The student protests at Oxford University and the University of California, Irvine that interrupted Israeli officials’ speeches are continuing to make waves in a variety of ways.
An apparent anti-Semitic remark in Arabic was hurled at Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon during the interruptions to his speech. Various media outlets are reporting that a protester yelled, “kill the Jews” at Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States and a member of the far-right Yisrael Beiteinu party.
Ayalon is now considering pressing charges against the student who yelled at him. According to the Independent (UK), he said the move against the student demonstrated “our new policy on hatred and racism. We will have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism, something that should have happened a long time ago.”
The local police and the Oxford Union have launched investigations into the matter.
Of course, what these media reports don’t mention is the irony that as Ayalon is denouncing “hatred and racism,” he is a member of a political party whose leader, Avigdor Lieberman, is on record saying numerous racist remarks against Palestinians. For instance, Lieberman called for the execution of Arab members of the Knesset who met with Hamas, and ran a campaign centered around the slogan, “no citizenship without loyalty,” wanting Palestinians living inside Israel to be forced to sign a “loyalty” oath to the Jewish State. And Yisrael Beiteinu has introduced legislation that would ban commemoration of the Nakba.
Then there’s J Street U, the student branch of J Street, which released a statement seemingly painting the disruptions of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren and Ayalon’s speeches as anti-Semitic and racist. The statement reads, in part:
J Street U is deeply concerned about recent incidents on college campuses aimed at obstructing civil and open debate around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We believe that universities should be a place for an honest discussion about tough issues. While appropriate and respectful protests are a legitimate and important part of the conversation on campus, anti-Semitic, racist, disruptive and inflammatory actions and language are simply unacceptable.
In particular, we were profoundly offended by the anti-Semitic rhetoric used by a student to attack Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon during a recent talk at Oxford University. We were also deeply disappointed to hear about attempts to interrupt Ambassador Michael Oren’s remarks at the University of California, Irvine, with heckling aimed at drowning out the Ambassador’s speech.
The statement comes as Oren said that the rift between Oren and J Street– a result of Oren’s refusal to attend a J Street conference last October–is healing. Oren told the Los Angeles Jewish Journal that, “J Street has now come and supported Congressman [Howard] Berman’s Iran sanction bill; it has condemned the Goldstone report; it has denounced the British court’s decision to try Tzipi Livni for war crimes, which puts J Street much more into the mainstream.”
During Oren’s speech at the University of California, Irvine, 11 students were arrested for interrupting his speech. The Muslim Public Affairs Council has demanded an investigation over the arrests in a letter to school officials, saying:
University police had every right to escort the individuals out of the room, and bar them from re-entering. However, it is unclear what law they broke that would allow for them to be arrested for their actions. For this reason, we are calling on your office and that of the UCI Police Department to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into the arrest of these students.
Should follow this story to see how the alleged antisemitic ends up.
From the above linked JTA article:
“The Deputy Foreign Minister is looking into the possibility of pressing charges against the student for what is tantamount to a call for genocide,” said a statement issued Wednesday by Danny Ayalon’s office.
Israeli hypocrisy rears it’s disgusting head again. A mere verbal shout “kill the Jews” is enough to warrant a “genocide” accusation.
But, the killing of more than 1400 human beings is “unfortunate”. It doesn’t warrant the “genocide” label.
Pathetic.
Makes Alice In Wonderland seem less absurd.
It’s like how they focus on Hamas’s charter so much and not their own actions.
Just another case of “do as I say, but don’t do as I do.”
The protests are working, which is why Israeli gov’t is worried. Why would they press charges if the hecker said it in a language 95% of the crowd couldn’t understand? Oh, right, it was a call to arms against Israel. Now I see. Grab yer weapons, undergrads.
video of heckler:
link to ynetnews.com
I notice that video came from the Israeli Embassy in London. Which means that they were videotaping the whole incident, and thus should have the alleged remark on tape. If we don’t see it come out within a day or two, rest assure the allegation was made to stir up the fear back home. Why threaten to press charges if a heckler allegedly said something in a language that 95% of the crowd couldn’t understand? Well, perhaps, because most of that crowd can’t contradict your allegation then, can they?
This reminds me of an incident a while back at another British university, involving alleged anti-semitic remark at a debate. Jews san Frontieres covered it here:
link to jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com
and here:
link to jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com
yes good point tree, we will see the crocodile tears all over the media for a long time.
Avi they did the same about Ahmedinajad quote, they are used to do so.
Expect Ayalon to capitalize on this for the next few weeks.
I wonder who the culprit will turn out to be.
Who’s got a link to one of the doors or walls where the IDF spray-painted “Kill all Arabs” on it?
“Death to Arabs” graffiti……
link to lawrenceofcyberia.blogs.com
As far as heckling is considered……….
https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com/webcd/app?action=DocumentDisplay&crawlid=1&docty
And regarding Mr Ayalon intending to file a lawsuit, it may blow back in his face and he may come to regret it. He has barely escaped an arrest warrant.
And this is how the SMART Israli govt is going to deal with the problems of heckling……
“Israel News Today” February 11
Yedioth Ahronoth (p. 8) by Zvika Brott — In their lectures around the world, senior Israeli officials have been forced until today to remain silent in the face of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who constantly heckled them. Soon, however, they may be surprised by an Israeli response devised by the Knesset: A “commando” of parliamentary assistants intends to visit in the near future a number of universities abroad in order to try to fight back.
On the agenda: PR activities on campuses, public debates with anti-Israeli representatives, and even an eye for an eye: “Blowing up” lectures of Palestinian or anti-Israeli figures.
He’s considering pressing charges against a student- a heckler no less?
A few more instances like this and the world will be back in Israel’s corner.
from JTA: “Other students shouted, inside and outside the hall, that “Palestine will be free, from the river to the sea,” which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. After the event, security prevented several students from physically assaulting Ayalon.”
> I recall the Israel parade in NYC last year and the kiddies chanting on 5th Avenue, “2,3,4,5 there’s no such thing as Palestine.” By this logic,those kids meant they want to eradicate Palestinians.
I recall hearing that during the last election campaign in Israel crowds of youth at Lieberman rallies chanted “death to the Arabs”. There must be videos of this. Probably not make a big impact since it was in Hebrew. Also I believe crowds of soccer fans have erupted in that chant. Isn’t Ayalon in the same party as Lieberman?
The students must be careful because these scumbags can send them to prison for more than 10 years in Europe.
Stating ‘Death to Jews’ is a completely uncalled for comment. As we lambast such racist hippocrites for complaining about racism, we need to keep in mind that racist comments were spewed at him. Attack Ayalon, but don’t excuse the initial comment.
If that story is indeed true, and someone indeed yelled that, they did a huge dis service to the cause.
Attack Ayalon, but don’t excuse the initial comment.
Has anyone in this thread excused that initial comment?
I haven’t read the transcript but maybe Khalidi is the sort of professor who doesn’t do well in a debate setting. The same problem used to arise (and maybe still does) with the creation/evolution issue when they had public debates. You’d have some creationist with all of his bogus talking points culled from several different sciences, all of them refutable by anyone familiar with the sciences in question, but which sound impressive to an audience made up of Christian laymen, many or most predisposed to believe in creationism. Then you’d have a local college professor who’d think along scholarly lines who simply couldn’t keep up with all the misrepresentations and nonsense. (Also, in that case the prof who might be a botanist, for example, wouldn’t necessarily be able to refute the lies told about astronomy). After years of having the evolution side trounced in these sorts of debates there finally were some evolutionists who learned the proper tactics for these situations.
Khalidi is a serious scholar –he might not be the ideal champion in these sorts of situations.
Oops–not sure how this happened, but that comment was supposed to have been for a different thread.
I find it very disturbing that police released the names of all the students, and the OC Register published them online.
link to collegelife.freedomblogging.com
All Arab names, except maybe one. This group arrest of student protest dissent; this putting their college and names online is disturbing. I mean, it’s one thing to walk them out; then, let them go for trying to shout out the speaker, but to arrest them
and charge them with public disturbance? And put their general location and names in public as if they were known child molesters? They are Americans. Don’t they have basic civil rights? Judging by a lot of the comments following that College Life article,
posting the names could be very dangerous to those students. On the upside, there was one relatively informed comment–and the commenter even referenced Mondoweiss.
I wonder why he’s releasing the names. Is that legal/normal? Or do only right-wingers do that?
The charge: speaking while Arab.
Imagine if it had been a group of black students at a US university.
Here Georgetown students heckled Gen Petraus but they didn’t get arrested or their names published–just got escorted out of the assembly room. School logo and one US flag were on stage along with our hot shot General.
link to blogs.aljazeera.net
If someone is arrested its public record unless they are a juvenile. These shmucks were all college age students and their arrest gets their names publicized.
