Free Speech
Updated 2024-04-01
2023-12-22 Israel’s Killing of Journalists in Gaza ‘Unparalleled,’ Says Watchdog Journalists are being slain during Israel’s current assault on Gaza at a rate unseen in modern history—with more killed in the last 10 weeks alone than have been killed in any country in any whole year since records began, the Committee to Protect Journalists revealed on Thursday. CPJ said that at least 68 media professionals—61 Palestinians, four Israelis, and three Lebanese—have been killed since the October 7 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and the Israeli military’s retaliatory obliteration of the Gaza Strip.
Of particular concern to CPJ is Israel’s “apparent pattern of targeting journalists and their families.” “In at least one case, a journalist was killed while clearly wearing press insignia in a location where no fighting was taking place,” the group said. “In at least two other cases, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and IDF officers before their family members were killed.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/journalists-killed-in-gaza-2666788920
2023-12-20 The Palestine Exception to Campus Free Speech On Nov. 9, 2023, I and nine of my peers organized and participated in a sit-in at our high school’s annual Veterans Day ceremony to protest Israel’s attack on Gaza, challenge United States military and political funding of the genocide of Palestinians, and show our solidarity with the Palestinian cause. We filled rows of our gym wearing white shirts that read “Stop Israel, Stop Genocide” and held signs reading “We Are the Resistance” and “Free Palestine” during the event.
The aftermath of our disruption was swift and serious. We were humiliated by our administration, removed from leadership positions for not “reflecting school values,” and given referrals from our district for “printing political propaganda.” our school principal told us, “This is already in your permanent record”—and that there was nothing we could do to get it expunged. As seniors applying to colleges, it appeared that the marks on our records were meant to jeopardize our futures.
Schools are also cracking down on what students can discuss inside the classroom. Ali says, “I try to discuss it as much as possible in class, but recently Loudoun County Public Schools have banned a lot of pro-Palestine slogans and symbols, so there are definitely some restrictions from the admin.”
As I processed my “punishment,” I learned that our situation wasn’t unique. In response to the constant Israeli bombings of the Gaza Strip, which, as of this writing, have killed more than 20,000 people—many of whom are children—students in high schools across the country have held pro-Palestine demonstrations, sit-ins, and walkouts, and called for an end to Israel’s violence.
Despite attempts to censor and intimidate young organizers at U.S. high schools, students, including myself, are determined to organize against the occupation from the “Belly of the Beast,” to quote Che Guevara. The biggest tool for young Americans is social media, which has been vital not only in educating, but in circulating news from inside Gaza into the heart of the U.S. empire. https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2023/12/20/campus-speech-palestine-gaza
2023-12-04 Free Speech at Work The boss has far too much power to silence the political expression of employees.
The Israel-Palestine conflict and its painful reverberations on American campuses has provoked debate about free speech versus student safety. What has gotten less publicity is free speech at work, where the boss under American law has the absolute right to fire an employee for any reason or no reason at all. With some narrow exceptions, only unionized workers and those in the civil service have some protection of their constitutional rights of speech.
In October, NYU Langone Health, a major New York hospital, summarily fired a medical resident, Dr. Zaki Masoud, at NYU Langone’s affiliate Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, Long Island, after Masoud posted a message on Instagram defending the Hamas attack of October 7. An online petition calling on the hospital to reverse course and reinstate Dr. Masoud has collected over 90,000 signatures, to no avail. Then, to be evenhanded, Langone Health in late November fired a distinguished senior cancer researcher, Dr. Benjamin Neel, who had posted pro-Israel items on social media, including anti-Hamas political cartoons.
Economic Policy Institute explains just when employee free speech is protected and when it is not. As EPI explains, workers have suffered retaliation for failing to support the boss’s preferred political candidate, for refusing to attend mandatory Bible study, and for speaking out during COVID against unsafe working conditions.
Ironically, the right wing, which has never been solicitous of worker rights of free expression, has backed into greater support of individual liberties via its claims, partly upheld by the Supreme Court in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, that an individual may refuse service to a gay couple based on religious beliefs. That logic is dubious because it could override all of the protections of the great civil rights cases of the 1960s, by allowing explicit discrimination against Blacks, Jews, gays, and anyone else. https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-12-04-israel-palestine-free-speech-workplace/
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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