Princeton University has invited former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett to speak on Monday April 7 at 7pm. His visit is part of his tour across North American campuses, including Harvard, Columbia, and Yale, which coincides with the deportations, detainments, and disappearances of students at these same campuses by the Trump administration for protesting Israel’s war on the Palestinian people.
In this press conference, the New Jersey community of Palestinian, African-American, Jewish and civil rights advocates stand against the invitation of a man who has a history of racist policies and racist rhetoric. Bennett should be in prison, not in Princeton.
The speakers are listed below:
Dr. Zena is a NJ doctor grieving for one of the paramedics recently executed in Gaza. She volunteered in a Gaza hospital and stayed with his brother’s family. He went in to rescue injured civilians and was executed by Israeli soldiers and found crushed to death (video of his funeral). In Gaza, Zena witnessed the effects of Bennett’s policies, including the killing of 29 members of her best friend’s family (video available).
A former Gaza professor says he watched his university get blown to pieces by Israeli mines, a university devoted to underserved students. 65% of his students were young women, many of them single mothers. His university was about to open the very FIRST museum in Gaza but Israel destroyed the building and the artifacts they had worked years to gather (video available). In just one bomb, over 100 members of his family were killed. He blames Naftali Bennett and Netanyahu’s policies. His family tries to survive in Gaza as he finds his way in Jersey, teaching his Gaza students online.
A Palestinian Princeton student describes the anger she feels about Bennett’s invitation to the university where she once felt safe– and how his discriminatory policies segregated her community in the West Bank and a day she’ll never forget- watching a man get shot and killed with policies pushed by Naftali Bennett.
Larry Hamm talks about his struggle to end Princeton’s financial ties to apartheid South Africa in the 1970’s and today’s insult to the NJ community of inviting racist far right-wing former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett to Princeton. A member of a supremacist group, Bennett espouses hateful rhetoric about African migrants and Palestinians.
A Jewish Princeton student says she and her organization are disturbed and feel threatened by Bennett’s visit which coincides with Netanyahu’s Trump visit. Bennet has previously threatened violence to students on various campuses and boasted about killing Arabs.
This post has been syndicated from The Chris Hedges Report, where it was published under this address.