Brandeis Students Calling to Arrest Avi Dichter, Knesset MK

WALTHAM, MA -- Members of Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (BSJP) disrupted a panel discussion of six Members of the Israeli Knesset tonight at Brandeis University.

The action targeted MK Avi Dicther, an international war criminal wanted for crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Convention. Dichter ordered the tortures of detained Palestinians while he served as head of Shabak, the Israeli Intelligence Services.

In July 2002, Dichter ordered the assassination of a Hamas commander by dropping a one-ton bomb on his home in a residential area, causing the deaths of 15 people, including 9 children, and injuring dozens more.

When Dicther spoke, a dozen Brandeis students stood and demanded that he turn himself in to authorities, distributing warrants for his arrest.

In English and in Hebrew, the students listed charges against Dichter, including torture and the bombing of civilians. They ended their disruption by chanting in Hebrew "Don't worry Avi Dicther, we'll meet you in the Hague."

The action aimed to alert the Brandeis community to the presence of a war criminal on campus. "We believe that Avi Dichter must be put to trial for his crimes against humanity," said participant Liza Behrendt.

Participant Paraska Tolan stated, "War criminals have a right to speak on our campus, but students also have the right to hold them publicly accountable for their crimes. This serves as a message that Dichter should not feel welcome, even at Brandeis University."

Lisa Hanania, a Palestinian student at Brandeis, said that she was extremely disturbed by the racist comments from some of the MKs. "MK Tzipi Hotovely claimed that 'Arabs have a different D.N.A that lacks humanity'.

As a citizen of state, I am concerned that Israel is sliding into an openly racist ethnocracy."

Noam Lekach, a first-year from Israel, stated, "Brandeis claims to promote social justice, but today they invited legislators who openly espouse racist attitudes towards Palestinians."

The students emphasize that, although they targeted Dichter specifically, all MKs should be held accountable for recent racist legislation such as the "Loyalty Oath," the criminalization of Nakba commemoration, and the institutionalization of residential discrimination.

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Colonel Reb goes to the retirment home for politically insenstive mascots

According to the New York Times,  After many years of complaints about a mascot dressed as a Confederate soldier as the symbol of a university where 14 percent of students are black, Ole Miss is retiring  Colonel Reb for good this football season.

The white-bearded, cane-toting mascot has not been the Rebels’ official team cheerleader since 2003. But his image is still used on fan merchandise such as  T-shirts, Confederate flags and corkscrews.

This summer, Ole Miss announced a ban on the sale of any items with his image. The university will soon hold a student-run election to pick a new mascot.

It is part of a plan to change the university’s image, still tarnished by racial strife in the 1960s. Confederate battle flags were discouraged from football games years ago, and “Dixie” is no longer the unofficial fight song OF Ole Miss.

Like controversies have occurred at other colleges involving team names or mascots of American Indians.

For example, Florida State University had to sign a special agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida .

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has a prohibition against use of Native American logos, signs in stadiums, cheerleader and band uniforms, and mascots as presumed "hostile and abusive."

Florida State University (FSU) was exempted from the NCAA ban after the threat of litigation. FSU has an agreement with the 3,100-member Seminole Tribe of Florida. During the dispute, the Oklahoma Seminoles also endorsed FSU use of the name and image.

Rightadia congratulates Ole Miss for  discarding a a symbol of the defeated Confederacy. The GOP lack of leadership in the South and its misguided rhetoric about state's rights is responsible for a lot of this confederate nonsense.

More people died in the civil War than all other US wars combined. It is a sad period of US history that should not be esteemed or celebrated.  Indeed, the slaves were freed, but many black people did not enjoy full civil rights in the US until the 1960s.

source: The New York Times and Wikipedia
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Limbaugh, "top colleges are the functional equivalent of leadership schools from totalitarian nations."

After claiming "the regime has now taken over" student loans, Limbaugh explained that student loans could not be dissolved in bankruptcy.

(He said) that they can default or be forgiven by the federal government, which, Limbaugh said, "is one of the reasons the Obama people took over the student loan program -- to be able to forgive certain student loans based on certain characteristics of the students in question: How are they going to vote?

Limbaugh then launched into a screed against higher education, claiming that universities in the United States are factories for a ruling class, that criticisms of mounting tuition costs are non-existent, and that "top colleges are the functional equivalent of leadership schools from totalitarian nations."

The Republicans changed the law when Bush became. it allowed private banks to refinance government loans by consolidating them.

This was a bad deal for students and was fundamentally a federal subsidy to the banking industry.  When Nancy Pelosi became speaker in 2006, she changed the law and banned these loans.

Republicans like to talk about the liberal 'ivory towers' in universities, but they don't mention the "ivory bastions," the college fraternities, that provide a conservative leadership pipeline. Both Bush presidents attended Ivy league Schools.

Nor do they mention that the 'for profit' or religious college like Bob Jones University that are ultra right wing. 

Limbaugh was also a total washout in college, failing every course he ever took including ballroom dancing. 

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