Anti-Israel Protester Threatens Palestinian Activist During College Lecture

Anti-Israel protesters confronted and threatened a Palestinian human rights activist who was critical of the Palestinian Authority while lecturing at the University of Chicago, reports Algemeiner.

Bassem Eid, founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, was confronted by hostile protesters last week. They challenged him for speaking of PA human rights abuses without referencing Israel's "occupation," according to a post Eid shared on his Facebook page.

A former student at Chicago's Columbia College who claimed he was from Gaza threatened Eid physically.

A video shows the man yelling threats in Arabic including: "I'm going to destroy this place!", "I'm going to kill this mother****!" and "Wait until you go to your car!"

Eid previously worked as an investigator for B'Tselem, a human rights organization which often is critical of the Israeli military. His turn to criticizing Palestinian rejectionism and human rights abuses angered anti-Israel activists.

During his Chicago lecture, most questioners expressed outrage that Eid took issue with Palestinian actions but did not criticize Israel. He also criticized campaigns to boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) Israel as counterproductive, in part because it can cost Palestinians their jobs wiht Israeli businesses.

The protester who made the threats also promised to attend a subsequent lecture Eid gave at DePaul University in Chicago on Saturday. "Get ready for it," he said.

The incident is just the latest in a series of disturbances on college campuses when a speaker is either pro-Israel or insufficiently critical of the Jewish State. Students at Brown University tried to shout down an appearance by former Soviet-dissident Natan Sharansky and actor Michael Douglas about Jewish identity.

Saturday's lecture occurred without major disturbance, Eid reported, although some students walked out protest.

Reader comments on this item

I wonder if these students realize they promoting totalitarianism

Submitted by Harold, Feb 22, 2016 14:52

While I consider the physical threats by the angry student professing to be from Gaza to be representative of the radical Islamism of Hamas, I wonder whether the protesters who threaten pro-Israel speakers and students, as well as the college and university administrators, are aware that in their actions (or in the case of the administrators, their inaction) they reject the principles of free speech that made America great. At the same time, they support principles condoned by totalitarian societies.

If no grown ups take charge of this soon, we will indeed find ourselves living in a totalitarian society. I strongly suggest that alumni make their voices heard when they get that annual call for contributions, as well as throughout the year whenever the adults fail to enforce free speech by all necessary means, including expulsion from the institution. Failure to act by the adults in charge strongly suggests that they are among the enemies of liberty.

Comment on this item