PHOTOS: Soros-Backed Bard College Partner Holds ‘Human
Chain’ Ceremony Glorifying Terrorists
by Aaron Klein 17 Feb 2016
TEL AVIV – Al-Quds University, a partner of Bard College in New York, held a
ceremony celebrating the so-called martyrdom of Baha Alyan, the terrorist
who killed three civilians and wounded four more in October.
The Palestinian Authority’s “High Commission for Youth
and Sports” sponsored the Al-Quds event, which honored the memory of
22-year-old Alyan. He along with another terrorist, Bilal Ghanem, carried
out the attack on October 13, 2015.
The two boarded bus number 78 in the Armon Hanatziv
neighborhood of Jerusalem, and began to indiscriminatingly stab and shoot
at passengers. Haviv Haim, 78, and Alon Govberg, 51, were killed that day.
Two weeks later, a third victim, Richard Lakin, 76, died from his wounds.
Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard at the scene, while
Ghanem – a Hamas terrorist who served time in Israeli prison in 2013-2014
– was wounded.
Photos of the Al-Quds event (see below) were broadcast on
Palestinian media outlets, with Arabic descriptions of the
jihadi-supporting ceremony subsequently translated
into English by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI.
Students at the event form a human chain of “readers and
writers” (Maannews.net, February 13, 2016)
Poster on the event’s Facebook page
Baha’s father, attorney Muhammad ‘Alyan, with a portrait
of his son drawn during the event
Box for collecting the messages in honor of Baha and
other martyrs (Maannews.net, February 13, 2016)
Displayed at the event: Baha’s portrait alongside a
portrait of Muhannad Al-Halabi, who carried out a stabbing attack on October
13, 2015
During the ceremony, a reported 2,500 students formed a
human chain “of readers and writers” under the banner of “The Baha
Al-Shuhada Chain” or “the Light of the Martyrs chain,”MEMRI documented.
Participants can be seen in some of the photos wearing
shirts bearing Alyan’s portrait. The Al-Quds students reportedly were asked to
deposit into a box written messages honoring Alyan and other Palestinian
“martyrs.”
According to MEMRI, not a single speaker at the event
condemned Alyan’s deadly attack; instead, participants sought to connect
the terrorist incident with Alyan’s “cultural legacy,” which they
described as promoting education and free expression.
“Without education the people would not have been able to
confront the occupation,” stated the terrorist’s father, Muhammad Alyan.
“Baha (meaning ‘light’) is an idea, and the idea will never die. Today I
have over 1,000 lights – students who are continuing in his footsteps.”
“The occupation has turned the entire Palestinian people
into seekers of martyrdom,” added Muhammad Alyan.
Muhammad Al-Azraq, a student of communications at Al-Quds
university, agreed, telling students that Alyan had proved that “defending
the homeland required education.”
MEMRI provided background to the Al-Quds “human chain”
event.
The initiator of the activity, Azzam Ahmad Anjas, said
that Baha Alyan was known as “the learned martyr,” and that the event
aimed to realize an idea he had voiced several years ago, to form a chain
of readers along the walls of Jerusalem. In preparation for the event,
Anjas said that a group of students had launched a designated Facebook
page and a special hashtag to advertise the initiative and recruit
participants. He also mentioned that the activity will continue in other
universities in the PA territories.
Soros ties, anti-Israel groups
Al-Quds has a troubling history of ties to terror
support.
In December, Israel’s Shin Bet security service announced
it had arrested members of two large Hamas terrorist cells in the West
Bank, who were planning mass-casualty suicide bombings and other attacks
inside Israel.
Most of the suspects in both
cells were students at Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, which is partnered
with Bard College in New York. Al-Quds University in Abu Dis is located in
a village bordering Jerusalem.
The Al-Quds Bard College for Arts and Sciences, located
in Abu Dis, is a branch of
Al-Quds that “represents the first dual-degree program between US and
Palestinian institutions of higher education.”
Al-Quds Bard College is also partnered with billionaire George Soros’ Open Society
Institute and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The Al-Quds board of
trustees has included Rashid Khalidi, who taught there for 16
years before he became the Edward Said Professor of Arab studies at
Columbia University.
Khalidi, a harsh critic of Israel, was a close personal
friend to Barack Obama when the two taught together at the University of
Chicago. Khalidi lectured at UC until 2003, while Obama taught law there
from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.
