FORUM FUROR: 4 Jews tossed from BDS meet at Brooklyn College

Brooklyn College faced a new uproar Friday after booting four Jewish students from a controversial anti-Israel forum.

Senior Melanie Goldberg and three classmates were escorted out of the event, which featured the founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, by security officers shortly after it began.

“The whole point of having this debate was that it would be an open academic forum where I would be allowed to ask questions,” said Goldberg, who is studying journalism. “So I came prepared to ask questions.”

But when Goldberg took out her questions on handouts for the main speaker, BDS founder Omar Barghouti, she was asked by a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, which organized the event, to hand them over.

“Someone came to me and said, ‘Give me all your papers, or you’ll be forcibly removed from the event,’ ” she recalled. “Not only was it a violation of my freedom of speech, but they made sure to silence me.”

College officials and a member of pro-Palestinian group countered that Goldberg and fellow Hillel members Yvonne Juris, and brothers Avi and Michael Ziegler, were being “disruptive” and started distributing flyers during the event.

“Based on official reports, they were being quite disruptive,” said college spokesman Jeremy Thompson. “They were asked to quiet down so they wouldn’t disturb the other attendees around them. After not complying, they were escorted from the building.”

Goldberg slammed the account as a “blatant lie.”

“I think that’s disgraceful,” she said. “No one spoke to me from the college. That’s being biased.”

Graduate student Avi Ziegler said he didn’t understand why they were kicked out.

“We weren’t causing a ruckus,” he said. “I’m just disappointed I didn’t get to stay just to have an informed decision.”

Juris added, “I’ve never felt more violated in an academic institution.”

Members of media outlets — including a Daily News reporter who was wearing a yarmulke — were also removed from the event despite reserving places to cover the forum.

Thompson said media access “was handled on a first-come, first-served basis” and that the room had filled to capacity.

But Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) said he didn’t understand why access was so tightly restricted.

“It’s absolutely outrageous,” he said. “If four black students were at an event where they were kicked out because they happened to be black, the city would be rocking today. You’d have Al Sharpton yelling and screaming.”



By Corinne Lestch / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS