Student hooligans from Brandeis scream at Israeli Knesset members in Newton, Mass.

Disgusting hooliganism by Brandeis University students on Monday night (3/26/12), when so-called "pro-Palestinian" activists disrupted a meeting with several Israeli Knesset members in Newton, Mass. They went off campus to yell and scream at MKs from Likud (Ofir Akunis), Yisrael Beitenu (Lia Shemtov and Faina Kirshenbaum), Labor (Raleb Majadele), and Meretz (Ilan Gilon) who were participating in a "town-hall" style meeting at a synagogue in Newton, Temple Emanuel.

According to a statement by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine, members of the group, as well as activists from affiliate groups, wearing t-shirts displaying the word "apartheid" in Hebrew letters, "mic-checked the panel, protesting the undemocratic nature of the Israeli apartheid state and notified the offending officials that until their government ceased its discriminatory policies they were not welcome by students at Brandeis University community events."

"The activists were pushed outside the hall by police officers and private security guards. One Brandeis student was arrested and another was injured while being thrown to the floor by a police officer," the statement added. A video of the incident was uploaded to YouTube.

Activists chanted at the panel: "Israel is an apartheid state and the Knesset is an apartheid parliament," as well as: "We will not welcome Israeli officials to any Brandeis University event until apartheid ends."

Raleb Majadele was the first Arab minister in an Israeli government, appointed by Prime Minister Amir Peretz in 2007 to the post of Minister of Science, Culture and Sport.

This is not the first time this year that Majadele has been subjected to hooliganism. In early January, "Anastassia Michaeli, a hawkish Israeli lawmaker, got so angry during a routine parliamentary debate Monday that she took a glass of water, tossed it at Labor Party backbencher Raleb Majadele and said 'shame on you' before storming out." Majadele must be doing something right, if both the extreme left and the extreme right react so violently to him.

I find it particularly shameful that the group that behaved so disgracefully was from Brandeis University, which was founded as a secular Jewish university and has a majority Jewish student body. It's disgusting that a group of students from Brandeis, an educational institution that prizes the use of reason and upholds the right of free speech for all, should be so intolerant of the exercise of free speech by others that they travel off campus to disrupt a conversation at a synagogue, of all places.

Ward Churchill - fired from University of Colorado

A lovely piece of academic news - Ward Churchill has just been fired from his job at the University of Colorado:

the spotlight on Churchill revealed numerous complaints of academic misconduct that had been raised by other academics, but never addressed by CU. He was accused of plagiarism, inventing historical incidents and ghostwriting essays which he then cited in his footnotes in support of his own views.

Those allegations were the ones that brought dismissal today.

I wrote previously about Churchill in 2005: Ward Churchill posts. It's good to see that Churchill's lies and distortions have finally been proven in the light of day.