A free speech rights group filed a complaint Wednesday against anti-Israel activists from Students for Justice in Palestine for disrupting an event on the University of North Carolina campus on Jan. 22 that included a prominent journalist and author who condemned anti-Semitism.
Speakers included Bari Weiss, a former Wall Street Journal and New York Times contributor, and Duke University professor Frank Bruni, a longtime Times veteran.
In the middle of the UNC talk, activists from the UNC Students for Justice in Palestine chapter yelled at the speakers before leaving the auditorium, according to the complaint.
The group of about 45 people shouted slogans such as “Bari Bari, you can’t hide, you are committing genocide” as they slowly rose from their seats in the back and took about three minutes to leave the auditorium, according to one account. of the incident by writer Peter Reitzes.
The event then continued, but Reitzes added that activists stood outside the venue and yelled at attendees after the event.
“A group of four masked SJP activists shouted at us and followed my group,” he said. “The police officers seemed to follow the activists who followed us.
A free speech group filed a complaint against the University of North Carolina after pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a campus speech by Bari Weiss and Frank Bruni. North Carolina Voice4Israel / Youtube Members of Students for Justice in Palestine accused Weiss of “committing genocide.” Voice4Israel of North Carolina / Youtube
On Jan. 16, UNC’s SJP chapter had announced plans to disrupt the event through a “strike,” according to the complaint filed by UNC by the group Speech First.
The SJP, in the flyer organizing the protest, criticized Weiss as an “American right-wing political commentator who… egregiously attempts to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism” and who condemns “anti-Semitism on the left.”
Weiss, founder of The Free Press, resigned as a Times columnist over alleged bias against conservative views.
The complaint against UNC noted that the group had previously announced an “exit” from the event. Getty Images Protesters took out a sign with a tweet condemning Weiss. North Carolina Voice4Israel / Youtube Police officers escorting protesters out of the room. Voice4Israel of North Carolina / Youtube
Weiss, in a statement on Wednesday X said“How did the most educated generation in American history become the one most sympathetic to Hamas?”
The complaint filed with UNC claimed that the heckling violated the state’s Campus Free Speech Act and the university’s own policy that prohibits denying another person’s right to expression by “substantially disrupting[ing]” or “substantially interfere[ing]” with “the rights of others to participate in and listen to expressive activities.”
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“The right to freedom of expression does not mean the right to silence others. “What good are university policies and state laws that protect free speech if there is no intention to enforce them?” Speech First CEO Cherise Trump said in a statement Wednesday.
The event continued after the protest ended. Voice4Israel of North Carolina / Youtube
In the complaint, Speech First calls on the University to initiate disciplinary proceedings against all students who participated in the speaking pledge protest.
The Post contacted UNC and SJP for comment.
Complaints of anti-Semitism have spiked on university campuses amid anti-Israel protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of the Jewish state and Israel’s military response in Gaza.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn