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Palestine exception

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The Palestine exception, otherwise known as the Palestine exception to free speech, is an alleged pattern of institutional discrimination and selective enforcement of policies and laws that restricts the voices, scholarship, and advocacy of Palestinians and their allies, contrary to principles such as the freedom of expression or the right to protest.[1][2] Especially since the onset of the Gaza war, academics, lawyers, free speech and civil liberties advocates, journalists, and pro-Palestinian activists have raised concerns about censorship and suppression of protests against the war, calls for a ceasefire, criticism of US military and diplomatic support for Israel, and criticism of Israel's invasion of Gaza and its war conduct there. The term has also regularly been used to criticize university policies which restrict pro-Palestine campus protests, including those which call for disinvestment from Israel.[3]

Steven Salaita suggests that, beyond Palestinians themselves, suppression of pro-Palestinian discourse particularly affects Arabs, Muslims and ethnic minorities.[4] Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores says that many pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have changed social media platforms in order to evade what they claim is institutional censorship or punishment for their pro-Palestinian comments, and that calls for suppression have been amplified by traditional media.[5] Robert Horenstein, head of community relations and public affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, argued that "the notion that the voices of pro-Palestinian activists are being suppressed is patently absurd".[6]

Description

In 2015, Palestine Legal published an extensive report with the Center for Constitutional Rights about what the two organizations described as "the Palestine exception to free speech",[7][8] and began to run a news section dedicated to documenting and analyzing instances of the Palestinian Exception on educational institutions (especially university campuses), media coverage, and protest crackdowns.[9]

The "Palestinian Exception" is described by pro-Palestinian activists and scholars as a documented pattern of institutional discrimination and selective enforcement of policies that are stated to specifically target and restrict Palestinian voices, scholarship, and advocacy in Western academic and media institutions. This phenomenon, used particularly to describe events in North America and Europe, manifests through what are described as systematic attempts to silence Palestinian narratives and critical discussions of Israeli policies towards Palestinian Territories, while disproportionately emphasizing platforms for opposing viewpoints.[1][10][11]

Institutional mechanisms described by pro-Palestinian advocates that enforce the Palestine Exception include the adoption of specific definitions of antisemitism that encompass criticism of Israeli state policies, the implementation of restrictive speech or dialogue policies in educational institutions, the elective application of "balance" requirements in media coverage, and external pressure from pro-Israeli advocacy groups such as the AIPAC, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, and the Women’s International Zionist Organization.[1][12][13]

In academia, restrictions are described as selective enforcement of academic freedom principles, pressure on institutions to cancel events or withdraw speaking invitations regarding Palestinian issues, complications in hiring and tenure processes for scholars working on Palestinian issues, and the implementation of policies that specifically restrict criticism of Israeli state policies. The phenomenon has also been claimed to extend into primary and secondary education systems, such as with the Toronto District School Board's allowance of pro-Israel lobbyists such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish to directly shape class curriculum.[1][14]

Instances

In 2020, the University of Toronto Faculty of Law initially withdrew an employment offer to scholar Valentina Azarova following external pressure from a donor related to their work on Palestinian human rights. The rescinding of the offer led to widespread academic protest and boycotts headed by the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), eventually leading to the university re-offering employment to Azarova, who declined.[1]

The term was also used by a Harvard Law Review editor to describe the retraction of an essay by Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar Rabea Eghbariah discussing the use of "Nakba" as a legal term, following an intervention by Harvard Law Review president Apsara Iyer.[15][16][17][18]

Media

Many pro-Palestinian activists cite western media coverage as demonstrating patterns of the Palestinian Exception. Notable examples include different news networks' policies restricting the use of the term "Palestine", such as with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and the New York Times.[19][20][21] In one incident, CBC Current guest anchor Duncan McCue was required to issue a public apology for referring to Palestine during an interview.[1][21] Social media platforms such as Meta Platforms's Facebook and Instagram were also noted to systemically censor or de-weight the use of terms relating to Palestine and the ongoing conflict.[22]

University campus protests

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Palestine Exception was frequently used to describe documented patterns of disproportionate institutional reactions to pro-Palestinian protests compared to other social justice movements on university campuses. Pro-Palestinian protesters and their allies have criticized the disposition of many university administrations as perpetuating a "Palestine exception" to academic freedom.[23][24] Pro-Palestinian students and their allies have raised concerns about anti-Palestinianism and Islamophobia. Investigations by the U.S. Department of Education have been opened at Columbia, Emory University, the University of North Carolina, and at Umass Amherst over their administrations' response to student protests and advocacy since the start of the war.[25][26][27][28]

A comparative analysis of different Harvard University approaches to student protests noted that the administration held measured responses to anti-Apartheid encampments in 1986, Occupy Movement encampments and access restrictions in 2011, and environmental activist blockades in 2015 with minimal punishments for students involved. In contrast to prior temporary disruptions, pro-Palestinian encampments on Harvard campus faced threats of mass suspensions, stricter enforcement of rules and restrictions, and what was described as a shift away from dialogue and protest as part of academic discourse, necessary to protect academic freedom.[29][opinion][5]

