I arrived at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on Thursday, Nov. 16 to deliver a speech on Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. The talk’s blunt title, selected by the local Young Americans for Freedom chapter, reflected my own unambiguous approach to the conflict: “Israel’s Righteous Fight Against Jihadism.” I anticipated possible fireworks and worked with YAF on event security measures. Those security measures, unfortunately, turned out to be necessary.

Within minutes of starting my speech, 20 to 25 protestors stood up in unison. They held their arms high in the air to expose their shirts, which featured photos of Palestinian Arabs who have died in Gaza since the war started. Undeterred, I continued. A few minutes later, the students began obnoxiously coughing in unison each time I opened my mouth, in a clear attempt to drown me out. I reminded them of the university’s code of conduct, which prohibits shouting down speakers, but that only made them cough louder.

Shortly thereafter, the mass coughing turned into shouting. The chants would be familiar to those who have paid attention to the explosion of on-campus antisemitism since the Hamas Holocaust of Oct. 7: “Remember their names!,” “Free Palestine!,” “Stop the genocide!” and so forth. At one point, a protestor started to walk briskly toward the stage. Finally, a tepid university administrator replaced me at the podium, seemingly to once again remind the students that their conduct violated university policy.

Eventually, the protestors escorted themselves out of the back of the room. They never ceased chanting, and proceeded to physically bang on the walls of the lecture hall exterior once they exited. The whole disruption lasted probably 30 to 35 minutes, after which I finished my remarks for those who had the patience to remain in their seats.

Let’s be clear about what happened: The University of Michigan, one of the nation’s preeminent public universities, failed to secure my First Amendment right to free speech. Even more important, the university failed to secure the other half of the right to free speech: the right to listen.

The pro-jihadist students seemed to quickly intuit they could act with impunity. The day after my disrupted talk, a mob of antisemitic protestors stormed the office of University of Michigan President Santa Ono, chanting “No justice, no peace!” as they bombarded their way past campus police to infiltrate and occupy the office space. All this, it seems, because a conservative student group hosted a Jewish, pro-Israel speaker the night prior.

The inmates are running the asylum these days at America’s most prestigious universities. Absent firm and unequivocal punishment of students who violate universities’ code of conduct, we can only expect more.

Fortunately, universities are not powerless in such circumstances. In April 2019, I was personally present at my alma mater, the University of Chicago Law School, to see fellow alumnus and legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich speak about the First Amendment and state-level anti-BDS legislation. He too was shouted down by a not-so-merry band of jihadist sympathizers. There too, campus police was shamefully slow to act.

If free speech is to have any chance of prevailing on university campuses, we need to take the matter seriously.