In case you guys were wondering about their connection to the always peaceful MSU group on campus check out this blog post:
link to jewlicious.com
hat tip to TM @ Jewlicious
But as Annie reported when she was present at Finklestein’s talk at the same university and he was heckled at least 100 times by four people at the back of the room, one of them a 50-year-old woman….the police did nothing.
MRW, there was much more than this going on, in fact although I usually do not repeat posts, I think I will make an exception in this case. If not for any other reason, to show yonira to be a big mouth who rips things out of context of what has been occurring on campuses throughout the US. There is a long and sordid history both on campus and by influence outside the campus. I originally posted this under Mr. Kane’s piece “Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren’s Speech Disrupted at University of California, Irvine” –
Lets not forget about what really birthed this response, the national unveiling previous to any of this (current subject of disruption of a speech by Oren) was “Islamofascism Week,” yes that’s right, that is what it was named.
“Beginning on October 22, student groups across the nation will hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week on their campuses. These protest weeks will feature a series of events designed to bring a message to these academic communities that challenges most of what students are taught about the so-called War on Terror both in the classroom and on the quad.
The Week’s events will include speeches about Islamo-Fascism by prominent figures, including former Senator Rick Santorum (Penn State, Temple and UPenn), Sean Hannity (Columbia), Ann Coulter (Tulane and USC), Dennis Prager (UC Santa Barbara), Robert Spencer (Brown, Dartmouth, University of Rhode Island, and DePaul), Daniel Pipes (Northeastern and UPenn), David Horowitz (Columbia, Emory, Ohio State, Michigan and Wisconsin), Michael Ledeen (Maryland), Nonie Darwish (UCLA and Berkeley), Wafa Sultan (Stanford) and radio talk show hosts Melanie Morgan (San Francisco State), Michael Medved (University of Washington), Martha Zoeller (Georgia Tech), Alan Nathan (George Mason), Mark Larson (to be named) and many others.”
Of course, wrapped up tightly in this “tour” to 114 campuses (including the one under discussion), was the Palestinians and “poor” Israel trapped in the middle. So, if you want to address these issues, my recommendation is that you do so in context. I was not going to mention this, but the incessant howling of some on this site provoked me – let this be a lesson, keep it up and I will bury you in facts.
ISLAMOFASCIST WEEK
So do not start the process of being “offended” by this disruption of Oren’s screed, along with this fiasco (Islamofascism week), which continues into the following years, and along with this the never ending assault of these shrill organizations which are supposed to speak for “all” of the Jewish population – ZOA, Hillel, Chabad, etc. a long litany of jackasses. Which once again (the stated week) I dutifully recorded when it occurred –
RISE OF THE MODERN BROWN SHIRTS AGAINST “ISLAMOFACISM”
You are really “blooming” aren’t yonira, too bad I have a long memory and the proof to back it up. If you want more exposure of these despicable activities, by the defenders and shills for Israeli atrocities I can oblige.
That was all for me VR? don’t bother posting any more nonsense you are just wasting your time. Or was it all an opportunity to link to your anarchist blog?
yonira its clear that Zionists like you designated Islam as their enemy n 1 . Your islamophobia is disgusting . When Jews who were the persecuted people use these cheap methods in order to achieve your colonial ambitions, it makes your cause inhuman.
what in the fuck are you talking about? where did I mention Islam at all you fucking lunatic. You honestly just make shit up all the time on here. I understand your from a different culture and have a different native tongue, but thats not excuse to lie through your teeth.
…heckled at least 100 times by four people at the back of the room, one of them a 50-year-old woman….the police did nothing.
I suspect the difference is that some one (Oren or his entourage, or someone at the school) was interested in pressing charges in this case, but Finklestein was not interested in pressing charges against those who heckled him. The police tend to let those things go unless someone demands that they “do something”.
I’d LOVE to see video of these 100+ hecklers.. I am sure that isn’t an exaggeration AT ALL.
Four hecklers … 100 times. Reading comprehension, please. If one of the hecklers was Rachel Neuwirth ( the 50 year old woman?) she’s certainly capable of heckling 100 times without any assistance from any one else. I”ve seen her heckling those with whom she disagrees on numerous occasions. She’s well known for that in certain circles.
So does she qualify as a “savage” or “uncivilized” too, or is it only Arab hecklers that qualify for that epthet from you?
I made a mistake. It wasn’t annie. It was AnaSanchez. Here’s her post from the Oren thread.
There’s a video on YouTube where a group of Jewish students disrupt Fink’s talk, with one of the students audibly saying ‘You’re a traitor to your people, Norman!’
I’ll have to look it up, because I saw it a couple years ago.
i m commenting the video and the Rabbi scum and his gang. He is the guy who told them that they will fail their exams.