Several pro-Palestinian advocates have also described the Harvard administration as implementing the Palestine exception for preventing thirteen undergraduates from collecting their diplomas at the annual commencement ceremony as a consequence for participation in pro-Palestinian protests.[30] Nearly 500 Harvard faculty and students criticized the sanctions as disproportionate, unprecedented, and designed to stifle open discourse,[31] while others identified it as an example of the "Palestine Exception" to free speech.[29]

Responses

Besides affecting Palestinians themselves, Steven Salaita suggests that suppression of pro-Palestinian discourse also particularly affects Arabs, Muslims and ethnic minorities.[4] He says that individuals initially investigated for pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli speech have been subsequently prosecuted on politically motivated charges.[32]

According to Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores, many pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have shifted to less restrictive social media platforms such as Twitter/X in order to evade censorship or punishment when speaking about the Gaza war and the resulting humanitarian crisis. Several groups have also used social media or instant messaging platforms to organize protests, media campaigns, and other activities without direct oversight. Fúnez-Flores says these shifts occurred in response to claims that traditional media coverage often amplified institutional justifications for restricting speech, while giving less attention to faculty and student perspectives.[5] A film documenting the Palestine Exception in academia and during pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses was produced and screened at several universities.[33][34]

Robert Horenstein, head of community relations and public affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, suggests there is no "Palestine exception" to free speech. He says the prevalence of pro-Palestinian activism in academic and public spaces, which includes over 300 active chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), far outnumbers pro-Israel activism. He says that the frequent calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel are evidence that anti-Israel sentiment is freely expressed.[6] Horenstein and StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein suggest that pro-Israel demonstrations on campus are being suppressed instead.[6][35]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Abdo, Nahla (September 2023). "The Palestine Exception, Racialization and Invisibilization: From Israel (Palestine) to North America (Turtle Island)". Critical Sociology. 49 (6): 967–989. doi:10.1177/08969205221131315. ISSN 0896-9205.
  2. ^ Salaita 2018, p. 6: "The U.S. government has always maintained a surveillance apparatus, but after 9/11 and the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, crucial elements of that apparatus became legal and explicit. The state has recently consolidated forms of authority that undermine common notions of free speech—and in the case of Al-Arian, we can include academic freedom."
  3. ^ Salaita, Steven (2018). "A Palestinian Exception to the First Amendment?: The Pain and Pleasure of Palestine in the Public Sphere". In Daulatzai, Sohail; Rana, Junaid (eds.). With Stones in Our Hands: Writings on Muslims, Racism, and Empire. University of Minnesota Press. pp. 3–15.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
    Razai, Sara (6 April 2022). "The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: The Criminalization of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions in France". The Palestine Yearbook of International Law Online. 23 (1): 179–200. doi:10.1163/22116141_023010_006.
    Awshah, Dina (2021–2022). "Civil Rights? But Not for You: Chilling a Globalized Palestinian Resistance Movement's Freedom of Expression Protections as Guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". Georgetown Journal of International Law. 53: 125.
    Dajani, Omar M. (2023). "Israel, Palestine and the First Amendment: Introduction to the Special Issue". University of the Pacific Law Review. 54: [ix].
  4. ^ a b Salaita 2018, p. 5: "One need not be ethnically Palestinian to suffer the repercussions of professing unauthorized discourse. The problem affects Arabs in general and Muslims of multiple ethnic and national backgrounds. The same is true of ethnic minorities. Angela Davis, for example, who has long faced recrimination for her class, gender, and race analyses, now faces suppression because of her advocacy on behalf of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS). Alice Walker, Cornel West, and Desmond Tutu have experienced similar backlash. Even Jewish critics of Israel are subject to the Palestinian exception to the First Amendment (e.g., Noam Chomsky, William Robinson, Terri Ginsberg, Ilan Pappé)."
  5. ^ a b c Fúnez-Flores, Jairo I. (2 July 2024). "The Coloniality of Academic Freedom and the Palestine Exception". Middle East Critique. 33 (3): 465–485. doi:10.1080/19436149.2024.2375918. ISSN 1943-6149.
  6. ^ a b c Horenstein, Robert (4 January 2025). "The Palestine Exception: How Anti-Israel Voices Cry Suppression While Silencing Others". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
  7. ^ Sainath, Radhika (23 May 2021). "When It Comes to Palestine, Free Speech Rights Are Under Attack". Jacobin. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  8. ^ "The Palestine Exception". Palestine Legal. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  9. ^ "News & Updates". Palestine Legal. 10 September 2024. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  10. ^ "The Palestine Exception". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  11. ^ Shwaikh, Malaka; Gould, Rebecca Ruth (2019). "The Palestine Exception to Academic Freedom: Intertwined Stories from the Frontlines of UK-Based Palestine Activism". Biography. 42 (4): 752–773. ISSN 0162-4962. JSTOR 27098493.
