A Libyan Jew's Testimony
Public event suddenly closed to all but supporters by campus police.
"In the midst of a year full of virulent anti-Israel campus events, this Saturday Rutgers University may witness the most objectionable event yet. Saturday night January 29, in the Douglass Campus Center, a Rutgers student group, BAKA, will host an event titled "Never Again for Anyone" in collaboration with American Muslims for Palestine, The International Anti-Zionist Jewish Network, and The Middle East Children's Alliance. This program is designed to coincide with the United Nations' sanctioned International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a day created to remember and honor the victims of the Holocaust. Instead, the focus will be on "the on-going ethnic cleansing of Palestine," comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.
By invoking the Nazi genocide, this event both defames the Jewish state and trivializes the systematic murder of 11 million people in the Holocaust, including six million Jews. While Rutgers Hillel respects the right to free speech, the comparison of Israeli acts of self defense to the gas chambers of Auschwitz is morally repulsive and has no place on the campus of our State University."
Officer: Sami Jitan
"BAKA - Students United for Middle Eastern Justice is an officially recognized student organization at Rutgers University New Brunswick concerned with social, political, cultural, and human rights issues throughout the greater Middle East.
Our mission is to shed light on injustices currently taking place in the Middle East, as well as empower students to elucidate truths and eradicate such injustices. BAKA is dedicated to raising awareness through education by the means of guest speakers, forums for uncensored discussion, and various forms of artistic expression. We seek to provide a politically active voice for the diverse and marginalized Middle Eastern communities on campus.
However, we do not limit our leadership or membership to these communities; we view the struggles in the Middle East as issues of concern to all peoples, irrespective of race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc. We seek to work with other groups, within and outside Rutgers, as a means of promoting our positive mission."
Cf. http://getinvolved.rutgers.edu/organizations/find-an-organization/?category=&search-text=baka&x=24&y=7
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