Students who heckled academic get community service
Three Arab-Israeli students at Haifa University receive penalties for verbally attacking Yale University professor giving lecture on religious coexistence.
Three Arab-Israeli students at Haifa University were sentenced this week to community service for attacking an Egyptian professor from Yale University as he delivered a lecture on coexistence. The school's disciplinary committee also forbade the students from participating in public activism for two months.
The incident occurred about a month ago, when Dr. Omer Salem, an Egyptian Religious Studies academic from Yale University. Dr. Salem visited Haifa University to lecture psychology students about coexistence and peace between different faiths. The three men attacked him during the lecture, accusing him of "collaborating with the Zionists".
One student photographed the scene and said: "Go talk to the Dawabsheh family about coexistence."
Another pointed to the lecturer who brought Salem to the university and said: “They came to silence us, the Zionists who are protecting you. You should be ashamed of yourself, the Zionists are protecting you. You came here to support colonization. You are dancing on the blood of martyrs.”
This week the committee gave the heaviest penalty – 100 hours of community service – to Jool Ilyas. It also decided to suspend him for a semester.
The other two students received similar penalties, but will only have to do 50 hours of community service.
