The freedom to be wrong

Editorial

The news out of Duke University is disturbing. It's not just the fact that the university is hosting the fourth annual Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, or that the conference organizers refused to condemn the murder of innocent civilians, or that one of the speakers is the leader of a notorious extremist group called We Hold These Truths (based in Arizona, no less).

It's the idea that some people want to stop the Oct. 15-17 conference. An online petition asking Duke's president to ban the conference has collected more than 66,000 signatures to date.

In a cosmic parallel, Montreal's Concordia University last week rejected Hillel's request to host former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak on campus. Peaceful demonstrators have protested the decision as a violation of freedom of speech.

The principle of freedom of speech cuts both ways. Barak should be allowed to speak at Concordia. The Palestine Solidarity Movement must be allowed to hold its conference at Duke.

A graduate student named Rann Bar-on, who serves as spokesman for the Palestine Solidarity Movement, was quoted in the Duke campus newspaper as saying the organization refuses to condemn the murder of innocents because it "will not condemn any Palestinian action." This statement is absurd. It's also protected. Mr. Bar-on has the right to express his views, no matter how idiotic they may seem.

Duke is right to permit the conference on the ground of free speech. The university is also right in reiterating its policy against divesting from Israel.

In the face of absurd, hateful speech, there are alternatives - more effective alternatives, some would argue - to shutting the speakers down. Duke's senior vice president, John Burness, believes that "the best antidote to speech that others find disagreeable is more speech, not less."

The Freeman Center, Duke's Hillel affiliate, agrees, and students there are practicing what they preach. Rather than trying to prevent the conference, they have organized their own events, from Shabbat teach-ins to a concert/rally to benefit the victims of terrorism in the United States, Israel, Sudan and Russia. Funding is being provided by Duke alumni and student groups as well as local federations and foundations. The largest check, for $10,000, comes from Hadassah.

We must be willing to let others say things we don't want to hear. It's the American way. By the same token, it is also our duty as Americans, and as American Jews, to correct misinformation wherever possible, and to raise our own voices against those voices that advocate hatred and intolerance.

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