Brandeis University Students for Justice in Palestine Disrupt Town-Hall Meeting with Israeli Knesset Members
by brandeissjp
Newton, MA – On Monday, March 26th 2012, members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP), together with Waltham and Boston area Palestine solidarity activists, disrupted a Town Hall Meeting with 5 members of the Israeli Knesset (MKs) at Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts. The event, whose sponsors included Brandeis University, the Ruderman Foundation, and a number of Boston-area Zionist organizations, was aimed at strengthening relations between Israeli political leaders and the American Jewish community. The activists mic-checked the panel, protesting the undemocratic nature of the Israeli apartheid state and notified the offending officials that until their government ceased its discriminatory policies they were not welcome by students at Brandeis University community events. The activists were pushed outside the hall by police officers and private security guards. One Brandeis student was arrested and another was injured while being thrown to the floor by a police officer.
The panel included Knesset members Ofir Akunis (Likud), Lia Shemtov (Yisrael Beitenu) and Faina Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beitenu), as well as Raleb Majadle (The Labor Party) and Ilan Gilon (Meretz). Faina Kirshenbaum, who lives in the settlement of Nili in the West Bank, and Ofir Akunis are responsible for controversial legislation aimed at limiting international funding of human rights organizations operating in Israel. The two also initiated a committee to investigate the funding of human rights and left-wing NGOs in Israel. Akunis was recently quoted saying “Senator McCarthy was right in every word”. On November 2010, MK Lia Shemtov sponsored a bill suggesting all workers of the public sector should take a loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.
The activists wore blue T-shirts with the word “apartheid” written in Hebrew across the chest. They stood up before MK Ofir Akunis began speaking at the event and shouted:
Israel is an apartheid state and the Knesset is an apartheid parliament!
We will not welcome Israeli officials to any Brandeis University event until apartheid ends!
Mr. Akunis and Ms. Kirshenbaum are responsible for sponsoring fascist legislation in the Knesset, targeting legitimate human rights organizations.
Mr. Akunis and Ms. Kirshenbaum, how does it feel to be silenced? The Knesset is silencing dissent and civil and human rights!
FREE PALESTINE! FREE HANA SHALABI!
Last year, Brandeis University hosted a similar event featuring Israeli Parliament members. Brandeis SJP interrupted the event, targeting MK Avi Dichter, an international war criminal wanted for crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention. This year, the event was scheduled at an off campus location.
Elisha Baskin, a member of Brandeis SJP and an Israeli citizen said: “Legislation sponsored by Mr. Akunis, Ms. Kirshebaum and Ms. Shemtov suppresses legitimate activities of human rights organizations operating in Israel and Palestine. They and their political parties are responsible for numerous apartheid policies carried out by the state of Israel and I feel students should hold them accountable when they speak at a university event.”
Seth Grande, another member of Brandeis SJP, added: “There exists a clear regime of racialized discrimination and marginalization directed against Palestinian communities inside Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. This regime is sustained by policies adopted in the Israeli Knesset. The fact that there are Arab Members of Knesset does not change the fact that Israel is an apartheid state. Israel needs to end its project of colonial occupation in Palestine and stop discriminating against its Palestinian citizens. As long as Israel maintains its discriminatory policies, I, as a Jewish American, will not stay silent.”
Not to nitpick, but on the brandeis website it mentions two other MKs out of the five who visited, but this post only mentions three. Is it because one of the MKs who visited was Raleb Majdale – and that doesn’t really fit the idea of the Knesset being an “apartheid parliament?”
There were 5 members of the Knesset there. The article only mentions three? Why? Perhaps you don’t want to share the fact that an Arab member of the Knesset was there? Apartheid?
Thank you. Thank you, Brandeis, for educating our young Jewish students towards Jewish values and not the colonialist and racist values that are taking Israel so off course. And of course, thank you to all those who stood up to be counted. We shall not be silent in the face of Knesset policies that fly in the face of all that must remain sacred.
Love your support.
[…] in Newton, Massachusetts, members of a campus organization called Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP) disrupted a town hall meeting between representatives of the local Jewish community and five […]
Interesting that you protested about Apartheid in Israeland neglected to mention that one of the Members of Parliment you were disrupting is an Arab. Of course, Jew hatred does not require logic.
If pro-Israelis disrupted a pro-Palestinian event in this manner, you would all be screaming about suppression of speech.
Wait a minute. You’re telling me one of the five guests was an Arab Muslim Member of Parliament (MK), and you’re calling it an Apartheid state? When did the South African Apartheid regime ever have a black MP? Do yo even know what Apartheid means?
I hope you guys catch gonorrhea and die. Muzzie terrorists and kapo Jews deserve each other. If you want justice in Palestine, why aren’t you focusing on Jordan – the actual Palestinian state.
hooray for the protestors, send the israeli’s back to thier apartied state.stop killing bpalestinians, and using us dollars to do so.
Ibraham, they are saying “an arab member” and not an arab muslim member, so don’t get mistaken. Plus there is no difference between an arab, black or muslim or whatever. its just the act of discrimination and racism which makes it an apartheid state. so do you exactly know what apartheid means?
Thank you to the brave folks who stood up and made some noise. Free Palestine!
[…] idiots disrupt Brandeis event (video) March 28, 2012By adminFrom “Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine:” On Monday, March 26th 2012, members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP), […]
As a Jew and a humanitarian I applaud these students for their courage and their activism against the occupation of Palestine.
Well, we left the names of the MKs we did not protest against personally, because unlike Akunis, Kirshenbaum and Shemtov, they are not responsible for un-democratic legislation.
However, after your comments we chose to add the other two names, and to be consistent with our claim that NO Israeli officials will be welcomed until apartheid will end. We indeed did not welcome neither MK Ilan Gileon nor MK Raleb Majadle. Thanks for drawing our attention.
Definition of Apartheid: racial segregation. specifically an *official* policy of racial segregation that was instituted by the Republic of South Africa, based on political and economic discrimination against the black majority by the white European minority.
Now, Israel may be guilty of a lot of things, and it may have many racist and prejudice individuals living there, but it does not have an official policy of discrimination or racial segregation. In truth, the fact that Arabs have the right to vote, and legally, have the same political and economic rights as the Jews there, seems to discredit the label of “Apartheid.”
In fact, it is only the PA, in the name of Palestinians, that is calling for Apartheid type policies when they say that there can be no Jewish citizens in their future state.
You guys are either uninformed as to the realities that exist there, or are being disingenuous. I can’t tell which.
[…] posted by brandeis University Students for justice in palestine on March 26, 2012. Newton, MA – On Monday, March 26th 2012, members of Brandeis Students for […]