The Justice

Media Credit: Max Breitstein Matza Students protested during Thursday's controversial event.

Several protesters who briefly interrupted former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold by standing up with signs taped to their shirts at last Thursday's "The Challenge of the UN Gaza Report" event said that they felt violated by other attendees.

The signs worn by the protesters showed the names of Palestinian and Israeli victims of last winter's Gaza conflict. The protesters sat down after Public Safety officials and Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), one of the moderators of the event, asked them to be seated and listen to the rest of the talk.

"Specifically one old man sitting in front of me, as soon as I stood up, being totally silent, … abruptly shoved his chair backward into me," Amanda Hoffman '11, one of the protesters, said. Hoffman said that the chair was pushed back twice but that the Public Safety staff ignored her when she pointed out the man's behavior and instead focused on warning her to sit down.

Hoffman said that she followed the man out to the lobby as the event was ending. She said while at first he was apologetic, calling it an accident, he later became aggravated. Hoffman said that Prof. Shulamit Reinharz (SOC) offered to come over and seemed to offer to mediate, but then both walked away. After they left, a police officer told Hoffman that she had to let the man go, Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that she has since received helpful e-mail responses from Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan and other public safety officials regarding further investigation of the issue. However, regarding Public Safety's initial response to the incident, Hoffman said she "can't believe that that's how Brandeis staff would respond to an attack on a student. ... They were really rude and fervent in just trying to shut us down."

Another protester, Mariel Gruszko '10, said that when she stood up, "a woman directly behind me pulled my wrist and pulled backward so that I fell over, and the whole time she was saying things like, 'You're despicable.'" Gruszko said that others who were sitting in her row, whom she did not know, told the woman that what she was doing could be considered assault.

Continued...

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