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Boteach stops reporter from videotaping Columbia University debate

Last night Columbia University staged a debate about the conflict at which I was repeatedly stopped from videotaping by the organizer, Shmuley Boteach, the rightwing rabbi and self-promoter (who used the debate to push his book about sex in marriage, Kosher Lust).

Boteach was himself video’ing the event. Photographers from his “This World” network were video’ing everything. But the Columbia University moderators for the event, both a student sponsor and a professor, declared that I would have to leave if I didn’t stop video’ing, so I stopped. But I don’t think it was right or fair– I traveled a long way to cover this event.

Here’s the sequence as it developed.

Before the event began, I tried to interview Boteach about the fact that he sat quietly on a stage last October while Sheldon Adelson advised President Obama to nuke Iran. Why were you quiet? My video gets the second part of our encounter. Boteach first invited me to walk to the bathroom, then disinvited me to accompany him; and he wouldn’t answer the question. P.S. Boteach got $500,000 from Adelson in his failed congressional run in 2012.

Then the debate started– Are Israel’s security policies justified? — sponsored by Boteach’s “This World” group, a student group called the Columbia International Relations Council and Association (CIRCA), and a Zionist group — and when Bret Stephens of the Wall Street Journal got up to speak, I started video’ing. You can see what happened; Boteach objected.

So there was a sign saying I couldn’t video? I put my camera down. Then I saw all of Boteach’s people video’ing and it didn’t seem fair. I went out to look at the sign saying I couldn’t video.

Sign outside door of Diana Center, photo by Ali Gharib
Sign outside door of Diana Center, photo by Ali Gharib

I started video’ing again, and there was a lot of back and forth on it. Security came up and I finally put my camera down. You can see that exchange below. Including Peter Beinart saying he had no problem with anyone video’ing. A lot of people in the crowd were angry at me, but some called out to Boteach, “What are you afraid of?” The moderator, whose name I have to confirm, folded quietly.

During the debate, Peter Beinart asked the question I’d asked before the event: he called out Bret Stephens and Shmuley Boteach for denouncing Palestinian incitement even as they sat quietly while Sheldon Adelson called for nuking Iran. I’d like to show you a video of Stephens’s answer, saying Adelson was just threatening to bomb the desert; I can’t. (Adelson didn’t just threaten a desert, he added: “Then you say, ‘See! The next one is in the middle of Tehran. So, we mean business.'”)

Can Columbia really approve a policy in which a news event is off the video record for working reporters?

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Thank you Phil for not giving up.

I really appreciate that you continually put yourself out there like that. I heard someone in the audience yell at you to ‘Get the hell out’.

That’s the level of intellectualism of the Shmuley crowd. I won’t even say Zionist, because Beinhart is a Zionist but had no problem with you videotaping.

Anyways, thanks again for being courageous and articulate (don’t always go hand in hand; people often get flustered)/ composed.

Phil

Could you not just have recorded it using a voice recorder?

Shmuley is obviously using the same dud hasbara as everyone else in the bot mafia.
It’s such a pity Lennie Bruce isn’t around today.

Regretfully many of our leading newspapers are dominated by a group of irrational Zionists. Bret Stephens is but one example of these Liars for Israel. Unfortunately most reporting about Israel/Palestine is under the control of these partisans. It is a sad state of affairs.

Boteach first invited me to walk to the bathroom, then disinvited me to accompany him; and he wouldn’t answer the question.

Will his next book be Kosher Peeing?

Boteach is friggin’ weird.

Thanks, Philip, for sticking it out as long as you could. It’s infuriating to be confronted by hypocrisy, where you know they’re lying (sure, the reason they didn’t want you to video is that they didn’t want college regs to be broken), they know they’re lying, the kid with the “get the hell out” knew they were lying and it comes down ultimately to who has the security forces. A perfect Zionist miniature.
Anyway, thanks.