It’s bad enough that Rep. Hillary Scholten has consistently voted to fund the Israeli genocide of Palestinians, now she wants to condemn students who are publicly opposing genocide

The growing student-led Palestine solidarity movement is an inspiring thing to see as it unfolds. Along with lots of faculty and staff, college students are showing the rest of us tremendous courage and conviction for their willingness to stand up against US complicity in Israel’s genocide and to the police repression that more and more campuses are experiencing. 

Just yesterday, police abused and arrested 40 pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Texas at Austin. After what had happened at Colombia, the students across the country have been mobilizing to engage in their own encampments to not only protest the role that the US government is playing in Israel’s genocide, but in many cases to demand that their university or college divest from the decades-long Israeli occupation and Israeli Apartheid. Students are once again showing the rest of us how to be courageous in the face of US imperialism.

Unfortunately, not everyone is inspired by the courage of college students across the country. West Michigan’s very own Representative Hillary Scholten recently posted on her weekly newsletter the following statement:

“I’m sure many of you have seen the ongoing protests happening on college and university campuses across the country right now. The right to free speech and protest is fundamental, but far too many of these protests have crossed the line into harassment, intimidation, and discriminatory anti-semitism. Colleges and universities do not have enough clear guidance on what does and does not cross the line into antisemitism– which has put Jewish students at risk and at the same time, jeopardizes legitimate free speech. Students have the right to peacefully protest, but antisemitism is never –and never will be– tolerated.

As others rushed to the cameras, I got to work on solutions. This week, my Republican colleague and fellow midwesterner Rep. Rudy Yakym from Indiana and I championed our new bill, the PROTECT Jewish Students and Faculty Act, to require colleges and universities to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s official working definition of antisemitism in student and faculty codes of conduct as a condition of receiving Title IV federal funds for financial aid. This way, we’re protecting students and faculty and ensuring that institutions of higher education can be safe spaces of learning and free expression for all.”

Rep. Scholten, the so-called liberal, once again is demonstrating her allegiance to US Imperialism, to Zionism and her commitment to the repression of free speech. Notice that the Congresswoman provides no evidence of antisemitism. You just have to invoke it to make it a fact, just like Zionists preach. On top of the unsubstantiated claim of antisemitism, Rep. Scholten takes it one step further by partnering with a Republican from Indiana to introduce legislation that in reality is meant to further silence critics of Israel and US policies that support Israel. However, this might be a good time to point out why Rep. Hillary Scholten is on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of justice.

• US students and faculty are organizing to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians and against the US-funded Israeli genocide that has already killed 35,000 Palestinians.
• Many of the campus protests against the Israeli genocide are being led by Jewish students and faculty.
• US students who are organizing encampments across the country are following in the same tradition as previous movements like the Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Vietnam and anti-Iraq War Movements, the Climate Justice Movement, and the South African anti-Apartheid Movement, just to name a few. 
• US students and faculty are exposing the political and economic commitment that Higher Education has to conformity, especially when it comes to US foreign policy and Israel.
• US students and faculty are also exposing how the police state functions in the US, especially when university trustees and university donors are pressuring campuses to actively suppress this movement.

Instead, what Rep. Hillary Scholten is doing is taken right from the Zionist playbook to blame the victim or anybody else, but never Israel. Scholten is one of 9 co-sponsors of H.R. 7478, which was introduced by Rep. Rudy Yakym from Indiana. Scholten is only one of two Democrats who cosponsored this shitty piece of legislation that includes the likes of Rep. Elise Stefanik from New York. Stefanik has been the person leading the charge to discredit universities who allow Palestine Solidarity actions or Middle East Studies that question Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

If Rep. Hillary Scholten was on the right side of history, she would recognize a few things about what she is enabling and complicit in: 

The McCarthyist Attack on Gaza Protests Threatens Free Thought for All 

GAZA WAR, COLLEGE CAMPUSES BECOME FREE SPEECH “TESTING GROUND” 

Israel Has Formed a Task Force to Carry Out Covert Campaigns at US Universities 

It’s bad enough that Rep. Scholten has consistently voted to send billions of dollars in US military aid to unconditionally support Israel and to participate in an AIPAC funded trip to Israel last year, she now wants to use a right-wing tactic to silence college students across the US for courageously denouncing genocide. Rep. Scholten’s legacy as a member of Congress will be that she defended genocide and the suppression of those who opposed genocide.