In her column today, Caroline Glick tells us the following stories for which it appears she used as a source the following Frontpage mag article:

At an “Israel Apartheid Week” event at City University of New York, after watching a propaganda film, 19-year old Binyamin Rister rose and politely asked the ISM presenters if they supported terrorism. When he received no reply he politely repeated the question. Rather than wait for an answer, CUNY security guards dragged Rister from the room and then repeatedly banged his head against the wall of an elevator and threw him head first down the stairs. Rister’s injuries from the assault by campus security required him to be evacuated by ambulance in a neck brace to the hospital.

In an almost identical case at Georgetown last year, Bill Maniaci a 67-year-old retired Jewish American police officer was brutalized by Georgetown security guards after he asked ISM spokesmen if they supported terrorism [you can see an eyewitness report here]. He is currently suing Georgetown for $8 million in damages for the assault. According to Lee Kaplan’s report of the CUNY event in Frontpage Magazine, there were seven witnesses to the unprovoked attack against Rister. He too has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against CUNY.

According to Front Page Magazine, these alleged violent attacks are taking place at ISM sponsored gatherings. Clearly, the organizers have come to expect that people with different political views will attend and have made a decision not to respond to their direct queries. As for the violence, I am going guess that they speak beforehand to security and perhaps the information they provide might cause the officers in question to behave with intensity and violence that one would normally reserve for violent individuals.

I’m not sure what can be done about these attacks since they are being committed by security officers and any response to their actions would simply justify their violence. I also don’t believe that avoiding these talks is a solution. This is America and as long as people are polite at these events, they should be treated like any other attendee. I guess from now on any supporter of Israel who is aware of an anti-Israel activity on campus should be sure to inform the university’s administration of their intent to attend the event and include clips from these news stories along with the information that this individual intends to ask questions at the event. This may cause these very same administrators who currently appear to stand behind their officers’ violence, to provide a different set of instructions that would prevent rather than cause physical harm.

Oh, make sure to act peacefully and politely at these events. And bring friends, because you might need assistance getting up and getting to the hospital, and it’s important to have witnesses so there’s a record.

About the author

themiddle

15 Comments

  • Suggestions then for ISM events:

    Have people with video cameras and still cameras in the audience and filming before you ask you question.

    That is the basic protocol at UC Irvine, Long Beach State etc. You don’t go anywhere without a video crew.

    Secondly, never challenge the ISM they are stooges. They will never change their minds.
    Rather, Address THE AUDIENCE.

    As you are dragged out, chant.

  • I once asked a SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) presenter if he hated me. He told me yes. I was not kicked out or dragged or beaten, but it was pretty exciting. It made headlines.

    Another suggestion is to invite the local paper to the event, not just the student paper. In smaller towns or places with weekly ‘hood publications, this will be very usefull because it will expose this “progressive” communtiy for what it is.

  • Invite the local papers to give an event further publicity? No thanks, they already have enough channels to promote their agenda.

  • The colleges / universities’ own security people are doing the beating? The lawsuits could impact the ability of the university to pay its administrators!! (Unless the other kind of money just makes up for the money loss from the lawsuits. The kind of money that supports the ISM in the first place.)

    If questioners get paralizyed for life, that could get expensive. Lifetime of lost earnings. Of course his many friends will have filmed everything. Everybody has a phone camera these days.

    Banging people’s heads, and chucking them downstairs, can indeed damage their spines. There goes your Rugby game. Wheelchair time. Oh yes.

  • Having said that, the USA is unlivable. I may not last there more than another 6 months myself.

  • Steve U hit it on the head. Why are Jew so surprised by the response they get when even when they do the right thing? Or nothing at all…..

  • This is horrible, but keep in mind that Campus Police are usually very low paid security guards, who usually work for outside security companies and not the University. Outside security companies are licensed, bonded and insured so they incure the costs of their actions.

    I highly doubt if the guards had any intellectual awareness or personal opinions on the issues presented at the event. They would have reacted that way to any request to remove someone from ANY type of presentation, including a Disney movie. They are not professional Police Officers and are very quick to over-react when they get a chance to play Cop. I really don’t see this as an anti-Israel act of violence.

    Why didn’t anyone call the real Police at 911 for Manaci sooner? No one should attend an event like this without a cell phone and a friend.

  • Furthermore, I don’t think anyone can say that the CUNY Administration is anything but overaccomadating for it’s Orthodox Jewish population. It is located on the border of the uber sthetl of Kew Gardens Hills. MANY,many, many, many Orthodox students attend there.

  • Digital… the United States is one of the only countries in the world that is risking the lives of its young men and women to suppress terror and anti-Israel extremists and to protect the Democratic State of Israel, so if you are blaming our govt. for the security guards excess testosterone, I suggest you take Ricks and live someplace else. Maybe you would prefer the Soviet Union? What have you done to fight terrorism lately…I highly doubt that you gave up being with a loved one who is serving in the U.S. Military and stationed oversees. Freakin’ hypocrite commie pinko.

  • It is sad indeed that so many have been killed bec. of Bushes war. Iraq was not a threat to anyone.

    Iran is now, but that is another topic. Whether bush causes their ascendancy, I don;’t know.

    In any case, I thought this was a pro-Zionist, Pro-Aliyah, web site, so if someone is moving to Israel, they should not be attacked.

    In a free and Democratic country, you should be able to express, what or why you don’t like said country, w/out being called a commie pinko freeakazoid.

    In any case, I will be based hopefully in Israel and the UK, see you all there!

  • Steves Rick, you’re escaping violence against Jews by moving to the UK? LOL. Crazy Kachniks…

  • I will be in both UK and Israel, it is a new career opportunity for me.

    As things go, I am less involved w/ Judaism on a day by day basis.

    Nor am I a Kachnik, I just know that if Rabbi Kahane was around, these so called peaceful protestors would have been given their due.

  • Steve Ricks is a commie pinko freakazoid!!!

    I think you would fit in well someplace like the sudan, or somalia.