Zionist, conservative students 'terrified' to express views despite 'diversity' push: Dershowitz
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz sounds off on 'Life, Liberty & Levin' on the stigma, fear felt by students of certain beliefs.
Students at universities who either believe in Israeli sovereignty or are politically conservative continue to be "terrified" to express their views despite the hiring of deans to adjudicate "diversity" and "inclusion," Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said.
Dershowitz told "Life, Liberty & Levin" that even he himself, as a political liberal, has been seemingly blacklisted from many law schools including his own former campus.
"I doubt it, I think there would be disruptions," Dershowitz said when asked if he would be able to teach a class at Harvard a decade after he last did so.
Dershowitz chalked up his prediction to his Zionist beliefs and the fact he defended then-President Donald Trump for just under two hours before the Senate during one of the impeachment proceedings.
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Dershowitz (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
"I have not once been invited back to speak at Harvard or at any other major law school except by the Federalist Society at Stanford, but no major law school," Dershowitz said of the time lapsed since he counseled Trump.
"We are seeing now an abolition of grades of meritocracy and the introduction of propaganda. Instead of teaching students how to think, teachers are insisting on teaching them what to think and not brooking any dissent and letting it be reflected even in grades," he said.
Host Mark Levin reported campus groups like Hillel — the Jewish campus life foundation — have sometimes had to meet in private because of threats or the potential for threats.
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"[S]tudents are terrified to express views in class that are not politically correct," Dershowitz added in agreement. "They know that they will be subject to peer pressures as well as by pressures by the administration."
"Remember, these universities now are loaded with administrators… associate deans in charge of diversity, equity and inclusion that really are involved deeply in censorship of ideas."
The professor added he and other Harvard-linked individuals formed a "council" forwarding academic freedom and free speech, but were only joined by about 100 people overall.
He wondered aloud why hundreds of other faculty wouldn't want to join an organization geared toward diversity and inclusion by its own intellectual definition.
"If you're, for example, an Orthodox Jew at a major institution today and wear kippah or a Star of David and you're perceived as being a Zionist, you are no longer allowed to join clubs, speak at clubs. At Berkeley, for example, 14 clubs — this is the University of California Law School."
"Fourteen clubs have banned — permanent, total, full-time ban on any Zionist speakers — including the dean of its own law school, who is a Jew who supports Israel's right to exist."
"I can't speak at any of those clubs on abortion, on gay rights, on the separation of powers or on the Constitution. I have been banned along with every other Zionist in the United States, in the world, from speaking at those clubs."
Dershowitz noted such censorship is essentially government-sponsored because UC-Berkeley is an institution of the state of California.