The sight of the “Blood Tribe” marching down Main Street in Concord waving swastika flags and giving the Nazi salute was horrifying. But Prof. Daniel Pi, who teaches Constitutional Law at UNH Law School, explains (Monitor, August 9) that unless someone incites imminent violence or speaks “fighting words,” their speech is protected under the First Amendment. “Hate speech is protected, just like any other speech,” he said. Professor Pi would do well to admit that “any other speech” is not in fact protected in our country today. Remember Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student who was arrested in Massachusetts by ICE and detained for six weeks for having co-authored an op-ed in a student newspaper criticizing Tufts’ response to Israel’s war on Palestine? Remember Mohsen Mahdawi, arrested in Vermont when he went for his long-awaited citizenship interview and imprisoned because of his advocacy on behalf of Palestinians? Remember Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student the Trump administration tried to silence? The suppression of speech that recognizes the humanity of the Palestinian people is not a new phenomenon. It even has a name: The “Palestine Exception” acknowledges the de facto quashing of speech on behalf of Palestinians. Reminiscent of the McCarthy era, it is part of a campaign of intimidation and repression that rides roughshod over Constitutional rights, and it has taken on shocking new dimensions under the Trump administration. Make no mistake about it: Freedom of speech is under threat from both state and non-state actors, if it is speech that supports the rights of Palestinians.
Judith Kumin
Contoocook, NH