This is important. Tomorrow night at Rutgers, the New Jersey state university, Palestinian solidarity groups are exercising their right to assembly and free speech by gathering to raise money for the US boat to Gaza— which seeks to aid the 1.5 million people living in an open-air prison, with few political rights. The ADL is smearing the event as an aid to terrorism, inside a public university. Below is reporting from the north Jersey newspaper, followed by the flyer for the event.
Patricia Alex at the Record reports:
The event, sponsored by a group called BAKA: Students United for Middle Eastern Justice, was advertised as a halal buffet followed by speakers in support of U.S. to Gaza, which describes itself as a coalition of organizations and individuals…
BAKA received $2,494 from mandatory fees collected from all students to stage the event, which will be held at the university-owned Busch Campus Center.
“We are deeply concerned that a state-supported university could support an organization that could commit a belligerent act against one of our allies,” said Etzion Neuer, regional director of the state Anti-Defamation League based in Teaneck. “This is not about free speech, it’s about potentially illegal activity.”
Hoda Mitwally, a Rutgers senior and an executive board member of BAKA, said her group was raising money for a humanitarian mission with the blessing of the Rutgers University Student Assembly, the university’s student government.
“We are not bringing weapons, we are not bringing anybody who plans to use violence,” she said. “This is a humanitarian mission. They are framing this as though we were planning some sort of terrorist action or something suspicious, and we strongly denounce that. These are smear remarks intented to discredit our organization and our mission.”
