Conservatives Flame Nikki Haley For Proposal to Crack Down on Speech About Israel
AP Photo/Meg Kinnard
Online conservative influencers and pundits went after former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley over her proposal to crack down on free speech regarding Israel.
Amid the current Israel-Hamas war, the Republican presidential candidate ramped up rhetoric against antisemitism by showing her support for the nation of Israel and vowing to protect Jews in the United States. On Wednesday, she fired off a tweet pledging to change the federal definition of anti-Semitism to include denying Israel’s right to exist.
“You can’t fight antisemitism if you can’t define it. Joe Biden and the Left refuse to call anti-Zionism antisemitism,” she claimed. “As president I will change the official federal definition of antisemitism to include denying Israel’s right to exist, and I will pull schools’ tax exemption status if they do not combat antisemitism in all of its forms – in accordance with federal law.”
Haley added, College campuses are allowed to have free speech, but they are not free to spread hate that supports terrorism. Federal law requires schools to combat antisemitism. We will give this law teeth and we will enforce it. The United States of America will not use taxpayer dollars to fund antisemitism. Period. The Oct. 7 massacre and the ensuing weeks have proven what many of us have long known: There is no difference between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.”
Media personalities and right-wing influencers on X, formerly known as Twitter, did not respond kindly to Haley’s proposal.
For example, Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald and journalist Lee Fang argued Haley’s proposal not only infringes upon the free speech, especially on college campuses, but broadens the censorship powers of the government.
Absolutely pathetic that frauds like this one spent years parading as free speech warriors — mocking college students who urged protection from views they find threatening — only to now exploit this war, that is not even an American war! (😲), to seize broad censorship powers: https://t.co/i5k8jpyIY6
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 26, 2023
Lol Nikki Haley is taking Ibram Kendi’s idea to make all “racism” illegal via a government commission that determines who is racist and who is not, but applying it to criticism of Israel as an ethnostate, which she categorically claims is anti-semitism. https://t.co/aN7vILx01a
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) October 26, 2023
Other conservative personalities claimed Haley’s proposed policy are “un-American” and “makes it clear where her loyalty lie”
Nikki Haley is trying to make it illegal to be an anti-Zionist
This is completely un-American and makes it clear where her loyalty lie
Our first amendment right allows us to attack all counties including America but she wants Israeli to be off limits https://t.co/wLvmfNTZbu
— Jake Shields (@jakeshieldsajj) October 26, 2023
Find you a president who fights for America the way Nikki Haley fights for Israel https://t.co/gG15d9G5Y6
— Auron MacIntyre (@AuronMacintyre) October 26, 2023
Nikki Haley hates the First Amendment. She’s a f****** maniac. https://t.co/Viq91FZeim
— Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) October 26, 2023
This is the most Anti-American stance I’ve seen in a long time. Free Speech is the most important right we have and this witch wants to cast a “spell of redefinition” to eliminate it. https://t.co/my8YFbzbhL
— Brian McWilliams (@BrianMcWilliams) October 26, 2023
