None of the media outlets or organizations clamoring for the right of Islamic terrorist supporters to come to the US on visas objected to blocking pro-Israel musicians from coming to perform here.
By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine
After the Trump administration moved to deport foreign campus terrorist supporters, including Momodou Taal, who had urged student protesters to take their cue from Hamas and tweeted “absolutely anyone the US calls an enemy is my friend”, there was outrage from the Left.
The move to remove Taal, Mahmoud Khalil, a top activist in a Columbia University group that had celebrated the Oct 7 attacks and called for the destruction of America, and Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese Hezbollah supporter who attended its leader’s funeral, was condemned.
Democrats, the media and even some liberal Jewish groups claimed that the First Amendment rights of the terrorist supporters were being violated by “punishing them for their speech”.
But a basic condition of visa travel and resident alien status is that the visitors in question may not commit crimes or advocate for illegal terrorist groups.
And those defending the rights of foreign nationals to assault police officers were not all that long ago cheering visa bans for Israeli Jews.
When the Biden administration announced that it would be restricting Israeli Jews opposed to Hamas from coming to America, the move was met with cheers from leftists and the media.
In December 2023, Secretary of State Blinken announced “visa restrictions” were being imposed on those he falsely described as “extremist settlers” who were “involved in undermining peace, security, or stability in the West Bank, including through committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services.”
The Biden crackdown was not only extended to Israeli shepherds who were defending themselves against Islamic violence, but to non-violent protesters opposed to Blinken’s policies.
The unprecedented sanctions hit goat farms, a baker who had shot a terrorist while serving in the army in 2016, and an Israeli mother of 8 who had worked with sexual assault survivors and was protesting the aid trucks that Biden was sending to Hamas that sustained the terror group.
“From the moment I founded Tzav 9, it was solely to bring our hostages home. We wanted to stop aid to Hamas and prevent harm to our soldiers. Our actions included all parts of the nation – hostage families, bereaved families, right-wing and left-wing alike – all participating in the most legitimate actions with zero violence. Now, we face sanctions, personally targeting me,” Reut Ben Haim, who had a 6 month old baby and a husband serving in Gaza, said.
The same people who claim they want to protect Taal and Khalil’s “freedom of speech” were enthusiastic about imposing sanctions that banned Reut from even having a bank account by falsely listing her as a “transnational criminal organization” for engaging in peaceful protests.
In sharp contrast to the Columbia U rioters and other pro-Hamas campus groups, Reut Ben Haim and Tzav 9 were not engaged in violence. And yet the media and leftist organizations, including the anti-Israel lobby J Street, hailed the crackdown on supporters of Israel.
Shomrim: the Center for Media and Democracy, an extremist group, funded as a nonprofit by leftists in this country, even spied on Reut to determine if she was still getting money despite the sanctions.
When Trump eliminated those illegal sanctions on taking office, the media, including Politico, NBC News, Reuters, and AP, which has a history of Hamas ties, falsely accused Trump of causing violence by dropping sanctions on goat farms and a housewife with a baby.
Because it was never about free speech. It was about supporting terrorism.
After Oct 7, two Israeli musicians recorded “Harbu Darbu”, a hip-hop song that went viral for celebrating Israeli soldiers and calling for the destruction of Islamic terrorists.
Al Jazeera, a terrorist propaganda platform controlled by the Qatari state sponsors of Hamas, falsely accused the song of promoting genocide and terrorist supporters demanded a ban on its performance.
Next year, when Ness and Stilla, the musicians behind the song, tried to visit the United States to take part in a Miami concert sponsored by the Israeli consulate, their request for a visa was denied by the Biden administration because of the passionate lyrics of the anti-terrorist song.
Lior Narkis, a popular Israeli musician, who had formerly represented Israel in Eurovision, was blocked from performing even though he had already legally entered the United States by blocking him from receiving a performer visa.
There was no reason for such a move by the Biden administration except to specifically stop the planned concert from taking place.
None of the media outlets or organizations clamoring for the right of Islamic terrorist supporters to come here on visas objected to blocking pro-Israel musicians from coming to perform here.
There was no talk from them about the First Amendment or the value of freedom of speech.
Even ordinary Israelis reported being targeted with questions about whether they had served in the military, had seen combat, had shot any terrorists or guarded captured terrorists An Israeli woman trying to visit as a tourist described being interrogated for half an hour for details about her service before being told she was ineligible for a visa.
A real estate VP was debriefed for hours about his time in Gaza causing him to miss his flight. A tech company executive said, “I feel as if questions were copied from the Office of the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.”
Even while this was going on, the Biden administration had provided a ‘green card’ to Mahmoud Khalil and welcomed countless Muslim terrorism supporters into the United States.
Democrats and the media do not object to blocking people from receiving visas and coming to this country over their views or their connections to foreign organizations, as long as those views are pro-Israel and that foreign organization is an army fighting against Islamic terrorists.
They only object to blocking and rescinding visas to supporters of Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups for their violent assaults, threats and campaign to destroy America and Israel.
The Biden administration’s censorship machine targeted Americans for making jokes on Twitter. Now the supporters of that policy want us to believe that they are free speech fanatics, and they sincerely believe that foreign terrorist supporters are entitled to visas because of free speech.
Democrats and media do not believe in free speech. Until recently they labeled speech they didn’t like as dangerous “misinformation” that needed to be censored on social media.
Now the same movement which spent years warning that unrestricted speech by Americans on Facebook and Twitter was a “threat to democracy” that urgently needed to be reined in before America was destroyed, wants to pretend that it supports the right of foreign nationals who advocate for terrorism to come here because of their unlimited devotion to absolute free speech.
But that same movement also blocked Israelis from coming here because of their speech.
Those who support Taal, Khalil and other campus terror supporters are not doing so because of some abstract commitment to free speech, but because they support Islamic terrorism.
They had plenty of chances to stand up for free speech. The only speech they support is the speech that they already agree with. And that speech is aimed at destroying America and Israel.
