Your Voice | Questioning unfettered free speech
(02/14/12 6:20am)
The Penn Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions conference last week was odious and Penn’s decision to host it in the name of unfettered free speech is questionable. In 2010, the Zionist Organization of America was instrumental in getting Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be interpreted and enforced to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation and discrimination on the campus. The hatred flowing from BDS-type programs was the kind of activity that this was designed to stem. The PennBDS group insists that it is not anti-Semitic and is interested in open dialogue. Ironically, it barred The Jewish Exponent, the local Jewish community’s paper of record, from covering the conference.