Hate speech and freedom of speech are two different things. – Leslie Jones
There is a double standard in this country when it comes to free speech. The right to free speech applies if it’s coming from one’s own political views. Speech that comes as a challenge to one’s own views is rejected and labeled as dangerous and harmful.
Specifically, the Jewish voice which stands up for Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign nation for the Jews is being silenced and the voice of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and anti-Israel/antisemitic voices are applauded. This is especially disturbing when the pro-Israel voice is stating facts and the antisemitic side is spewing hateful and untrue opinions.
Pro-Israel Free Speech?
On March 27, N.Y. District 44 Councilman Kalman Yeger set off a social media storm when he tweeted the following in a back and forth about congresswoman Ilhan Omar:
“Palestine does not exist…congresswoman Omar is an antisemite”
This statement caused an uproar with accusations that Mr. Yeger was a liar and an Islamophobe. A few days later, the City Council’s leadership team met for more than an hour and decided to remove Mr. Yeger from the immigration committee. There was “broad consensus” that Mr. Yeger’s views were inconsistent with the committee’s mission, participants said.
In reality, Mr. Yeger is correct. As the video below shows, since 1937, the Palestinian leadership refused five times the offer of a state of their own as part of a peace process.
Hence the clarification from Mr. Yeger on Twitter. Stating the fact that currently there is no Palestinian state is the truth – not Islamophobia! (In fact, the Palestinians are perpetually protesting the lack of statehood)
Anti-Israel/Anti-Jewish Free Speech
Contrast the attack on Mr. Yeger and his swift removal from a special committee, to freshman congresswoman Ilan Omar from Minnesota who repeatedly denigrated Israel and American Jews using known antisemitic tropes.
In 2012, Omar tweeted “Israel has hypnotized the world”. Last month, she wrote that U.S. support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby.” A few weeks after that, she told an audience in D.C. that “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is O.K. to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”
Linda Sarsour, a co-chair of the Women’s March and herself a repeated offender of antisemitic slurs, tweeted her respect of Omar for her antisemitic stand.
Ilan Omar was chastised for her antisemitic remarks but, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi refused to remove her from the Foreign Affairs Committee and could not even pass a resolution calling out antisemitism – only delivering a watered down anti all hate resolution.
The double standard of how these two incidents were handled is clear. The fact that Congress was not able to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism is alarming to American Jews and sends a message to the country and the world that antisemitic lies are acceptable.
Hateful speech leads to hateful acts. Antisemitic acts are rising in the United States at an alarming rate. History has shown what happens when hateful and biased speech goes unchallenged. I have personally lost close family members in the Holocaust and will not stand by silently in the wake of such openly brazen anti-Jewish tropes.
The Citron Angle 