Israel Matzav

Multi-Culti madness at Haifa U.

Reader Hutzpan asked me to comment regarding this story about the appearance of the Islamic Movement, Northern Front leader Sheikh Raed Sallah at Haifa University on Wednesday. Allowing Sallah to appear was - as I noted in the title - multi-culti madness, but I am somewhat surprised and encouraged by the reaction of the 150 Jewish students mentioned in the article.

Outraged over both Salah's words and the fact that Jewish students were barred from entering the auditorium as he spoke, some 150 protesters gathered outside the auditorium waving Israeli flags and yelling "This is not Teheran."

...

Students clashed with the security officers outside, as chants of "Allah hu-akbar" came from the auditorium in response to Raed's remarks. Police were dispatched to the scene but not required to intervene.

There was plenty about which to be outraged in Sallah's words.

Speaking about the idea of making concessions in Jerusalem, Salah told the crowd, "We love life, our families, our homes and our children, but if they suggest that we give up our principles and holy sites, we would rather die and we welcome death."

He also claimed that Israel is constantly digging tunnels under the Temple Mount and that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was planning to rebuild the Temple.

But there are two truly bizarre things about this story. First, we are told that the university did not want to invite Sallah but its unnamed legal adviser told it that "it could no longer reject students' requests to have the Islamic leader lecture to them." Huh? Since when does someone who incites to violence have an absolute right to speak on the campus of a state-sponsored university? And even if the unnamed lawyer truly believed that to be the case, why didn't the university just let the students file an appeal to the Supreme Court and make the case there? Why did the university pre-emptively concede to invite Sallah?

But what's most incredible is the odious comparison that the university gives to justify its barring Jewish students from the event:

"In previous events as well, in which [Foreign Minister Avigdor] Lieberman and [former Defense Minister Shaul] Mofaz gave lectures, we barred the Arab students from entering," one of the officials said.

Are Lieberman and Mofaz no better than Sallah? (In a Leftist's 'mind' Lieberman probably isn't but that's a separate issue - a university is supposed to be a place for open discussion and not a haunt for Leftists). And why were the Arabs banned from attending the Lieberman and Mofaz lectures? Did they threaten violence? Did the Jews threaten violence against Sallah?

Something is really amiss in this country. It's time to fix it. Hopefully with a more balanced Supreme Court in the offing, Israel will be able to move away from the world of moral equivalencies to a world where those who threaten violence pay the price and those who behave peaceably are allowed to exercise their rights freely.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 6:28 PM