As a historically persecuted minority, the Jewish community knows what it means to have our basic rights stripped from us by authoritarian leaders acting under the guise of “law and order.” With civil liberties under threat by authoritarian governments in both Israel and the U.S., we need to take every opportunity to defend the freedom of expression.

Recently, President Trump announced his nomination for Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, Ken Marcus. who has made a career out of undermining anti-Occupation students’ freedom of speech.

Marcus’ committee hearing and vote is on Dec 5th — so we must act now.

Marcus is the architect of a legal strategy to use civil rights law to suppress criticism of Israeli policy on campus. He has repeatedly lobbied state and federal lawmakers to require colleges and universities to classify criticism and support for Palestinian rights as antisemitic. All in the name of keeping Jewish students safe and protecting their civil rights.

Bernie Sanders sits on the HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pension) that will be responsible for moving Marcus’ nomination forward on Dec 5th.

Bernie has a unique opportunity to stand on the side of Palestinian human rights and against the stifling of free speech, to oppose Ken Marcus, and get all his Democratic colleagues to join the opposition.

The Jewish community has a responsibility to protect the civil rights of justice-seekers everywhere against the creeping overreach of authoritarian governments, in the U.S and in Israel. Jewish experiences as targets of oppression demonstrate to us the moral imperative to oppose all who attempt to strip individuals or groups of their civil liberties, no matter what rationalizations are offered by those who would do so.

That’s why we call on Senator Sanders -- as a member of the HELP Committee, as a leader of the resistance to Trump and all he stands for, and as a member of the Jewish community -- to join us in opposing the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education.

If confirmed, Marcus would immediately implement an agenda that silences Palestinian human rights activists, Jewish anti-occupation activists, and others on college campuses. This is right out of the Netanyahu Government’s playbook: using government power to silence dissent. We’re seeing the effects of these policies right now with the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence -- Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is going after Breaking the Silence’s Spokesperson for a public testimony he gave about his role in the administering the violence of the Occupation, while ignoring hundreds of other reported incidents. If Marcus’ nominations goes through, we’ll be seeing the same government campaigns against anti-Occupation activists on U.S. college campuses.

Marcus thinks targeting these students helps protect Jewish students on U.S. campuses: he’s wrong. The real threat to Jewish students comes from the rise in far-right and white supremacist activity that has been fueled by the Trump administration. If Marcus really wants to act in the interest of Jewish students, he would speak out against the current administration’s ties to known anti-Semites and white nationalists. But he’s not interested in protecting Jewish students, he’s interested in using claims of antisemitism to ensure the Occupation continues unchecked for another 50 years.

We therefore call on Senator Bernie Sanders -- as a member of the HELP Committee, as a leader of the resistance to Trumpism, and as a member of the Jewish community -- to join us in opposing the nomination of Kenneth Marcus to the position of Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education.

The stakes are high, and the time to act is now.