“A university plays host to anti-Semites and terror advocates.” And glories in jihadist attacks on civilians. From OpinionJournal, with thanks to JS:
A new ritual on the American academic scene is the annual conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement. The PSM is an umbrella organization that connects various U.S. and Canadian groups; its yearly gathering offers an opportunity for the constituent elements to establish a visible presence on a prestigious university campus and plan strategy and tactics for a movement dedicated to delegitimizing the state of Israel. Over the past several years, the convocation has been held at Ohio State, the University of Michigan and the University of California at Berkeley. In October, it was the turn of Duke University.
Duke’s president, Richard Brodhead, had only just assumed office last summer when the university announced that it would be hosting the PSM conference in the fall. Because the organizers had followed the proper procedures for mounting such an event, Mr. Brodhead explained, the decision to grant approval was an “easy one.” After all, the university was only reaffirming “the importance of the principle of free expression.”
Easy or not, the decision immediately provoked criticism. Some of it came from Duke alumni and others off campus, and some of it came from a student group, the Duke Conservative Union. Altogether, some 90,000 signatures were gathered for an online petition denouncing the university’s move.
Among the targets of protest was the PSM’s fifth official “guiding principle,” which decrees the group’s refusal to denounce any terrorist act committed by Palestinians. Condemnation was also directed at the PSM’s amply documented history of anti-Semitism and incitement to violence. One scheduled speaker, Charles Carlson, had openly called for lethal attacks against Israeli youth, declaring that “every young Israeli is military–they are all proper war targets,” and that “each wedding, Passover celebration, or bar mitzvah [in Israel] is a potential military target.”
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