NO FREE SPEECH ALLOWED: NYU declares “Zionists” a protected class that cannot be criticized

To prevent students, faculty members and others from voicing any kind of opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza, New York University (NYU) has changed its “hate speech” and harassment guidelines to prohibit anyone from criticizing Zionism.

Anyone who identifies as a “Zionist” will now receive special treatment at NYU, which plans to punish anyone who is caught uttering “discriminatory comments” about this protected class of people.

“For many Jewish people, Zionism is a part of their Jewish identity,” the new NYU guidelines state.

“Speech and conduct that would violate the NDAH (non-discrimination and anti-harassment policy) if targeting Jewish or Israeli people can also violate the NDAH if directed toward Zionists.”

The NYU chapter of Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (NYU FSJP) released its own statement condemning the move. By equating Judaism with Zionism, students and faculty who oppose what they see as a genocide taking place in Gaza no longer have a voice on campus.

NYU FSJP also feels as though the new rules set a dangerous precedent in that other ethnonationalist movements such as Hindu nationalism and Christian nationalism may also receive special protection against criticism.

“The new guidance sets a dangerous precedent by extending Title VI protections to anyone who adheres to Zionism, a nationalist political ideology, and troublingly equates criticism of Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people,” the group said.

At NYU, it’s “discrimination” to criticize a genocidal ethnostate. https://t.co/R9ub3A2ZrY

— Briahna Joy Gray (@briebriejoy) August 26, 2024

(Related: Congress passed a bill earlier this year that lays the groundwork for the nationwide criminalization of all criticisms against Zionism, Israel, and Jews in any context.)

In 2020, NYU made loosely defined “antisemitism” off-limits

You may recall that NYU is one of the campuses where pro-Palestinian protests broke out over the past year following the October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the Netanyahu regime waging war on the entire Gaza Strip.

Protesters against Israel’s actions were calling on NYU to stop investing in companies that profit from the war, which prompted the school to retaliate by sending in law enforcement to break up their demonstrations.

Some NYU alumni are also upset about the school’s ties to Israel. A group of them released a statement back in March stating that they will withhold more than $3 million in donations after students and faculty who organized to protest the war were persecuted by the school.

“The new NDAH guidance represents an intensification of NYU’s year-long effort to censor criticism and criminalize protest of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” NYU FSJP said in its latest statement about the matter.

Issues first arose back in 2020, it turns out, when NYU adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of “antisemitism,” which experts say conflates all criticism of Israel, meaning the Israeli government, with “antisemitism.”

Other issues that some NYU students have with their school is a study abroad program that allows students to travel to and learn in Tel Aviv. There is also an NYU Abu Dhabi campus that, like the main campus in New York, is reportedly cracking down on opposition to Israel’s war on Gaza.

Reports indicate that pro-Palestinian protesters at NYU Abu Dhabi were taken into custody and interrogated at government security offices “based on surveillance of their personal association, private email exchanges, and private social media posts.” In other words, NYU Abu Dhabi spies on its students and faculty.

“And people wonder why university credentials are losing prestige and why people don’t respect academics anymore,” wrote someone on X. “If there was a slogan to represent American culture over the last 50 years it would be ‘seed corn is delicious!'”

Coming up with the concept of “hate speech” is how the globalists are sidestepping the First Amendment. Learn more at Censorship.news.

Sources for this article include:

MiddleEastEye.net

NaturalNews.com