(Jewish Group) Alleged antisemitic activist speaks on campus, raising questions about free speech

[Beastly Boy]

1. I often hear phrases like "decolonialism" and "normalizing the language of resistance" being used to

lend legitimacy to sexism, racism and antisemitism which is hiding behind them. These labels appear to be carefully constructed to appeal to the liberal left, who have been historically sympathetic to the struggles of the third world. Yet, behind the thin facade of what turns out to be meaningless slogans, the emerging rhetoric is more reminiscent of the right-wing intolerance and religious zealotry than it does the aspirations of liberal democracy. Remarkably, some left wing leaders, people of presumably considerable intelligence, don't seem willing to get past the headers and the slogans and critically examine the content being pushed behind them.

Still, I must defend Yale's decision to invite Bouteldja to campus. It is a right and an obligation for an institution of higher learning to allow controversial subject to be openly debated. In the case of Bouteldja, not only were the students and faculty of Yale able to hear from her and discover for themselves all of the self-contradictory and bigoted statements in her narrative, her presence there shone a bright light on some of the methods of spreading antisemitism which may otherwise remain on the fringes and barely noticed.