

*In response to reports that President Trump plans to sign an executive
order related to anti-Semitism on college campuses, J Street’s President
Jeremy Ben-Ami released the following statement:*

“This executive order, like the stalled congressional legislation it is
based on, appears designed less to combat anti-Semitism than to have a
chilling effect on free speech and to crack down on campus critics of
Israel. J Street is committed to fighting all forms of anti-Semitism — and
we feel it is misguided and harmful for the White House to unilaterally
declare a broad range of nonviolent campus criticism of Israel to be
anti-Semitic, especially at a time when the prime driver of anti-Semitism
in this country is the xenophobic, white nationalist far-right.

“Kenneth S. Stern, the expert who drafted the definition of anti-Semitism
adopted by this executive order, has publicly opposed its application to
college campuses. In opposing the legislation that forms the basis for this
executive order, Stern wrote in *The New York Times*
<https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/12/opinion/will-campus-criticism-of-israel-violate-federal-law.html>
that
‘If this bill becomes law…students and faculty members will be scared into
silence, and administrators will err on the side of suppressing or
censuring speech.’

“It is particularly outrageous and absurd for President Trump to pretend to
care about anti-Semitism during the same week in which he once again
publicly spouted anti-Semitic tropes about Jews and money. The same
right-wing groups who turn a blind eye to the president’s hateful rhetoric
have promoted this executive order as part of a cynical push to turn the
issue of anti-Semitism into a partisan political weapon, instead of
seriously combating it in all its forms.”

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