Pro-Israel Activist Says Palestinian Group Espouses Terrorism
by Jim Brown
July 27, 2004
(AgapePress) - Supporters of Israel are asking Duke University to ban a meeting on campus to be held by a Palestinian communist group that believes the Jewish state has no right to exist.Diane Appelbaum with the Boston Israel Action Committee (BIAC) is leading an Internet petition drive against a conference of the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, which is slated for October 15-17 at Duke in Durham, North Carolina. The pro-Palestinian movement works against Israel on multiple fronts, including urging U.S. universities to divest their investments in companies that do business in Israel, and recruiting young Americans to go to Israel to engage in activism in coordination with Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Appelbaum says no university should be condoning a group that seeks to obliterate Israel. "When a group actually says that it endorses the destruction of a nation of five million people -- that it endorses suicide bombing as a means of destroying that nation -- a group that openly espouses terrorism in this way ought not to be invited to meet at Duke," she asserts.
"This is a national conference of young people from many campuses across the country who seem to feel that this kind of rhetoric is appropriate," Appelbaum says. However, she insists that it is not appropriate, and she believes the administrators and faculty at Duke and other institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to let students know that.
"While open debate is a value we all truly believe in," the BIAC spokeswoman says, "nevertheless, there are some things that are so wrong that universities should say to young people 'No, you can't go there. Terrorism is off the table. Once you start endorsing terrorism, we don't want you at Duke.'"
Appelbaum maintains the Palestinian Solidarity Movement is simply a front group for terrorists, and she and other pro-Israel activists are calling on Duke University to pull the plug on the group's scheduled October conference. So far more than 1,500 people have signed her petition.
