Florida Public Universities Directed to Evaluate Courses for Anti-Semitic and Anti-Israel Bias

August 9, 2024 TruthUSA

Schools were instructed to review all courses with descriptions or syllabi containing words like Israel, Palestine, and Zionism.

The head of Florida’s state university system has directed all 12 public universities to examine their teaching materials for potential anti-Semitic or anti-Israel bias.

“We will be conducting a keyword search on course descriptions and syllabi,” Chancellor Ray Rodrigues, a former Republican lawmaker overseeing the public university system, informed the university presidents in an email dated Aug. 4. “Any course that includes the following keywords: Israel, Israeli, Palestine, Palestinian, Middle East, Zionism, Zionist, Judaism, Jewish, or Jews will be marked for review.”

“This process will ensure uniformity in reviewing courses across all universities, leaving nothing overlooked,” as stated in the email reviewed by The Epoch Times.

“Each university should then commence a faculty review to be completed by the end of the fall semester,” Rodrigues stated. “This review should identify and report any instances of anti-Semitism or anti-Israel bias to my office.”

In response to a request for more information, the university system only provided a copy of Rodrigues’s email. Nevertheless, Rodrigues mentioned to the Miami Herald in an interview that the directive stemmed from a controversial incident involving an online quiz perceived as biased against Israel.

The quiz in question was administered in June at Florida International University (FIU) and was part of an online course textbook titled “Terrorism and Homeland Security.” It contained a question that read, “When Israelis practice terrorism, they often refer to it as [blank],” with answer choices including “proactive attacks” and “terrorist defensive strategy.”

Pro-Israel accounts on social media publicized the quiz and it caught the attention of state Rep. Randy Fine, the sole Jewish Republican member of the Florida Legislature, who expressed concerns with FIU’s explanation that the question was randomly selected from a pool of 1,500 questions, and that the professor teaching the course had never reviewed the textbook or questions.

“The explanation for how this occurred is somewhere between ‘incompetence’ and ‘anti-Semitism.’ It likely involves a bit of both,” the legislator stated on X. “I have informed the FIU president that unintentional anti-Semitism due to institutional ineptitude is unacceptable. There will be consequences.”

Although Rodrigues’s email did not elaborate on what constitutes anti-Semitism or anti-Israel bias, Florida has a legally defined definition.

According to Senate Bill 148, which was introduced shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel and became law in March, anti-Semitism is described as “a perception of Jewish individuals that may manifest as hatred toward such individuals.”

Additionally, the definition encompasses well-established forms of anti-Semitism, such as advocating for the death or harm of Jews or denying the magnitude of atrocities committed against European Jews during the Holocaust.

The state definition, based on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance framework, also extends to criticisms of Israel. For example, according to state law, deeming “the existence of the State of Israel as a racist endeavor” or expecting Israel to adhere to a standard of behavior not applied to any other democratic nation would be considered anti-Semitic.

Rodrigues’s directive, along with Florida’s endorsement of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, has sparked concerns among advocates of the First Amendment.

“These subjective standards will not effectively address real discrimination in Florida. Instead, campuses should consistently uphold existing laws prohibiting discriminatory harassment and genuine threats, all while respecting First Amendment laws and principles,” stated the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonprofit organization focused on free speech in higher education.

“Enforcing political conformity by censoring teaching materials is unconstitutional on a public campus in the United States of America,” the organization emphasized.

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