WHEN US vice-president JD Vance controversially lambasted European governments for denying freedom of expression to their citizens during a speech in February, he wasn’t wrong.
Across the continent, we have seen an uncompromising and authoritarian censorship of Palestinian voices opposing the ongoing genocide in Gaza over the past 20 months.
Unfortunately, this is not who Vance was aiming at. Indeed, lest we forget, some of his targets were fantasy straw men such as Scots not being allowed to pray in their own homes.
And indeed, when it comes to the concept of free speech, the US has proven to be more authoritarian than most, as pro-Palestinian voices have found themselves under assault from successive administrations at the federal and state levels due to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and Zionist influence over the US political class.
Consequently, it comes as little surprise that the Trump administration is now trying to silence yet another pro-Palestinian voice, that of UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. An outspoken truth-teller on the international stage, Albanese has consistently and courageously shone a light on the genocide in Gaza and the complicity of Western nations in the slaughter.
The US response of imposing sanctions on the special rapporteur was almost as predictable as it was risible. “Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” secretary of state Marco Rubio posted on social media.
Yet this is just the latest in a long line of assaults on freedom of expression in the United States and on the US Constitution itself.
Back in March, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of Columbia University in New York City, was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Khalil had acted as a negotiator between pro-Palestine activists and the university authorities during student protests there.
No charges were brought against him, and immigration agents didn’t even possess a warrant for his arrest but were simply acting on the direction of the US State Department.
Despite this, Khalil, a permanent resident of the US, was described as a “radical, foreign, pro-Hamas student” by president Trump on social media.
Following incarceration in Louisiana, Khalil was finally released on bail in June after a New Jersey court declared the US administration had no grounds to detain him.
Rumeysa Ozturk, was a Turkish student studying at Tufts University in Massachusetts who was detained on March 25 by what was essentially a Department of Homeland Security snatch squad dressed in masks and hoodies.
Her “crime” had been to co-write an op-ed a year previously that amplified student calls for the college to cut ties with Israel due to the latter’s clear violation of international humanitarian law.
A State Department memo said Ozturk’s student visa had been revoked following an assessment that her actions “may undermine US foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist”.
Ozturk was eventually released on May 9, when a US district judge ordered that she be freed, pointing out that the government provided no evidence to support her arrest other than the op-ed.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s executive order on January 30 extended the assault on freedom of expression to educational institutions and campuses across the USA.
According to the order, the Department of Justice would take immediate action “to protect law and order, quell pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, and investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities”.
Of course, what constitutes being “pro-Hamas” is essentially any criticism of Zionist genocide.
One of those impacted was Columbia University. However, the university swiftly yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration in order to continue receiving $400 million worth of grants and contracts.
Meanwhile, many other public and private universities have likewise implemented new policies to prevent student protests.
But if the domestic attacks on free speech and the trampling of the US Constitution at the behest of Zionism were disturbing enough, what was even more startling was a recent bipartisan bill that identifies the combatting of antisemitism around the globe as a US foreign policy objective.
And now, as one watches the Trump regime seek to silence Albanese, a lady whose integrity, intellect and humanity contrast starkly with those of Trump and his mediocre minions, the administration’s actions are entirely consistent with the contempt that the so-called “America First” brigade clearly have for the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
“Capitol Hill is Israeli-Occupied territory,” observed former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan back in 1990. Thirty-five years later, little appears to have changed.
Roddy Keenan is a freelance journalist who writes for Palestine News Network and contributes to other Palestinian news sites such as The Electronic Intifada.
Roddy is also the author of US Presidential Elections, 1968-2008: A Narrative History Of The Race For The White House
