Commentary: Executive Order on Antisemitism Necessary To Safeguard Free Speech
By William Barclay
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Commentary by William Barclay originally published by RealClearPolitics and RealClearWire
On Jan. 29, 2025, President Trump ratified an executive order that pledges to deport any foreign students or resident aliens in the United States of America who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests.
In response, countless left-wing politicians and pro-Palestinian pundits immediately cried out that Trump’s new EO grotesquely violates the fundamental human rights of America’s resident aliens and foreign students, specifically the “right to free speech.”
For example, The Council on American-Islamic Relations immediately accused the Trump administration of an assault on “free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism …” and condemned Trump’s executive order as “… dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable.”
However, despite the plaintive bleating of the left and its vain cohort of pro-Palestinian pundits, President Trump’s order does not violate the human rights of any person or people.
Rather, President Trump’s EO is actually a noble and necessary effort to safeguard the fundamental human rights of all Americans.
In fact, it is clear that the bevy of left-wing pundits and pro-Palestinian supporters who have leapt to decry President Trump and indict his executive order have happily all ignored the very basis for any human rights in every liberal-democratic society.
Specifically, within any democratic state or society, every citizen’s fundamental rights, such as the “right to property” or the “right to free speech,” are predicated upon the Lockean proviso that there must always be “as much and as good” left for other citizens.
For instance, if a person decides to acquire property, then its acquisition must not somehow impede or prevent other people from being able to obtain their own property or from exercising their own respective right to property freely and completely. Similarly, if a citizen or a group of people elects to exercise their right to free speech, then they cannot thereby preclude any other citizens from exercising their own respective right to free speech or participating freely within society.
Unfortunately, by participating in the slew of barbaric pro-Palestinian protests that have inundated American society since Oct. 7, 2023, the countless resident aliens and foreign students whom Trump now seeks to deport have precluded various people and communities in America from their own respective right to free speech, and, therefore, they are themselves no longer entitled to its exercise, particularly on American soil.
Firstly, pro-Palestinian protests have consistently violated the LGBTQ+ community’s right to free speech and have violently disrupted numerous pro-LGTBQ+ events throughout the U.S., in order to espouse their own dogged pro-Palestinian ideology and support for terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
For instance, in New York City, a horde of pro-Palestinian protestors violently disrupted and abruptly curtailed NYC Pride, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department was forced to arrest 19 overtly hostile pro-Palestinian demonstrators and disperse countless others, after a swarm of pro-Palestinian protestors aggressively blockaded and halted the St. Louis Pride Parade.
Worse still, whenever the pro-Palestinian protestors have invaded LGTBQ+ events and spaces they have explicitly espoused fervently homophobic beliefs and ideology. In fact, around the world, pro-Palestinian protesters have been accused of “… bringing violence, homophobia and antisemitism to the front door of state conference.”
Moreover, since Oct. 7, pro-Palestinian extremists and protestors have violently attempted to preclude America’s Jewish community, as well as countless non-Jewish supporters of the state of Israel, from their own respective right to free speech and from freely participating in political discourse in America.
For example, on university and college campuses across America, such as Columbia, Harvard, and UC Berkeley, pro-Palestinian protestors have violently attacked and harassed Jewish students and staff, as well as any person or group that is even remotely pro-Israel. As a result, countless Jewish students and faculty members have been terrorized into forgoing their own respective right to free speech and intimidated into refusing to participate in any of the dialogue and discourse that surrounds the Israel-Palestine conflict on campus out of fear for their own personal safety.
In addition, pro-Palestinian protestors have frequently attacked pro-Israel rallies and Jewish events, as well as countless innocent Jewish people, in an explicit effort to intimidate the Jewish community and violently prevent Jews and supporters of the state of Israel from exercising their right to free speech. In fact, a 69-year-old Jewish man, Paul Kessler, was even beaten to death, after a mob of pro-Palestinian protestors stumbled upon a pro-Israel rally near Los Angeles.
Therefore, it is readily apparent that President Trump’s executive order does not violate the human rights of any person or people.
In truth, despite the plaintive bleating of the left and its constant efforts to misconstrue President Trump as an enemy to human rights and democracy, his executive order is actually a noble and necessary effort to safeguard the fundamental right of all Americans to free speech against any violation.
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William Barclay is a political theorist and private consultant, as well as a contributor for Young Voices. William’s work has been published by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Palgrave-Macmillan, The Hill Times, and the Journal of Liberty and International Affairs, among others. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayBBC.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
