Judge Allows UMass Pro-Palestinian Event After Jewish Students Sued To Stop It
The Sarah L. Arnold House at the University of Masssachusetts, Amherst. Image by Wikipedia
(JTA) — An event claiming pro-Palestinian views are silenced went ahead at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst after a judge threw out an injunction claiming the event was anti-Semitic.
The event, “Not Backing Down: Israel, Free Speech, and the Battle for Palestinian Human Rights,” was organized by the Media Education Foundation, a group based in Northampton, Massachusetts, the Daily Hampshire Gazette reported, and Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist group, helped successfully defend the event in court.
Panelists included Linda Sarsour, a leader of the Women’s March and a leading pro-Palestinian activist, Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd rocker who has become a leader in the boycott Israel movement, and Marc Lamont Hill, who CNN fired last year after he used a phrase calling for Palestinian rights “from the river to the sea,” that has been associated with groups that seek to eliminate Israel.
Judge Robert Ullmann, a state judge, said an injunction filed by three Jewish students who remained anonymous would violate the First Amendment.
Karen Hurvitz, the attorney who represented the Jewish students, said she was disappointed in the verdict, the Gazette reported, saying that the Jewish students could file complaints with the state if they heard anti-Semitic remarks at the event.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
