[AS
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https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/copy-confronts-the-nj-state-assembly?publication_id=778851&post_id=169193100&isFreemail=true&r=34riug&triedRedirect=true
I
am the former Pulitzer-prize winning Middle East Bureau Chief for The
New York Times. I spent seven year covering the Middle East, including
in Gaza and the West Bank. I am an Arabic speaker. During my time in the
Middle East, I was based in Jerusalem and Cairo. I am also the author
of 16 books and have taught at Columbia University, New York University,
Princeton University and Rutgers University. I live in Princeton.
I
strongly oppose A3558, which expands antisemitism’s definition to
include most anti-Zionst expression for the purpose of civil rights law.
This is a dangerous assault on free speech by seeking to criminalize
legitimate criticism of Israeli policies.
The Trump
administration’s campaign to ostensibly root out antisemitism on college
campuses is clearly a trope to shut down free speech and deport
non-citizens, even if they are here legally. This bill falsely collapses
ethnicity with a political state. And let’s be clear, the brunt
repression on college campuses was directed against students and faculty
who opposed the genocide in Gaza, 3,000 of whom were arrested and
hundreds of whom were censored, suspended, or expelled. Many of these
students are Jewish. What about their rights? What about their
constitutional protections?
I have had numerous relationships
with Israeli journalists and political leaders. I knew, for example,
former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who negotiated the Oslo
peace agreement. Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli
ultranationalist who opposed the peace accord, stated bluntly that the
occupation was not beneficial to Israel. Israeli colleagues frequently
criticize Israeli policies in the Israeli press in language that would
be defined as antisemitic by A3558.
For example, the Israeli
journalist Gideon Levy, who served in the Israeli army and writes for
the newspaper Haaretz, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Israel
to stop the slaughter in Gaza, saying “Do to Israel what you did to
South Africa.”
Omer Bartov, who served as an Israeli company commander in the
1973 war, is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown
University. He stated in an article on July 15 in The New York Times that his “inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
These
kinds of statements, and many more I can quote from Israeli colleagues
and friends, would see them under this bill criminalized as antisemites.
As
someone who speaks and writes frequently about the conflict, I fear
that any criticism I make of the Israeli government, although grounded
in my long experience in the region, will make me a target if this
measure is adopted.
It is imperative, especially with the press
under attack from the Trump administration, that we do not erode our
constitutionally protected speech and political expression.
