U.S. pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a panel comprised of
Israeli MKs in Massachusetts on Monday, a year after the same
activist group interrupted a speech by Kadima MK and former minister
Avi Dichter.
The incident took place during a Town-Hall style meeting in Temple
Emanuel in the town of Newton, sponsored by the Ruderman Family
Foundation in partnership with Brandeis University, and participated
by Likud MK Ofir Akunis, Yisrael Beitenu´s, Lia Shemtov and Faina
Kirshenbaum, as well as former Labor minister Raleb Majadle and
Meretz MK Ilan Gilon.
According to a statement by Brandeis Students for Justice in
Palestine, members of the group, as well as activists from affiliate
groups, wearing t-shirts displaying the word "apartheid" in Hebrew
letters, "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 statement added. A video of the incident was uploaded
to YouTube.
Activists chanted at the panel: "Israel is an apartheid state and the
Knesset is an apartheid parliament," as well as: "We will not welcome
Israeli officials to any Brandeis University event until apartheid
ends."
They also charged Akunis and. Kirshenbaum 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," the
activists said.
In response to the protest, MK Kirshenbaum released a statement, in
which she said: "I don´t understand the audacity and hypocrisy of the
protestors."
"The State of Israel is one of the biggest democracies, perhaps the
only one, in the Middle East," she wrote, while Syrian President
Bashar "Assad is massacring his people and enforcing a dictatorial
regime in his state. I didn’t see the activists protesting before us
provoke or engage in violence to stop the Holocaust experienced by
the Syrian people."
Kirshenbaum indicated that her fellow delegation member was Raleb
Majadle, "who was the first Arab Minister," asking: "How can the
protesters call us fascists when there was an Arab minister in the
Israeli cabinet."
In April 2011, Avi Dichter was interrupted by Brandeis Students for
Justice in Palestine activists as he stood up to speak to an audience
of hundreds of students at Brandeis University near Boston. Several
students got up out of their seats and called Dichter a war criminal,
both in English and Hebrew. The incident was captured on video and
uploaded to YouTube.
