Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: We Hate You, Even If You Support Us
In Nablus, the largest Palestinian city, students rioted in protest against a visit to their campus by U.S. consular officials. According to Palestinian sources, the officials had come to An-Najah University as part of continued efforts to support educational and cultural activities on campus.Chloe Valdary: Lies, Lies And More Lies As The Rutgers Univ. Paper Publishes Racist Article
Dozens of students, chanting anti-U.S. slogans, surrounded one of the U.S. vehicles and tried to prevent it from entering the premises of the university. Eyewitnesses said that campus security personnel used excessive force to disperse the protesters.
One student, Mohamed Abu Awwad, was later admitted to hospital with a broken arm.
The clash that erupted at the Palestinian university has enraged many students and human rights advocates. "The university administration does not have the right to disperse a civilized and democratic protest and beat up participants," said Mohamed Dweikat, a political activist from Nablus.
Hazem Abu Hilal, a human rights activist, said that the problem was not with the assault on the protest, but that the university had banned the protest on campus. "Universities are supposed to serve as a podium for freedom of expression," he said.
But this incident is not about freedom of expression as much as it is about extremism and hatred for the US. The protesters did not want US officials on their campus because, they argued, "the U.S. supports Israel." They were also protesting what they called "U.S. backing for Israel" during Operation Protective Edge.
These students have been told that the U.S. is an enemy because it supports Israel financially and militarily. It does not matter whether the U.S. officials came to Nablus to help Palestinians. They were attacked because they represent a country that is viewed by many Arabs and Muslims as an enemy because of its support for Israel's right to exist.
I’m starting to wonder if the Rutgers University student paper, the Daily Targum, actually reads the pieces submitted to it before accepting them. Its latest piece, by freshman student Hamzah Raza is so woefully absurd, so patently racist, and so annoyingly amateur in its recycling of bigoted diatribes, I almost mistook it for a script for a homemade reality show entitled ‘David Duke Wannabees gone wild.’The Jewish Voices
Raza first illustrates his morally obtuse position by suggesting that Islamism — that doctrine whose adherents decapitate children and rape adolescent brides — is comparable to the Declaration of Independence. Yes, that’s right. Thomas Jefferson’s code of ethics detailing the rights of humanity is exactly comparable to a doctrine which posits that all of humanity should be wiped off the face of the earth if it doesn’t bow to Allah.
But Raza doesn't stop there in his inane musings. He continues to suggest that Hamas and ISIS aren’t actually Islamists — a word he defines as “an advocate … of a political movement that favors reordering government … in accordance with laws prescribed by Islam.” This is weird since Hamas and ISIS both are political movements favoring laws, um, prescribed by Islam. But constructing intellectually consistent ideas isn’t Raza’s forte. After all, he goes on to assert that Hamas is perhaps only angry with Israel because there are aboriginal Jews occupying space there, an obviously egregious offense which can only be met with rockets and Hitlerian calls for another Holocaust.
Racism, you say? Oh, no; resistance of the highest noble order.