Students protest Mook E's 'fluk E'
Israeli rapper confronted by student demonstrators who slam recent comments he made against settlers who blocked roads to protest Gaza pullout
TEL AVIV - Spooked by recent comments made by rapper Mook E against settlers protesting Israel’s Gaza pullout, dozens of right-wing students duked it out on Thursday with security officers during the singer’s performance at Tel Aviv University.
The left-wing singer and former member of the Shabak Samech hip hop group told the student newspaper “Teza” earlier this week that “the settlers should have their bones broken” and "be loaded onto trucks" in response to recent road-blocking protests against Israel's plan to pull all 8,500 settlers out of Gaza this summer.
Dozens of students from “Orange Cell,” a nation-wide student activist group that protests the withdrawal, gathered in the audience at his concert during the university's "Student Day", which more than 1,000 people attended, to demonstrate against the rapper.
The signs they waved bore slogans such as “Mook E, come break my bones” and “Jews don’t break other Jews’ bones.”
“I came to demonstrate against Mook E, who represents violence against an entire public that has contributed to the country throughout its entire life. He made violent remarks against..the settlers. If someone would speak like that about leftists or Arabs, he would have been put in prison a long time ago.”
A scuffle ensued when security officers tried to keep them away from the rapper. One protester said he filed a complaint with the police, claiming one of the security men “slapped” him.
Rapper comes with bodyguard
Mook E was accompanied by his own bodyguard in the wake of recent threats from anti-withdrawal demonstrators who said they intended to assault him at the event.
Anticipating the backlash from his comment, pro-pullout activists rushed to defend the singer, waving signs that read “Mook E, the people are with you.”
Yuval Adam, a left-wing student leader, said it was “hypocritical” of “Orange Cell” to say leftists foment violence, and cited major protests that occurred in recent weeks where right-wingers blocked roads all over the country, often with burning tires, to protest the withdrawal.
“It’s the Right who blocks roads and..threatens civil war,” he said. “Mook E said stupid things, but ‘Orange Cell’’s protest against his comments is tendentious, and they incite all the time, so they should stop their hypocrisy.”
Mook E himself took a moment to comment on his remarks.
“Whoever stands here on stage knows violence is not the solution to anything,” he told the screaming crowd.
He then launched into a rapping frenzy, singing “They block me, I see the invasion of the dark forces. This is a storm.”
