WASHINGTON 

The US Republican push to investigate alleged antisemitism on university campuses during pro-Palestinian demonstrations is aimed at censoring free speech, a professor at Georgetown Law School told lawmakers Wednesday.

"These proceedings, with all due respect, have more in common with those of the House Un-American Activities Committee," said David Cole, who was the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) before taking a prominent spot at Georgetown.

He was referring to a since-disbanded congressional committee that sought to root out citizens accused of having communist sympathies during the Cold War. The committee saw no shortage of controversy as it investigated prominent Americans, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man largely credited as being the father of the atomic bomb.

“They are not an attempt to find out what happened, but an attempt to chill protected speech,” said Cole. “That was a mistake then, and it is a mistake now.”

Cole testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce along with the heads of Haverford College, DePaul University and California Polytechnic State University.

Presidents Wendy Raymond, Robert Manuel and Jeffrey Armstrong explained their schools’ responses to the pro-Palestinian encampments on their campuses and how they have handled antisemitism in the wake of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions have risen between the Trump administration and elite universities over issues including admissions, hiring practices, curriculum oversight and their responses to pro-Palestine campus protests.