Here’s a report from a lecture that Finkelstein gave at CalState Northridge last year where he was heckled. His response:
Before the lecture began, I asked Finkelstein whether he has come to expect the protests of the Jewish communities in cities he visits.
“I don’t worry,” he said. “People have the right to say what they want to say.” >/i>
Totally different from Oren et al’s response.
link to jewishjournal.com
Totally different from Oren et al’s response.
It’s the difference between speaking truth and attempting to impose Truth.
has anyone mentioned the girl who questioned Obama and was then booed by the audience?
link to youtube.com
No, you are merely an aside as I implied in my post , which you have a habit of not reading, anything let alone my post that does not agree with you’re bullshit – “If not for any other reason, to show yonira to be a big mouth…”, I hope you understand that this statement does not make you a primary target. If you do not understand that, than go back to school and take reading lessons, if this is not the problem and you have a reading deficit disorder, than seek professional help. Actually I posted everything more in the realm of general information for the less informed who read this blog, you are nothing but a useless verbal punching bag. The link to my site does not deserve a reply.
From interview of Howard Zinn last year:
“So, a change in (American foreign) policy (in the Middle East) will require more pressure from other countries and more education of the American people, who at this point know very little about what has been happening to the Palestinian people. The American people are naturally sympathetic to those they see as oppressed, but they get very little information from political leaders or the media, which would give them a realistic picture of the suffering of Palestinians under the Occupation.”
link to counterpunch.org
Dissent As Democracy
This sort of thing cheapens anti-semitism. So he made one inappropriate comment and now he’s being investigated? It’s a crock. Nice job in pointing out the hypocrisy of a member of Yisrael Beiteinu complaining about prejudice.
What I don’t understand is why the pro-peace groups are all so worried about this one anti-semitic comment? Why are they so worried about civil debate, when the protesters only disrupted a few minutes of speech, which happens all the time? It’s really not a big deal. They should be more concerned with their glossing over of who Danny Ayalon is – a member of a racist party that advocates ethnic cleansing. So one inappropriate mark from one heckler among a dozen or so is not such a big deal in context.
That’s what I’m saying..!
Thanks for the awesome article Alex. Below is the comment I submitted to the J Street U website of that statement.
“I agree with the principle of free and open debate regarding not just speech you love, but also speech you might hate. There are of course exceptions to this.
It shouldn’t be against the law and it shouldn’t be punished with fines etc if someone makes an anti-semitic or racist or homophobic statement.
I hate all this speech of course, but it’s protected speech under the first amendment. As much as we hate it, if we don’t protect this speech it leads to thought police and a decline in civil liberties which endangers all our rights. Pretty soon any legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies can be labeled “anti-semitic” by a university, and fines can be doled out according to campuswatch.com assessments.
The exception to free speech is someone who is an accomplice to war crimes. Michael Oren was a spokesman for the Israeli Army during their attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2009. He was an official propaganda minister trying to spin war crimes.
This is clearly evidenced by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International’s documentation of illegal cluster bomb attacks and illegal targeting of civilian infrastructure.
For Gaza, the Goldstone Report details many war crimes including targeting houses of worship, targeting civilians, targeting UN compounds, the use of COIN, and of course the white phosphorous attacks.
Would any decent school host a spokesman for Augusto Pinochet during his reign? If they did you would expect a massive outcry, and this what we are seeing in regards to Israeli government figures and spokesmen. War criminals don’t have free speech rights.
Especially war criminals who helped destroy hundreds if not thousands of children’s and university students’ right to their freedom of speech and education when their schools were blown up.”
JGlatzer,
That’s a very good response. People on that blog seem to gloss over the fact that opinion is one thing and speaking on behalf – in official capacity – and defending a war crime is quite another.
Does anyone know on what charges the students were arrested and are being held?
By the way, I’m not familiar with COIN. Did you mean COIN (as in COunter INsurgency?), or DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive)?
Pingback: Textbook of Medical Physiology: With STUDENT CONSULT Online Access | Physiology Material Geek
I think that the interruption of Oren is what one would call justified, it is a form of recognition of who he is and what he is standing for. I don’t think the interruption of the students was overdone, considering the genocidal atrocities committed against the Palestinian people – it is a form of recognizing a criminal accomplice in Oren. It would be like the recognition of other criminals in the past –
RECOGNITION
They felt this in their gut, the students and other participants. They know of the crimes committed which Mr. Glatzer enumerated, they had to speak out, they had to shout and point their finger. We know this from our past, and know what we would feel.