Khalidi’s wife, Mona, was president of the Arab American
Action Network, or AAAN. The group received financing
from the Woods
Fund, a Chicago non-profit where Obama served as a paid
director from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002. Obama sat on the Woods Fund board alongside Bill Ayers,
the unrepentant former member of the Weather Underground
domestic terrorist group.
Khalidi and Obama reportedly lived
in nearby faculty residential zones, and the two families dined together a
number of times.
In 2003, Obama reportedly provided a glowing testimonial
for Khalidi when the professor left UC to take a new position at Columbia
University.
Al-Quds University was partnered with
Brandeis
until November 2013, when a demonstration took place on campus involving
“demonstrators wearing black military gear, armed with fake automatic
weapons, and who marched while waving flags and raising the traditional
Nazi salute.”
Brandeis suspended its partnership after Al-Quds
President Sari Nusseibeh refused to
issue an unequivocal condemnation of the militant demonstration. Instead,
Nusseibeh condemned “extremist Jews” for exploiting the scene of a “mock
military display” on the campus.
Nusseibeh went on to blame the Holocaust for Israel’s founding
and an alleged “enduring Palestinian catastrophe:”
These occurrences allow some people to capitalize on
events in ways that misrepresent the university as promoting inhumane,
anti-Semitic, fascist, and Nazi ideologies. Without these ideologies,
there would not have been the massacre of the Jewish people in Europe;
without the massacre, there would not have been the enduring
Palestinian catastrophe.
Bard itself has come under fire for allegedly hosting
anti-Israel groups. One such organization, the International Solidarity
Movement, formed a group at Bard. According to the Anti- Defamation
League, Bard’s ISM in 2010 held “seven
different anti-Israel events in conjunction with Israeli Apartheid Week
(IAW).” The ISM is known for
serving as human shields to obstruct Israel’s counter-terrorism measures.
Bard also has a longstanding partnership with the Central
European University (CEU), a graduate level institution located in
Budapest, Hungary. CEU was founded by
Soros. Spokesmen for both Bard and Al-Quds did not immediately respond to
a request from Breitbart Jerusalem seeking comment.
Bard College
Leon Botstein is
the president of Bard College, a director
& principal conductor for the Jerusalem
Symphony Orchestra, and a global board member for the Open Society Foundations.
Note: George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open Society
Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank).
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and the U.S.
Agency for International Development.
Colin I. Bradford
is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was
the chief economist for the U.S. Agency
for International Development.
Henrietta
Holsman Fore is a trustee at the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and was an administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Cyrus F. Freidheim
Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
James S.
Crown is the vice chairman for the Aspen Institute (think tank), and
a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown
was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is a
member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Commercial Club of
Chicago, Members Directory A-Z (Past Research)
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
R. Eden Martin is
the president of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Newton N. Minow
is a member of the Commercial Club of
Chicago, and a senior counsel at Sidley
Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama
was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP, a director at the Woods Fund of
Chicago, and a chairman for the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge.
William C. Ayers
was a director at the Woods Fund of
Chicago, a chairman for the Chicago
Annenberg Challenge, a member of the Weather
Underground, and is married to Bernadine
Dohrn.
Bernadine Dohrn
is married to William (Bill) C. Ayers,
was a member of the Weather Underground,
and a litigator for Sidley Austin LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is the lobby firm for Israel.
Shimon Peres was
the president of Israel, and a
friend of Haim Saban.
Haim
Saban is a friend of Shimon Peres,
an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a benefactor for the Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
Saban
Center for Middle East Policy is a policy center at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Cyrus F. Freidheim
Jr. is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Colin I. Bradford
is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and was
the chief economist for the U.S. Agency
for International Development.
Ann
M. Fudge is trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and U.S. program advisory panel chair for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation was a funder for the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the U.S.
Agency for International Development, and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Rajiv
Shah was a director of agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
and is an administrator for the U.S.
Agency for International Development.
Susan
Desmond-Hellmann is the CEO for the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, and a director at Facebook.
Sheryl K.
Sandberg is the COO & director for Facebook,
and was a trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Elliot Schrage is
a VP for Facebook, and a member of
the United States Holocaust Memorial
Council.
Norman R. Bobins
is a member of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Ronald A. Ratner
is a member of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, and was a trustee at Brandeis University.
D. Ronald Daniel
was a trustee at Brandeis University,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank).
No comments:
Post a Comment