“We, the People of NJ, Accuse . . . !” Elektra Kostopoulou, Ph.D. on NJ Free Speech 2025
January 6th, 2025
Dear friends,
The U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians has been unfolding live on social media for more than a year now. Undeterred by growing international and domestic backlash, the American government continues to sponsor Israel’s devastating war crimes, while targeting institutions, groups, and individuals who oppose them. Many Jewish Americans have been systematically slandered for protesting Israeli atrocities. Palestinian and Arab Americans have been forced to watch their tax money spent in the brutal extermination of their families.
And our involuntary complicity has turned all of us into less: less critical, less free, less hopeful, less human.
For more than a year now, we have protested, pleaded, issued all kinds of resolutions and statements against the war, but to no avail. Perhaps it is time to stop negotiating barbarism in erudite fashion, confronting actively the U.S. political establishment for its horrid actions.
The war on Palestine is a war on empathy, on logic, on free speech, on legality, on humanity. Because it is not an exception but the magnified reflection of broader norms, this war makes up only the tip of the iceberg. The barbaric opportunism of U.S. foreign policy is not limited to Gaza. Yet the latter has transformed into global symbol of resistance against the lethal agendas of weapon manufactures and war fanatics, as well as into a movement against neoliberal autocracy.
U.S. connivence with Israeli war crimes has sparked unprecedented domestic reactions this past year especially among the youth. Attempts to silence them form an overt attack on U.S. constitutional legacy, as well as on the future. Because our government has a duty to protect and to serve all Americans, we have the right and an obligation to hold it accountable when it favors special domestic and foreign interests over the well-being of the American public.
For these reasons, I am writing today to fully endorse the initiative Free Speech 2025 Challenge (see, https://fightbackbetter.com/nj-free-speech-2025-challenge/ ), which is a call to oppose actively the McCarthyistic tactics of sitting NJ legislature members.
Specifically, we invite eligible NJ residents to run for Assembly seats and/or to support alternative candidates during the general election.
Our main short-term goal is to halt the shameful bills S1292, S2937, and NJ Assembly (A3558) , which have been introduced and are currently promoted by NJ legislature members, under Democratic leadership with strong Republican support. The proposal to classify criticism of Israel as antisemitism, hence as a plausible hate crime, is neither justified nor innocent. NJ legislators have been promoting these laws while entirely ignoring the widespread public outrage expressed via multiple campaigns, protest letters, and resolutions.
Notably, hundreds of NJ residents spent hours testifying against said laws during the relevant hearings of June 20-21, 2024, which I attended in person.
The two laws openly clash with the American First Amendment, as well as with the following recent historic developments:
a) The first provisional order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on January 26, 2024, concerning South Africa v. Israel, in which the court recognized that the state of Israel is plausibly committing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people.
b) The advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of July 19, 2024, which has found the state of Israel to be guilty of multiple and serious international law violations in the Occupied Palestinian territories, including but not limited to apartheid.
c) The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on November 21, 2024, for Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, for multiple crimes against humanity.
d) The report issued by Amnesty International on December 5, 2024, which concludes that the state of Israel has committed and is continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the occupied Gaza Strip.
e) The declarations and resolutions issued by multiple credible international and American organizations and scholarly groups over the past year against Israel’s genocidal acts in the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Indicatively, the latest one is the American Historical Association’s (AHA) resolution of January 05, 2025, which moves to oppose the “scholasticide” in Gaza and the U.S. government’s funding of Israel’s wars.
Thus, whereas it is reasonable to believe that by introducing these laws NJ Assembly members shield plausibly criminal foreign agents from criticism or judgment, against the interests of the American public.
Whereas these laws endanger rather than protect the freedoms of American citizens, including Jewish and Muslim Americans, Free Speech 2025 Challenge calls on all eligible NJ residents to confront incumbent Assembly members in two interconnected ways:
a) by producing alternative Democratic candidates during the primaries and
b) by challenging nominees with third-party candidates during the election.
Although the above call to action appears narrow in scope, it offers an important blueprint for future organizing. Inner divisions have long undermined initiatives that challenge the overtly decadent U.S. two-party system, especially among the Left. While some maintain that the most efficient way to progressive reform is through the Democratic Party, others believe that only a third-party choice could bring about real change.
The mere existence of this dilemma is damaging because it obscures the one division that actually matters: on the one side stand those who are complicit in crimes against humanity and the client-system that covers for them; and on the other side stand, I believe, the majority of ordinary Americans and those of us who dare to act in the name of peace and justice for all.
My recent firsthand experiences as an activist and Uncommitted Delegate in NJ during the past Democratic-party primaries suggest the same. We have failed to exercise influence over party elites and, other than contributing to the electoral humiliation of the Democratic Party, we have also failed to produce better alternatives. Yet our campaign for ceasefire, for democracy, and for basic human dignity enjoys the overwhelming support of Americans, especially among left-leaning voters.
With all this in mind, Free Speech 2025 Challenge builds on recent experience to unite us in reclaiming the future. Popular sovereignty manifests best in proactive rather than reactive ways.
For over a year now, U.S. acts about Gaza have formed an assault on the truth, the rule of law, our empathy, and our humanity.
When the government undermines instead of serving democracy, deliberately hindering the public’s ability to stand up for fundamental human rights, We the People, are not on trial.
We the People, Accuse!
In solidarity,
Elektra Kostopoulou, Ph.D
Uncommitted NJ Delegate
Faculty for Justice in Palestine
Brief bio:
Dr. Elektra Kostopoulou teaches at the Federated Department of History, NJIT & Rutgers Newark with a specialization in Southeast Europe and the Middle East, and a focus on population movements, genocide, and international law. She has been an organizer of the Uncommitted NJ movement and ran as a delegate for her district during the 2024 primaries.
Although the views she expresses in her letter are solely hers and do not necessarily represent the opinions or positions of others, Rutgers and NJIT students have very clearly expressed through multiple mobilizations their acute opposition to the war and to the actions of the U.S. government. In addition, in December 2024 Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Adjunct Faculty Union voted in favor of a resolution calling for the university to withdrew investments from companies that profit from, engage in, or contribute to the oppression of Palestinians; and to suspend all academic collaborations with Tel Aviv University.
1 The title forms a clear reference to the American Declaration of Independence (1776) and to Émile Zola’s iconic open letter “J’accuse” (1898), which was written in response to the miscarriage of justice during the Dreyfus affair. For an English transcript of Zola’s letter, see https://famous-trials.com/dreyfus/2613-j-accuse-by-emile-zola-texts-in-english-and-french. The resemblance between, on the one hand, the antisemitic misuse of the justice system in 19th century France to shield real criminals; and, on the other hand, the NJ proposed legislation under scrutiny, which abuses justice and anti-hate speech to target our right to protest and to share the truth about unfolding crimes against humanity, are both appalling and terrifying. In the words of Zola, “As for the people I accuse, I do not know them, I have never seen them, I have no resentment or hatred against them. They are for me only entities, spirits of social evil. And the act I am doing here is just a revolutionary way to hasten the explosion of truth and justice.”
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YES CONTINGENT UPON CAPACITY, I AM COMMITTED TO VOTING TO SUPPORT CANDIDATES DEDICATED TO PROTECTING OUR BELOVED FIRST AMENDMENT PROTECTED FREE SPEECH RIGHTS AND / OR I MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN RUNNING FOR NJ ASSEMBLY IN 2025 TO PROTECT FREE SPEECH IN NJ ! (Signing does not commit you – our NJ Free Speech 2025 Challenge team will contact you to determine how you can run or help the effort. )
