Opinion: A pro-Palestinian professor complains about chilling free speech. That’s rich.

To the editor: Saree Makdisi, an Enligh professor, must be aware of the use of irony in fiction. So I wonder if he is aware of the irony in his impassioned defense of freedom of speech. (“Keeping campuses safe for free speech,” Opinion, Oct. 25)

For years, Makdisi’s articles attacking Israel have appeared in The Times. And during these same years there have been dozens of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents on numerous college campuses. Many of these incidents were specifically designed to foil attempts by guest speakers to present the Israeli side in debates.

Now, because of one recent counter-incident, he is aghast. Has he, as a champion of academic freedom, ever cautioned the anti-Israel students about their disrespect for freedom of speech for those who differ in opinion? Perhaps now, when the shoe is on the other foot, he might speak out for civil obedience for all.

William Landau, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thanks to The Times for running Makdisi’s timely op-ed article.

It appears that Canary Mission, a group that blacklists critics of Israel in academia, is a radical operation designed to cut off all meaningful political discussion at our universities. This particular species of intellectual terrorism is simply an attempt to establish conformity on campus.

Goose stepping of whatever kind has no place in America.

Paul L. DuNard Jr., Cypress

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To the editor: Makdisi claims he is not advocating a “hatred of an entire ethnic group” and that counter-opinions are really “ad hominem character assassination.” Makdisi is the proverbial “pot calling the kettle black.” His rhetoric seeks the evisceration of the Jewish state.

His call to “expose students to the whole universe of ideas” rings hollow. He advocates the boycott of Israeli professors, inventors, corporations and products through his adoption of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, the very thing (a “campaign that singles out individuals”) of which he complains.

The canceled UC Berkeley course he references, “Palestine and settler colonialism,” underscores Makdisi’s hypocrisy. Where is the academic balance to a course that intends to teach students that the existence of the state of Israel is illegitimate? This is not merely an “upsetting encounter with course materials” — it is anti-Semitism.

Rena Kreitenberg, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Makdisi claims that there is a difference between criticizing a country (Israel) and being anti-Semitic. He is right.

But when a person criticizes Israel while not criticizing the much worse “crimes” of its neighbors, makes false accusations and calls for its destruction as a Jewish state, that crosses the line.

Rodney Brooks, Silver Spring, Md.

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