The Limits on The (allowed) Freedom of Speech
People are free to do exactly what they are told. ― Ward Churchill
Freedom of speech has limits, some argue that they must have[cite:@gunatilleke-2020-justif-limit] especially on "dangerous" content that could be described as "harmful and offensive", which is arguable of course. I call those limits the overt limits, the ones that you might get sued of criminal speech in many countries.
However, there are always the undercover limits, those that you are not likely to get sued for practicing them, although you are very likely to get (at the very least) marginalized, defamed and underrepresented. The Nazis used this technique for a while against the Jews in Germany, it was called the Judenboykott and it was years before the Nuremberg Laws (the antisemitic laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany), it was a method for marginalizing and underrepresenting the Jewish people without the usage of any kind of law enforcement[cite:@pauley-1998-from-prejud-persec].
Marginalization and underrepresentation are indispensable tools for an oligarchic democracy, or any state that will find a burden in using law enforcement. It's basically the punishment by the elites to align the view for the public stakeholders (i.e. the people), they should be only exposed to certain views, this way it will prevent them from engaging in any unpleasant actions[cite:@chomsky-1997-media-contr p. 24]
As long as people are marginalized and distracted, [they] have no way to organize or articulate their sentiments, or even know that others have these sentiments. People assume that they are the only people with a crazy idea in their heads.
Now this comes on a price: teaching the public the lesson of what happens to those who are disaligned, they get defamed, marginalized and basically undercover oppressed and sometimes proscribed.
As the time of writing this it has been a few weeks since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza 2023 war. Compared to clashes that has been going for the past couple of decades between the Palestinian people and the Israeli forces, that most recent conflict has been discussed in much bigger scale, many Israeli-affiliated systems are doing there hard work to make sure that everyone is having standards of support for Israeli militancy.
The kinds of defamation that I mentioned have been always happening with mostly all of the past clashes1, Dr. Matthew Abraham's great book "Out of Bounds: Academic Freedom and the Question of Palestine"[cite:@abraham-2014-out-bound] collects many examples for that violation but in academic publishing boundaries. Due to that exceptional case of the current conflict, we are seeing that violation of freedom in much clearer forms and everywhere in public media.
The purpose of this page page to document news and events that are considered to indicate a violation on the freedom of thought and speech, especially but not exclusively on views related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. #Politics
Web Summit CEO Resigns After Condemnation of Israeli War Crimes
Paddy Cosgrave, the chief executive officer of a prominent European tech conference called Web Summit, resigned from his role on Saturday amid backlash for his public statements that suggested Israel was committing war crimes [cite:@innocenzio-2023-ceo-israel].
Right after the publication of that statement, his organization, Web Summit, suffered from boycotts by Google, Strip and Meta[cite:@monahan-2023-meta-googl], which probably caused his resignation.
Florida Governor Ban of Pro-Palestinian Student Organization
The Florida governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has ordered colleges ban pro-Palestinian groups student organization.
"Based on the National SJP’s support of terrorism, in consultation with Governor DeSantis, the student chapters must be deactivated" Rodrigues wrote in a memo to university leaders, as reported[cite:@hay-2023-florid-desan].
British Ministerial Aide Sacked After Calling for Gaza Ceasefire
A ministerial aide has been sacked from his government role after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza[cite:@morton-2023-paul-brist].
Many CEOs Promoted by Mass Media Are Calling for Blacklist of Harvard Students After Israel Condemnation Statement
In 9 Oct 2023 "large number of Harvard student organizations" made a statement that's clear about the Israeli conflict. I personally agree with their views, what happened in 7 October was a consequence of the Israeli actions for the last couple of decades, killing and oppressing Palestinian whilst running the greatest open air prison in the world (Gaza).
Though this is what many CEOs did not like, and now they are calling on Harvard University to shut them down, asking for a full list of their names [cite:@egan-2023-ceos-harvar]. As of the end of October 2023, media has reported that millions of 'funds' for top U.S. universities are gone due to disaligned views of student about the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict. [cite:@jack-2023-us-hamas].
