Five days ago, I cross-posted an article on the disruption of a speaking event involving an Israeli military expert at the University of Texas at Austin. The disruption was by-who else- pro-Palestinian students.
Campus Watch has more on the disruption including two videos. The first video is by the protesters themselves with their accompanying captions claiming victimhood and assault. (Two people, one a professor and the other a grad student stood up to the protesters.)
The CW article is taken largely from a Mint Press News article that is largely sympathetic to the protesters. Mint Press News is a left-wing, independent news outlet.
http://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/15318
This was disruption of a public event and not protected speech. It is the typical tactic of the pro-Palestinian crowd on so many campuses. The only people whose rights were violated were the speaker and the audience who came to hear him. Such brown shirt tactics should not be allowed on campuses.
As a part-time teacher at the University of California at Irvine, I regularly attend anti-Israel events. I do not-nor does anyone else-disrupt their speakers. At the end, I participate in the q and a and make my feelings known, but I always respect the right of the speaker to have his or her say and I always follow the protocols. Of course, these brown shirts cannot do the same because they do not respect the right of those with whom they disagree to speak.
Why did it take so long for campus police to arrive? In these volatile Israeli-Palestinian events, they should be close by to respond at the first sign of trouble. In those several minutes, somebody could have been injured or even killed.
This week's Daily Texan, the campus paper of UT, has a timely op-ed by a Jewish student, Jordan Shenhar, explaining how anti-Israel activism becomes anti-Jewish.
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