BDS Movement
News about economic and academic attacks against the Jewish state
“BDS infantilizes Palestinians, removing any responsibility or agency from their end,” Gabe Hoffman, treasurer of Realize Israel, one of the two pro-Israel groups targeted last semester, told “The Algemeiner.”
“U-M has a moral and legal responsibility to address discrimination on campus, and we hope it will take swift action to fulfill that obligation,” said board chairman of the Lawfare Project, a legal think tank.
The reactions of Jewish and Israel-related groups are mixed over Israel denying entry earlier this month to 22-year-old American BDS activist Lara Alqasem, whose case will be heard by Israel’s Supreme Court after the Tel Aviv District Court rejected her appeal.
The Zionist organization Im Tirtzu sent letters to dozens of Hebrew University donors, calling on them to not “stand idly by” while the university continues to provide legal support to Lara Alqasem.
The Tel Aviv District Court said “any self-respecting state defends its own interests and those of its citizens, and has the right to fight against the actions of a boycott … as well as any attacks on its image.”
The university announced that it will conduct a panel review consisting of “distinguished faculty members to examine the intersection between political thought/ideology and faculty members’ responsibilities to students.”
They have been ordered to pay some $12,397 in damages for their role in the cancellation of a scheduled performance in Tel Aviv last year by the popular singer Lorde.
The crowd booed as the two activists were removed from the theater by Israeli security personnel.
“As a general principle, we value freedom of expression even in cases where we don’t agree with the political views expressed and this is such a case,” said State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino.
Isabel Phiri, a senior official in the World Council of Churches, which represents about 350 churches of various denominations, was rejected in December 2016 from entering Israel to partake in the WCC’s annual Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel.
Pro-Israel groups are calling on the university to address the latest incidents, including a lecture comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler and a second student denied a recommendation to study abroad in Israel.
The development comes amid two anti-Israel controversies at the university, including another professor denying a letter of recommendation to study in Israel and a photo used during a lecture comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
