Last month, DePaul University philosophy professor Jason Hill wrote an opinion piece for the Federalist, a conservative online magazine, that argued for Israel’s “moral right” to annex the West Bank and Gaza.
The petition, which also cites tweets made by Hill, charges that “[h]is comments create unsafe and uncomfortable spaces for everyone, especially Palestinian and Muslim students who now all refuse to enroll in a class that is taught by Professor Hill.” At press time it had more than 3,400 signatures.
Hill didn’t attend the Faculty Council meeting or a university-sponsored forum that followed it. He was receiving death threats, he says, and didn’t want to put himself into a hostile environment. But at a talk in Wilmette last week about his latest book, We Have Overcome, an appreciation of America that reflects on his own journey since his arrival from Jamaica at the age of 20 as a Black gay immigrant with $120 in his pocket, he opened with an assessment of the situation in higher education. Indoctrination into cultural Marxism, he claimed, has replaced learning in the humanities and social sciences, and a climate of intimidation and fear suppresses First Amendment rights. “It’s not unique to DePaul,” Hill said. “It’s an assault on free speech on American campuses.”
Says Hill: “I find it ironic that two weeks after the article was published, the Students for Justice in Palestine and other students are free to hold an anti-apartheid week against Israel on campus and I don’t think they felt their safety was compromised in any way, and it’s I who need a security escort on campus.”
