Brown president edits speech in real time when faced with anti-Israel activists, omits reference to Jewish students
A university spokesman confirmed that the omission was made in response to the disruption.
Brown University president Christina Paxson omitted a reference to Jewish students in a Monday evening speech, moments after being confronted by anti-Israel activists.
Paxon was delivering remarks at a vigil for three Vermont students of Palestinian descent who were wounded in a Vermont shooting just days prior. One of the students, Hisham Awartani, is a junior at Brown.
According to National Review, Protesters interrupted Paxon’s speech demanding that the school divest from companies with ties to Israel. The interruption reportedly came after she delivered a line stating that the community cannot “disentangle what happened to Hisham from the broader events in Israel and Palestine that sadly we’ve been dealing with for decades,” adding “Sadly, we can’t control what happens across the world and country. We are powerless to do everything we’d like to do.”
[RELATED: Event examining campus BDS movement to take place, despite sabotage attempt]
According to the prepared version of the speech published to the university website, the next line in Paxon’s speech was meant to state that all students, faculty and staff should be able to feel comfortable enough to “proudly wear a Star of David or don a keffiyeh on the Brown campus, or to cover their head with a hijab or yarmulke.”
But after being confronted by protesters, when Paxosn read the speech aloud Monday evening, she omitted the examples of Jewish displays of faith, instead only saying that “every student, faculty and staff member should be able to proudly don a keffiyeh on the Brown campus, or to cover their head with a hijab.”
[RELATED: University ignored anti-Semitism on its campus, Dept of Ed. investigation finds]
“The remarks on the website are those prepared for delivery, as noted on that page. At the point students began to disrupt the remarks, President Paxson began to abbreviate them with the hope of being able to finish,” a university spokesman told National Review. “It’s not unusual for there to be some deviation between remarks as prepared and remarks as delivered, and certainly that was the case here given the disruption.”