Bloomberg’s friendly advice to pro-Israel, anti-BDS protesters: shut up!

Exaggerate much?

just so someone can have the pleasure of asking Mr Barghouti explain how it so happens that a Qatari born, Egyptian raised Arab such as himself managed to immigrate into Israel, and attend and graduate from a Hebrew university, if Israel is an apartheid. And while he's at it they can ask him to comment on how many blacks managed to immigrate into South Africa to attend white universities while it was an apartheid.

thinks Israel should be boycotted for being a racist apartheid state. Well that about says it. I wonder if Mr Barghouti can tell us exactly how many blacks immigrated into South Africa to attend- let alone graduate from - its white universities while South Africa was still an apartheid state?

What a charismatic and no-nonsense guy. I would like to see him run for prez one day. And his statement about the issue is just great. Not every criticism of Israel and her policies are anti-Semitism. Stop hiding behind that pathetic line.

But, Bloomberg is American. If he should go to Iran, maybe a lot of Israelis should go to Russia and Poland.

I wonder if it were an anti- Arab or anti-black or "horrors", an anti gay event sponsored by the college, would he still be singing the same tune?

I am tired of the loaded language. It is used to manipulate people. "Destruction of Israel," "Extermination of a Nation," etc., etc., refers to one possible means of ending the conflict that involves a democratic reform we would support for practically any other nation: a democratic secular state that treats all equally. That's it! That's the destruction, dismantling and extermination! Equality for all, no religious state. Jews, Muslims and Christians living in peace. We hate the "Islamic" states because they are religious states. Right?

There was a law suit last year in California about this general area--a suit charging a campus event about Palestine was anti semiotic. Free speech won over the, I think, hysterical charge. There is every right to present information as it falls.

That in this technological age denying their truth is a pointless exercise. Too many people globally know the truth by reading for themselves and ignoring the zionist hasbara. The only way Israel can survive is by accepting peace via the two state solution based on 67 borders. A single state will mean the Jewish state of Israel will immediately cease to exist. It is Israels choice. Time for peace not self sabotage.

Not even Israel. If issues ( no matter how controversial ) are not going to be debated at institutions of higher education ,, well where then? Anyone who is offended , should show up and participate in a constructive way . Freedom of speech is not there to protect what we like , it is there specificaly to protect what we do not like and even despise.

and thank you Brooklyn college for having the courage to bring focus on occupation.

New York City going bananas. The propaganda shield designed to hush hush criticism of Israel has been shattered by the raucous cries of Dershowitz and the synchophants, those politicians who hold public office in New York and Washington. Mayor Bloomberg advised them about the existence of the American Constitution and suggested they blew it by crying Wolf. As much as he believes mum is the word, this is no longer the case. The Cat is out of the bag and it jumped over the fence into the public arena where honest dialogue is taking place.

A college can co-sponsor any speaker that they wish as far as I am concerned. I strongly disagree with Barghouti's goals. The people who oppposed the college from co-sponsoring the event ended up giving the event a ton of free publicity. Omar Barghouti spoke at UC Irvine this week and there were about 25-30 people who attend it. I bet a lot more will now attend the talk at Brooklyn College. I hope people who consider themselves pro-Palestinian also agree that zionist speakers should be allowed to speak and be co-sponsored by colleges. And the speakers and those in the audience should not have to face repeated disruptions during the talk becasue they think the speaker is xxx or xxxx.

Exactly how I feel. They have every right to express their stupid opinion as loudly as they want.

Lynn Stewart was honored by the CUNY law school. She's the one who passed on secrets from a Muslim cleric imprisioned on terrorist charges to Egyptian followers who then committed murders as a result. Then there's also Leonard Jeffries. He's the CUNY professer who doesn't much like Jews. He's also a black nationalist whose schtick is that white people are the "ice people" while black people are the "sun people". Bloomberg is right in that academic freedom means you don't punish a school or its professers in the way that the Israeli right wing would like to punish acadamicians in Israel who are too critical of them. However, by featuring BDS, CUNY hasn't exactly dispelled its reputation for surrounding primitive nastiness with academic luster. If that's what passes at CUNY for broad knowledge and considered analysis, then it's claim to be a "poor man's Harvard" is pretty dated and hollow.

Indeed, the tide has turned! As a famous Jewish fellow once said, "ye shall reap what ye sow". Time for the world to stop providing "crop insurance" for a nation who has no interest in crops, or peace, for that matter!

Arabs don't know freedom of speech and they use of it...

LOL Go Bloomberg! Wow, who knew he had fire in him.

We all are for open ideas and exchange; However BDS Judith Butler & Omar Barghoutti openly call for the destruction of the State of Israel. No 2 state solution. Just elimination of Israel. Everything is occupied, Haifa, Tel Aviv or Beer Sheba. Would you invite the KKK on campus ? I am open for 2 way discussion with Palestinian or Arab reps. that agree for Israel to exist.

Bloomberg has balls, and is absolutely right! Only a jew can save jews from themelves! Enough already.

that the hypocrisy

It seems your major concern was that BDS got a lot of publicity and not that NYC officials were using state funds which were under their influence to blackmail the school.

I do not believe that the ultimate goal of the Boycot Divensment and Sanction movement is dismantling the Jewish state. It is modeled after a similar movement around the Aparthied state of South Africa. BDS's goal is not to end the state of Israel but to put pressure on the government of Israel to end it's occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Much as the goal of the similar movement South Africa's was to pressure the government to stop its Apartheid practice of creating homelands, or "bantustans" within the territorial borders of South Africa, and to allow the residents the same rights as ordinary South Africans. That movement ended the practice but the Country was not dismantled. Most Palestinians do not wish to live in a fragmented territory , even with quasi autonomy, within the borders of a greater State of Israel. The BDS movement's goal is the end of the occupation and to move toward the creation of a Palestinian State. Not to end the State of Israel.

Thankyou Mayor I salute you for your courage.

Cut funding. Fire the administrator who authorized this bogus event. The politicians should tell Bloomberg, to go to Syria. BDS is wrong anyway you look at it.

he should move to Iran. there they will love him