In 17 October 2023; many "top law firm" rescinds their job offers to many of these top universities [cite:@tenbarge-2023-top-ivy] due to the same reasons. All of these are means for lobbying the universities to either suspend the students or shut them up somehow (to make sure that only aligned views are exposed). The suspension of these students or rescinding them from jobs as top companies are doing both serve as an example of the process of alignment mentioned on the top of the article.
Norman Finkelstein Tenure Rejection and Resignation After Debunking Pro-Israeli Book
After the Dershowitz–Finkelstein affair, Alan Dershowitz started campaigned to block Norman Finkelstein tenure bid at DePaul University. His campaign began in 2004 when he sent DePaul president Dennis Holtschneider a manuscript, "Literary McCarthyism," arguing that the university should fire Finkelstein. He also contacted DePaul political science department chair Patrick Callahan.
In 2005, Dershowitz announced his intent to block Finkelstein's tenure bid, saying, "I will come at my own expense, and I will document the case against Finkelstein" and "I'll demonstrate that he doesn't meet the academic standards of the Association of American Universities" [cite:@abraham-2014-out-bound p.85], sounds like Dershowitz view of being associated with American Universities implies an ultimate support of Israel2
In October 2006, he sent members of DePaul's law and political science faculties what he called "a dossier of Norman Finkelstein's most egregious academic sins, and especially his outright lies, misquotations, and distortions" and lobbied DePaul's professors, alumni and administrators to deny Finkelstein tenure [cite:@howard-2007-harvar-law].
In May 2007, Dershowitz spoke at Northwestern University and claimed that Finkelstein had recently attended a Holocaust denial conference in Iran [cite:@abraham-2014-out-bound p. 86].
DePaul's political science committee investigated Dershowitz's accusations against Finkelstein and concluded that they were unsubstantiated. The department subsequently invited John Mearsheimer and Ian Lustick, two previously uninvolved academics with expertise on the Israel–Palestinian conflict, to evaluate the academic merit of Finkelstein's work; they came to the same conclusion [cite:@forer-2010-break].
In early 2007, DePaul's political science department voted nine to three, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Personnel Committee five to zero, to give Finkelstein tenure. The three opposing faculty members subsequently filed a minority report opposing tenure, supported by the Dean of the College, Chuck Suchar.
CEO of eLife Fired After Retweeting "The Onion" Parody Post About Israel/Palestine
"I have been informed that I am being replaced as the Editor in Chief of @eLife for retweeting a @TheOnion piece that calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians." as reported on his twitter account [cite:@eisen-2023].
Ironically, the post that he retweeted The Onion was very expressive! it says: "‘The Onion’ Stands With Israel Because It Seems Like You Get In Less Trouble For That"
In fact, the article does a great job in depicting the situation:
In moments of turmoil such as this, some believe it is the responsibility of a newspaper of record like The Onion to delve fully into the nuances of a complex and multifaceted conflict that stretches back not just decades but centuries. These people are wrong.
Instead, this editorial board wishes to take this opportunity to declare its full and unequivocal support for Israel because, frankly, it seems like you get in way less trouble for that.
Artforum Fires Chief Editor Because of His Position From Palestine
David Velasco was removed after the magazine’s publishers said there was a flawed editorial process behind the publication of a letter that supported Palestinian liberation [cite:@small-2023-artfor-fires].
MP Andy McDonald Suspends After Speech at Pro-Palestinian Rally
Andy McDonald has been suspended as a Labour MP, after the party said he had made "deeply offensive" comments relating to the Israel-Gaza war, as reported in the BBC[cite:@stuff-2023-andy-mcdon].
Columbia University Suspends Jewish Voice for Peace and Justice in Palestine
Columbia University is suspending Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) as they "repeatedly violated University policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event"[cite:@editorial-2023-statem-from].
