Amid Gaza War, College Campuses Become Free Speech “Testing Ground”
The Intercept Briefing
The Intercept
4.8 • 6.3K Ratings
🗓️ 10 April 2024
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The conflict in Gaza has galvanized a new generation of young anti-war activists, in the same way that opposition to the Vietnam War and apartheid South Africa did in decades past. A backlash is now building in the United States, led by right-wing activist and pro-Israel groups aimed at eliminating any public dissent over U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.
As the death toll of Palestinians rises, a new authoritarian climate is sweeping across the U.S. — particularly on college campuses, which have transformed into laboratories for censorship and surveillance. Intercepted host Murtaza Hussain discusses this new political reality with Sahar Aziz, distinguished professor of law at Rutgers Law School and author of a new report on free speech and discrimination in the context of the Gaza conflict.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The This is intercepted. Welcome to Intercepted. I'm Martaza-Hossain. The conflict in Israel, Palestine has triggered |
| 0:39.5 | an outpouring of public grief, anger, and protests in the United States over the U.S. |
| 0:44.6 | government's role in the war. |
| 0:47.4 | Student activists in particular have led demonstrations denouncing what they view as U.S. complicity |
| 0:52.2 | in Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza, including possible |
| 0:55.7 | facilitation of the crime of genocide. |
| 0:58.4 | This protest movement is now facing a wave of censorship and repression, with university campuses emerging as the new |
| 1:04.4 | ground zero in a battle over free speech and American foreign policy. |
| 1:09.0 | I'm now joined by Saharaziz, Distinguished Professor of Law, and Chancellor's Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers |
| 1:15.6 | University Law School. |
| 1:17.4 | Aziz is the author of the book The Racial Muslim, When Racism Quashes Religious freedom, host of the Race and Rights |
| 1:24.0 | podcast and the founding director of the Center for Security, Race, and Rights. |
| 1:28.1 | The Center just published a new report on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict. |
| 1:35.0 | Saharaziz, welcome to Intercepted. |
| 1:38.0 | Thank you for having me. |
| 1:39.0 | It's always a pleasure. |
| 1:40.0 | So Sahar, I want to ask you a bit about the environment for academic freedom in the United States |
| 1:45.3 | after the October 7th attacks. We were about six months away from those attacks now. |
| 1:50.4 | Obviously there's been a ground swell of protests in the the United States as well as a backlash to those protests we've seen in institutions and even from politicians. |
| 1:59.0 | I'm curious about your own perception. |
| 2:01.0 | What have you seen being someone on campus and what are you |
| 2:05.1 | looking at in terms of people trying to push back against this upsurge of I |
... |
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