Not even liberals are immune to anti-free-speech protests

Rachel Frommer of the Washington Free Beacon reports on an unusual target for campus protesters who can’t cope with free speech.

Protests are expected to disrupt an upcoming talk by lawyer and political commentator Alan Dershowitz at Columbia University, according to event organizers.

Dershowitz’s sold-out talk about the Constitution, free speech, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will likely be disrupted by dozens of anti-Israel student activists, said Ofir Dayan, the media coordinator for Students Supporting Israel, the group hosting the event.

Some 30 seats have been reserved by those affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, and Jewish Voice for Peace, according to Dayan, a tactic she said has been used in the past to facilitate shout-downs of SSI programming. …

… Dershowitz told the Washington Free Beacon in an email, “I am a centrist liberal who supports a two state solution. If protesters try to stop students from hearing my centrist views it shows how afraid they are of differing perspectives. I’m confident that Columbia University will assure my physical safety and allow the students to listen to me. I invite protesters to ask me hard questions but I will not be silenced by intolerant censors, either of the extreme left or extreme right.”