Fight the Blacklisting of Students and Professors
Over the past year, students and faculty have been coming together to fight back against the growing movement to silence pro-Palestinian voices on American college campuses.
We’re thrilled to learn that our new film, The Occupation of the American Mind, is starting to move to the center of that fight as more and more students and faculty screen it on campuses around the country.
The Occupation of the American Mind exposes the PR tactics that have been used over the years to deflect criticism of Israeli policy and slander advocates of Palestinian human rights — tactics that are now being used with increasing ferocity on college campuses by well-funded right-wing groups like the Canary Mission and David Horowitz’s Freedom Center.
Just this past month, hundreds of faculty signed a public statement condemning the Canary Mission, a clandestine organization that’s actively compiling a database of information about campus groups, students, and scholars who have dared to criticize Israeli policy, question U.S. support for those policies, or advocate for Palestinian human rights.
According to the statement, Canary Mission and other such groups claim they’re working to combat anti-Semitism on college campuses, but in reality are attempting to shut down free speech and undermine academic freedom by equating legitimate criticism of Israeli state policy with terrorism and anti-Semitism.
“We condemn Canary Mission as an effort to intimidate and blacklist students and faculty who stand for justice for Palestinians,” the statement reads. “[It] is designed to slander student, faculty, and community activists for Palestinian rights as extremist, anti-Semitic, and sympathetic to terrorism. Although, as individual faculty, we hold a range of viewpoints on Israel-Palestine, we recognize that student advocacy for Palestinian human rights is not inherently anti-Semitic, and such advocacy represents a cherished and protected form of free speech that is welcome on college campuses. We reject the McCarthyist tactics used by Canary Mission.”
We’re honored to lend our support to these faculty members, and to align ourselves with teachers, students, and activists everywhere who have the courage to stand up for free speech, academic freedom, and the human rights of the Palestinian people.
If you’re organizing around these issues, we hope you’ll consider screening The Occupation of the American Mind on your campus to help shine a light on what’s going on.