  12. ^ Bangstad, Sindre (2025). "The Palestine Exception to Academic Freedom and the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism". The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. 0: 1–12. doi:10.1080/03086534.2025.2494669. ISSN 0308-6534.
  13. ^ Tatour, Lana (2 January 2024). "Censoring Palestine: human rights, academic freedom and the IHRA". Australian Journal of Human Rights. 30 (1): 106–114. doi:10.1080/1323238X.2024.2385504. ISSN 1323-238X.
  14. ^ "CJPME Condemns Pattern of Anti-Palestinian Racism at the Toronto District School Board". CJPME - English. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  15. ^ Lennard, Natasha (22 November 2023). "Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza". The Intercept. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  16. ^ "Rabea Eghbariah". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  17. ^ Eghbariah, Rabea (3 November 2023). "Opinion | An Unarmed Teen Was Shot During a Cease-Fire. Israel Was Never Held to Account". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  18. ^ "The Harvard Law Review's Palestine Exception | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  19. ^ Jeremy Scahill, Ryan Grim, "Leaked NYT Gaza memo tells journalists to avoid words 'Genocide,' 'Ethnic cleansing,' and 'Occupied Territory'", The Intercept, 15 April 2024: "The New York Times instructed journalists covering Israel's war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' and to 'avoid' using the phrase 'occupied territory' when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo written by Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan obtained by The Intercept. The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine 'except in very rare cases' and to steer clear of the term 'refugee camps' to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars. [...] The memo — written by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies — 'offers guidance about some terms and other issues we have grappled with since the start of the conflict in October.'"
  20. ^ In an analysis of over 1,000 articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times, Adam Johnson found: "Highly emotive terms for the killing of civilians like 'slaughter', 'massacre', and 'horrific' ... [were] reserved almost exclusively for Israelis who were killed by Palestinians, rather than the other way around. [...] The term 'slaughter' was used by editors and reporters to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 60 to 1, and 'massacre' was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 125 to 2. 'Horrific' was used to describe the killing of Israelis versus Palestinians 36 to 4." Adam Johnson, Othman Ali, "Coverage of Gaza War in the New York Times and other major newspapers heavily favored Israel, analysis shows," The Intercept 9 January 2024
  21. ^ a b Farawi, Rahaf (15 June 2022). "CBC's Palestine Exception - The Review of Journalism". Retrieved 23 November 2024.
  22. ^ "Meta: Systemic Censorship of Palestine Content | Human Rights Watch". 20 December 2023. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  23. ^ Fadel, Mohammad (24 April 2024). "The Palestine Exception to Academic Freedom Must Go". Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  24. ^ Palestine-CBT, Faculty and Staff Supporting Justice in. "The Palestine Exception". Columbia Daily Spectator. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  25. ^ Khalili, Zoha (9 April 2024). "Palestine Legal and UNC SJP Demand Investigation into Anti-Palestinian Racism". Palestine Legal. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  26. ^ Thakker, Prem (24 April 2024). ""Kill All Arabs": The Feds Are Investigating UMass Amherst for Anti-Palestinian Bias". The Intercept. Archived from the original on 31 May 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  27. ^ Duster, Chandelis (2 May 2024). "Education Department opens investigation into Emory after complaints of "hostile anti-Palestinian climate"". CNN. Archived from the original on 3 May 2024. Retrieved 2 June 2024.
  28. ^ Yen, Amanda (3 May 2024). "Feds Probe Alleged Anti-Palestinian Racism at Columbia, Group Says". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 21 May 2024. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
  29. ^ a b Johnson, Alison F.; Levitsky, Steven (8 May 2024). "Suspending Student Protesters Would Be a Palestine Exception to Free Speech | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  30. ^ "Outrage at Decision to Deny Diplomas to 13 Pro-Palestine Students Overshadows Harvard Commencement | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  31. ^ "Nearly 500 Harvard Faculty, Staff Blast Sanctions Against Pro-Palestine Protesters in Open Letter | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  32. ^ Salaita 2018, p. 6: "Palestinians in particular have faced recrimination because of speech (usually critical of Israel) and in turn face criminalization—in other words, they are prosecuted for things other than speech, though speech precipitated the criminalization. Community activist Rasmea Odeh of Chicago [...] was arrested and prosecuted for supposedly lying on a decades-old immigration application. Authorities relied on evidence presented by Israel in its politically motivated prosecution of Odeh nearly four decades prior. [...] Another example is that of Sami Al-Arian [...] Al-Arian beat the seventeen counts with which the government charged him but was constantly harassed before pleading guilty to conspiracy to contribute services to or for the benefit of a terrorist organization, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Like Odeh, Al-Arian was the victim of a fishing expedition triggered by his effective activism."
  33. ^ "Home". Palestine Exception. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  34. ^ "Screenings". Palestine Exception. Retrieved 24 November 2024.
  35. ^ Apter, Melissa (9 October 2015). "On the Attack". Baltimore Jewish Times. 346 (6): 29. ProQuest 1752544460. Retrieved 10 March 2025.
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