A crowd numbering into the thousands gathered at Rutgers University Thursday night for a pro-Israel rally that drew New Jersey's governor and two U.S. Senators to the student-organized event. A much smaller crowd of pro-Palestinians gathered across the street. Separated by a barricade and a fence, the counter-ralliers chanted their support for the Palestinians and exchanged taunts with some Israeli supporters.60 Rutgers professors also felt compelled to challenge the pro-Israel rally, although their reasons didn't hold up under scrutiny:
. . . Eisenzweig said he is Israeli and a Zionist, but the main reason for the initiation of the statement is because he feels Hillel almost exclusively promoted right-wing Israeli policy.Of course, for most of these folks, believing Israel has a right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people is automatically a "right-wing" view.
Hillel, however, has a different point of view. Andrew Getraer, Hillel's executive director, said the organization has no right-wing agenda, and in the past, it has hosted events with groups like Seeds of Peace, which brings together Arab and Israeli young adults. . . . speakers include Myron Aronoff, a University political science, Jewish studies and anthropology professor, who Getraer said, does not follow a right-wing ideology and June Walker, president of Hadassah, the largest Jewish organization in America, which supports hospitals in Israel and hospitals and schools worldwide.
For those who haven't been following this story, this weekend is the culmination of months of activism on both sides.
The Rutgers chapter of NJ Solidarity [part of the International Solidarity Movement, a pro-Palestinian group which supports suicide bombings] began planning a national conference of pro-Palestine activists last spring. The proposed event immediately drew hundreds of protest letters from pro-Israel activists who opposed having the conference on a public university campus. The dispute went to McGreevey, who eventually said he disagreed with NJ Solidarity's politics but would allow the conference on free-speech grounds.Thus are foiled the minions of Charlotte Kates and her pathetic troup of revolutionary wannabees. Bwahahahahaha . . . .
However, NJ Solidarity ran into trouble in August when an internal dispute over ideology forced the national Solidarity organization to pull out of the Rutgers conference and plan a rival conference at Ohio State University in November. The Rutgers group went ahead with its own pro-Palestine conference and ran into more problems last month when university officials kicked the event off campus after the student group failed to meet planning deadlines. Yesterday, the group announced it had booked the Ramada Inn in North Brunswick for the meeting.
While NJ Solidarity was struggling to plan its conference, campus pro-Israel activists began planning their own events to counter -- and upstage -- the pro-Palestine meeting and protest recent anti-Semitic incidents on campus.
Last month, a pro-Palestine student activist was arrested after he threw a pie in the face of an Israeli dignitary [Natan Sharansky] attending a Hillel dinner on campus. A few days later, an unidentified vandal spray-painted swastikas in front of the Hillel building and a nearby Jewish fraternity house.
Tonight's Israel rally and the weekend conference will be an important step in helping Jewish students feel secure on their own campus, organizers said.
(many links courtesy LGF comments)
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