Bard College Retaliates Against Students for Protesting a Racist Speaker

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, USA. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Bard College is investigating two members of Bard Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for protesting a panel featuring Ruth Wisse, a retired Harvard professor with a history of bigoted anti-Palestinian remarks. The investigation began after one of Wisse’s co-panelists, an editor at The Forward, published an article in her own publication falsely claiming that she and the panelists were targeted for being Jewish.

Palestine Legal, which is representing the students Ben and Akiva, warned Bard that it may not retaliate against students for complaining about national origin discrimination.

Palestine Legal further warned that the students cannot be punished under Bard’s Free Speech policy, which explicitly protects “dissent and protest.”

On October 10, 2019, the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College in upstate New York hosted an event called “Who Needs Antisemitism?” The panel featured retired literature professor Ruth Wisse, with former Israeli national official Shany Mor and Forward editor Batya Ungar-Sargon as moderators.

SJP protested the event for what they believed to be racist and dehumanizing remarks from Wisse, such as “Palestinian Arabs are people who breed and bleed and advertise their misery.”

Shortly after Wisse began speaking, Ben began reading a short statement explaining that SJP was protesting the event because of the speaker’s anti-Palestinian views. He spoke for about 39 seconds before being escorted out of the room. The remaining dozen-plus students quietly held signs with quotes from Wisse and language criticizing Zionism. During Q&A, the remaining students, including Akiva, chanted for several seconds before leaving the room.

After the event, Unger-Sargon published an article “I Was Protested At Bard College for Being a Jew,” where she claimed the event was protested because she and the other panelists were Jewish.

Unger-Sargon’s assertions were shot down by several prominent witnesses—including director of the hosting center Roger Berkowitz, director of Bard’s Center for Hate and Study Kenneth Stern, staff writer with the London Review of Books Adam Shatz, and Bard alum and antisemitism researcher Ben Lorber.

“We protested the anti-Palestinian views, right-wing Zionism, and bad faith weaponization of antisemitism of the speakers,” said Akiva. “A public figure then abused her position as an editor to lie about the nature of our protest, and we became the subject of national vitriol and a retaliatory investigation.”

"The accusations against us are a dishonest attempt to punish and deflect from our legitimate criticisms of Zionist views and policies," said Ben. "We demand Bard protect our right to protest extreme racism without retribution."

In media interviews and over social media, Ben and Akiva again explained that they protested the event due to Wisse’s discriminatory views towards Palestinians. Shortly after making these comments, Ben and Akiva received formal investigation notices accusing them of violating Bard’s Free Speech and Harassment, Discrimination and Stalking policies.

“It’s very problematic for Bard to investigate the only two protesters who spoke to the media,” said Palestine Legal senior staff attorney Radhika Sainath, who is representing the two students. “The law is clear – school administrators cannot retaliate against students for complaining about national origin discrimination.”

Ben and Akiva were questioned by an administrative committee in December, which will decide whether they believe the students violated campus policy and make a recommendation on sanctions. Bard’s president will then decide whether to accept the committee’s finding.