Israel Matzav

Congressmen blast Obama for excluding Ariel students as students protest outside US consulate

Four American congressmen (there should have been 400 and I should have had to write 'representatives' rather than 'congressmen') have sent a letter to President Hussein Obama blasting his decisions not to speak to Israel's Knesset, and to exclude students from Ariel University from his Thursday night speech to students. In the meantime, students from Ariel are protesting outside the US consulate in Jerusalem.

The letter, penned by Representative Bill Johnson (ROhio), also took issue with Obama’s decision not to address the Knesset during this week’s visit to Israel, as his predecessors George W. Bush and Bill Clinton did when they visited the country during their tenures in the White House.

It was also signed by Republican representatives Jim Jordan and Brad Wenstrup of Ohio and John Fleming of Louisiana.

“We believe you understand the importance of addressing a nation’s parliament as you have taken the time to address members of parliament in the United Kingdom, Australia and Ghana,” said the letter.

It noted that such an address is a “customary and symbolic gesture that celebrates our shared democratic ideas and the special relationship between Israel and the US.”

The letter said that the congressmen understood that Obama had chosen instead to address students, a move that it said was “commendable and encouraged.”

However, the congressmen said, “we are disappointed to learn that students from the University of Ariel, located in the West Bank town of Ariel, did not receive an invitation to hear you speak. Especially since the University of Ariel is the first beyond the Green Line, and is officially and legally recognized by the Government of Israel.”

...

Levy and dozens of Ariel University students held a vigil outside the US consulate in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon to protest their exclusion from Thursday’s speech.

Participants held life-size silhouettes marked with a red X to represent their exclusion from Obama’s visit.

As the student union launched a facebook campaign entitled “Yes we can? No we can’t! We will not let Obama discriminate against us: A student in Ariel is a student in Israel” earlier this week, students from other universities across the country have expressed their support.

 Let's go to the videotape.



By the way, that logo at the top of this post is the official logo of Obama's visit and is plastered all over the highways here.

Labels: Ariel University, Barack Hussein Obama, US-Israel relationship

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:46 AM