lifestyle leader

I'm on the email list of the "US Boat to Gaza" group, for some reason (I didn't sign up), and they've just sent an "urgent alert" that an "Israeli war criminal has been invited to speak at an American university." The university is NYU. The alleged "war criminal" is one of the Israeli commandos who landed on the Mavi Marmara (part of the Gaza flotilla) last year.

According to the Facebook site for the NYU "Students for Justice in Palestine," he was invited by students at NYU who are putting on an "Israel Peace Week" to counter the "Israel Apartheid Week" that anti-Israel students have organized. The SJP is organizing a counter-demonstration outside the hall where the presentation will occur. They write, "During that brutal attack on unarmed human rights activists nine people were killed, including a Turkish American and over fifty wounded." Yes, nine people were killed by the commandos - but they were not unarmed human rights activists. They were part of the IHH and came armed. I wrote a lot about it on my blog at that time - see my articles at Gaza flotilla.

I hope that the NYU students who have invited the speaker are aware of the opposition this has aroused among the anti-Israel organizations, and have planned accordingly.