I might add, but these people who invited him honor him, they give him a place of prominence and platform…Never Again applies to everyone, it is universal.
Ugh, just saw a longer video of Oren’s talk. After the Muslim/Arab other students leave, Oren say, all treacly, “I just want to say, I wish they had stayed. I appreciate you all, but it is that community I wanted to address.” The gall.
link to youtube.com
It also features an interview with a rabbi later who says (i’m paraphrasing) the “Muslim students haven’t learned to give up violence and force — here in America we don’t do things that way blah blah.” Implying of course that they aren’t American.
Wow Ahmed, your paraphrasing is shit. He said nothing of the sort.
The Gentlemen @ around 40min had a lot of good stuff to say.
link to youtube.com
“We as Jews have to stand up with pride, and the idea of America was, we left the swords at the door. [i]Apparently[/i] the Muslim Students Union [b]believes in violence as a political alternative[/b] and we as American Jews, believe in this country that [b]we exchange ideas and debate[/b] but we have to do it in [b]a civil fashion[/b] – [i]something [b]they[/b] fail to understand[/i].”
Rough transcript, I did just now of what the Rabbi said. I agree completely w/ Ahmed’s paraphrase. This Rabbi is of course a liar and hypocrite. And you really wonder how he can characterize this disruption as ‘violent’ (and imply terrorism) while saying nothing about the reasons the MSU group was there in the first place.
Gaza! I wonder, as the siege continues, what those Jewish audience members and organizers would say about Gaza with respect to the MSU group’s ‘violent’ behavior.
I should also add, that the Palestinian who spoke later, after the 40 min. mark, says he believes in the ‘right’ to exist of a Jewish State.
I couldn’t care less if Optimus Prime, flew here from Cybertron and said Zionism was cool. It doesn’t change the fact that you have no Jewish State in a region that is not predominantly Jewish, without getting RID OF the indigenous population.
So of course yonira, would call this Palestinian a ‘gentleman’ and acknowledge the ‘lot of good stuff’ he had to say. Of course.
yonira, you’re only on this blog to flip out at anti-Zionists. That is really disturbing. Do you know any in real life? I doubt many. All you’re doing is ‘point-scoring’. Not sincere debate. I mean how could you, if all you do is proclaim the end of the world for the anti-Zionists and Palestinians.
Go memorize from hasbara and copy/paste it here at least. Anything would be better than these really transparent advocacy posts of yours.
Will you next be telling us, Walid Shoebat has ‘a lot of good stuff to say’? Wafa Sultan? Etc. etc.
damn, forgot html is
wow, is “”
oh how i wish we had a forum-style posting setup
bah!! pointy side-ways arrow thing, where are you??
An Israeli think tank puts such incidents in a much broader context, and is plenty nervous:
Think tank: Israel faces global delegitimization campaign
haha i was reading this at the moment :)
I would say that Israel is doing a good enough job of delegitimizing itself. The choice of words in this article Shmuel is quite enlightening, in that it shows no desire to change from the current course. It almost looks like the characteristic view that it is a “PR issue.”
“…work together based on a joint ideology – portraying Israel as a pariah state and denying its right to exist.” – language like this shows no intention to change, but just to have meaningless “dialogue.” It means to imply that concerns are not based in a humanitarian motivation, but an ideology.
“The “delegitimizers” cooperate with organizations engaging in legitimate criticism of Israel’s policy in the territories such as Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, blurring the line between legitimate censure and delegitimization.” As if Israel has had a loving relationship with these HR organizations, instead of shrill disagreements and non-recognition of their criticisms. Pure bullshit in the history of their reception of these various reports.
“The network’s activists are not mostly Palestinian, Arab or Muslim. Many of them are European and North American left-wing activists.” Trying to reduce this to a left-right paradigm, when it is an issue of humanity and common moral decency.
I could go on, but this is common “think tank” fodder, I prefer to call them “stink tanks or septic tanks.” However, it does show that this has caught their attention, they just have no intention of changing course.
The fans of the Israeli football team Beitar Jerusalem are probably the most rightwing and vocal Israeli Pali/Islamophobes on earth.
Here they are, chanting the name of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassin, Yigal Amir, on the anniversary of his murder.
link to ynetnews.com
and here:
link to flickr.com
and
link to inminds.co.uk
Essentially Israeli football like every other aspect of Israeli life, is basically racist.
Don’t they look a lot like those old photos of Nuremberg rallies?
sorry just trying to use html formats duh