(WNY News Now) – New York – The Following is a letter to the Editor from the New York Progressive Action Network:
We are now in the eighth month of the increasingly deadly Israeli assault on Gaza, with a leadership in Israel that appears intent on escalating the attacks, and bipartisan support in Congress for tens of billions of dollars of additional armaments to continue the violence.
According to the UN, hundreds of thousands of people, half of them children, have been plunged into famine. Tens of thousands are dead, and many more are wounded. And still it continues.
Never has principled opposition to this slaughter been more important and never has our right to peaceful protest been more endangered.
The overwhelmingly peaceful protests and encampments on college campuses have been frequently met by heavily armed police who have brutally assaulted and arrested students and faculty. Many brave students have been suspended or expelled from school, potentially destroying their academic careers and future. Yet they press on, fighting for all our humanity and the values we hold dear.
But now there are insidious attempts in Congress to suppress speech.
Four bills, two of which have already passed in the House and are headed for the Senate, conflate pro-ceasefire or anti-genocide speech with anti-Semitism and terrorism. If these bills pass, it would make it much harder to criticize or protest the extremist Netanyahu Government.
It’s important to understand that Jewish peace groups, like Jewish Voice for Peace, have been labeled “radical” and antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League. They are very much under threat by these bills – which ironically would be the most anti-Semitic laws ever passed.
But even Gaza aside, these bills are a serious threat to everyone’s First Amendment rights, now and in the future. Senator Bernie Sanders and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, for example, have spoken eloquently about this threat. They and others who are fighting to preserve our freedom need our help.
Please use the simple tools here and here to write to your senators today and state your firm opposition to these attempts to limit free speech. And please understand that limiting speech will not stop with issues concerning Israel/Palestine.
Today is the time to stand up for our basic freedoms. Tomorrow may well be too late.
George Albro, Nancy de Delva, Jay Bellanca
What do you think? Are the right to protest being attacked?
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