Missouri Senators Unanimously Show Their Contempt for Palestinians
On April 8th, the Missouri Senate unanimously voted to codify into law a pro-Israel speech code as “a tool and a guide” for defining the punishable offense of “antisemitism” for every public school in Missouri. The law regulates student speech from kindergarten to university. In doing so, the entire Missouri Senate, both Democrats and Republicans, showed their contempt for Palestinians and all those who support Palestinian rights.
Senate Substitute for House Bill 2061 modifies the original bill in a way that fails to solve the bills fundamental problem, which is the codification of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This bill conflates non-bigoted criticisms of Israel with antisemitism, thereby treating a speech about one foreign country differently than speech about any other nation. For example, according to the IHRA it is considered antisemetic to refer to Israel as a “racist endeavor”. In addition to codifying it as “a tool and a guide”, the IHRA definition was incorporated directly into the new version of the bill, making it potentially punishable to speak of Israel in a way that “applies materially inconsistent standards, expectations, or condemnation to Israel as compared with other nations in comparable circumstances.”
While Senator Curtis Trent (R-Ava) carried the bill in the Senate, it was Senator Steven Webber (D-Columbia) who spoke the most on the bill.In his floor speech, Webber claimed that he spent long hours negotiating on the bill with other Senators. He did so after refusing to give even five minutes of his time this year to meet with those who publicly opposed the bill, none of whom were invited to participate in negotiations or give their opinion on the “negotiated” wording of the bill.
During the course of debating the bill, neither Webber nor any other Missouri Senator mentioned Palestinians nor the actual behavior of the State of Israel. None mentioned any of the issues that opponents brought up about the problems with the IHRA definition of antisemitism. The entire Senate failed to mention any of the opposition’s specific criticisms of the bill. This despite over 180 Missourians testifying against it, significantly more people than testified in favor.
Bill supporters claim that it is necessary to protect Jewish students, but during floor debate, no Senator could name a single problem faced by Jewish students that this particular bill would solve. In reality, Jews are already covered under Title VI anti-discrimination rules both as an ethnicity and as a religion. The purpose of this bill has been, and continues to be, the protection of the State of Israel from criticism. Despite constant protestations to the contrary by bill supporters, the result of this bill’s passage will be the abridgement of free speech rights for students across the state.
All of this happened after the Missouri Senate processed the bill in a farcical manner. Despite clearly being an education bill, House Bill 2061 received its hearing not in the Senate Education Committee but in the General Law Committee, whose chair is bill handler Trent. There was only a 30-hour official notice given for the hearing. Despite the short notice, dozens showed up to testify, but most were not given the chance to testify. Those who did were forced to significantly abridge their statements, owing to the entire hearing only lasting 12 minutes. In the House, the hearing went for nearly three hours. Thus, no Senator actually heard a full presentation on the dangers of the bill. Only two of the seven Senators on the committee were even present for the brief hearing.
The debate over Israel in our state’s government is divorced from the terrifying reality that all who are paying any attention can see. The Missouri Senate decided to codify into state law a definition of antisemitism that calls it bigoted to refer to Israel as a “racist endeavor” only a week after Israel passed a law mandating the death penalty for some killings specifically and only for Palestinians, which the UN has condemned as discriminatory, explaining that “the legislation preserves and intensifies a dual legal system under which Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are subjected to military law, military courts, and diminished due process guarantees, while Israeli settlers are not
The American people have dramatically changed their views on Israel in the last few years. It is time that politicians catch up to this reality and stop pandering to those who continue to defend the indefensible action of the State of Israel.
