Expression at the Edge: Student Perspectives on Free Speech Boundaries Amidst the Gaza Crisis

The war between Israel and Hamas following the October 7th terror attack has played out on US campuses in ways that have tested universities’ tolerance toward unorthodox forms of protest as well as objectionable speech. In its tactics (e.g., encampment, class walk-outs, mass rallies), discourse (“from the river to the sea”), and demands (“disclose and divest”), the pro-Palestinian protest movement, and the response to it, have raised foundational questions about the boundaries of protected speech, academic freedom, and tolerance toward opposing beliefs, especially in a shadow of an ongoing, deadly war. As with all rights, the freedom to express opinion is not absolute, and it must be weighed against other protected rights, most importantly – the right to safety and security and
the right to not be subjected to hateful speech due to group membership. This project explores how college students view the trade-off between these rights, and the extent to which support for speech restrictions depends on the target group and content of speech.