Upfront Article Response William Goldberg 813

William Goldberg 813








       The article "Should a Hated Word Be Banned?" written for The New York Times Upfront by Judi Rudoren, discusses the idea of having a bill in Israel that would make it a crime to call a person a Nazi-or any other insult related to the Holocaust-or to use Holocaust based symbols in any way that is not considered educational. Israel's parliament has already given "...preliminary approval..." to this bill. The punishment for going against this would be a fine of possibly $29,000 and maybe even six months in jail. Rabbi Dov Lipman said that he was constantly being called a Nazi in the middle of 2011 protests while trying to protect schoolgirls whose uniforms were considered immodest. Lipman, also a sponsor of the bill, said "Freedom of speech is important, but in my opinion, every country has to establish certain value-based limits."
       I disagree with this statement for multiple reasons, even though I believe that "Nazi" and other Holocaust related terms shouldn't be thrown around like they are nothing. One reason why I disagree with this statement is that Rudoren says that critics of this law believe that to any degree, it is an infringement of free speech. They are saying that free speech is free speech and that any limit on it (like Lipman is talking about) makes it not free speech anymore. I agree with the critics. Another reason why I disagree with this statement is that the article talks about how certain politicians like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would be put in jail for always using the Holocaust and Holocaust-related terms in his speeches. To me, this doesn't seem right seeming that all he is trying to do is use these terms to compare certain things in his speeches. But overall, I disagree because no matter what, free speech is free speech, and if you put a limit on it no matter how small, it is no longer free speech. People seem to be stopping thinking of these terms as what they should be, and have decided that they are now insults, and if this is so you must let it be.