Two of the most damning accusations a person can face are being called a terrorist and an antisemite. It’s true, terrorism is abhorrent and antisemites are abhorrent. There is no question about either.
But there is something equally as abhorrent: Falsely throwing these labels at people simply to silence them.
The horrifying truth, however, is several people – especially minorities – have recently had their words incorrectly called either terrorist-related or anti-Semitic or both, and are facing real-life consequences for the disparaging words.
In a recent issue of Sampan, reporter Ava Belchez described an online attack on a math teacher, who happens to be Muslim. Her supposed misdeed? Presenting a math graph that included Palestine. She suffered online harassment, doxing, and false claims of antisemitism. Earlier in the year, we also interviewed a Palestinian American mother who tried to speak at a photography exhibit’s reception in Newton but was shouted down by people who called her a “rapist” and “terrorist.” In another recent issue of Sampan, we highlighted MIT’s punishment of an Indian American doctoral student, Prahlad Iyengar, for his essay in a student publication. The student says he’s been falsely associated with terrorism because of some imagery he included to illustrate his publication, including one of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. His lawyer says it’s all an attempt to quash “anti-genocide speech and pro-Palestinian speech.”
“This is a breath-takingly chilling attack on the First Amendment,” Eric Lee of Diamante Law Group told the Sampan.
But there’s more.
Haitian-American Michel DeGraff, an MIT professor of linguistics and the director of the MIT-Haiti Initiative, says he has been banned from teaching a course on Palestine in his department. Late last month, MIT removed DeGraff’s status as a professor in linguistics and reclassified him as “faculty-at-large.”
“In more than 30 years of my being a university professor, this is the most dangerous threat I’ve ever witnessed against the foundations of higher education in the U.S. and beyond,” said DeGraff in an email to the Sampan.
These examples, however, are a just a tiny fraction of a movement to silence people, dating back to the tragic silencing of Fred Dube, a professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, whose story everyone should read. But it’s not only happening in higher education and at rallies. Take what’s happening in Brookline. A Palestinian-Lebanese high school student, set to speak at a Day of Racial Reform and Solidarity, has been targeted by a group of parents seeking to prevent him from participating. They want to block his speech. Why? Apparently because of the student’s pro-Palestinian activism.
A letter from a few parents claims the student’s “social media is ripe with antisemitic, anti-Israel, and anti-American content.”
Sampan viewed the post in question and that claim, we feel, is simply not true. Here’s an example of what the group uses to back up its claims:
“I know how revolutions are starting, and this is the start of a revolution!”
“We are currently demanding a free Palestine and free Lebanon, free from U.S. imperialism!”
“Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide – you are funding genocide!”
While some may not like these statements and object to them, the boy has immediate family in Palestine and in Lebanon. His story should be heard and his views should be understood. That is how people build empathy and imagination. But a small group of parents called on others to come to a school committee meeting in November to object to the student’s participation in the race discussion. And the calls were heard. Parent after parent warned of the supposed fear caused by the student, of the supposed hate the student might spew, of the feelings on Palestine and Lebanon he might vocalize, of the violence the student “incites.” This appears an absurdity, especially given that school staff are reportedly working closely with the students who will record – yes, record – their speeches.
But the objections continued. One mother said: “When I went to school nobody talked about these things, and you know what, we all got along just fine.”
Despite repeatedly being warned by Brookline School Committee meeting members to refrain from naming the student, one woman who claimed to “have a friend whose daughter attends this school and is terrified” actually did so, in her lengthy condemnation of the teen.
Another woman said she was concerned that the boy had used the word “genocide,” implying he was ignorant of, or lying about, its meaning. “When you use a word like this,” she said, “then it makes me think, ‘Well, what else are you lying about?’ … So what comes out, is a feeling that you’re trying to intimidate. That you’re saying ugly lies about somebody, or about a group of people, to make them feel bad.”
A high school student, who said she knows the Palestinian child, however, objected to the description of her classmate. “I think it’s inappropriate to single out this student for something that they are simply not doing,” she said.
The Palestinian-Lebanese student’s mother appeared and said the same, adding that what was happening to her teen was essentially child endangerment. And a teacher at the high school also supported the student and rejected the attacks on the teen.
Another young woman, who identified as an Arab American, called the attacks on the student an “organized bullying campaign against a Palestinian teenager.”
We agree. It’s time we all stand up to this bullying.
(*Minor edits were made to this editorial)
