Several protesters who briefly interrupted former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Dore Gold by standing up with signs taped to their shirts at last Thursday's "The Challenge of the UN Gaza Report" event said that they felt violated by other attendees. The signs worn by the protesters showed the names of Palestinian and Israeli victims of last winter's Gaza conflict. The protesters sat down after Public Safety officials and Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), one of the moderators of the event, asked them to be seated and listen to the rest of the talk.

"Specifically one old man sitting in front of me, as soon as I stood up, being totally silent, . abruptly shoved his chair backward into me," Amanda Hoffman '11, one of the protesters, said. Hoffman said that the chair was pushed back twice but that the Public Safety staff ignored her when she pointed out the man's behavior and instead focused on warning her to sit down.

Hoffman said that she followed the man out to the lobby as the event was ending. She said while at first he was apologetic, calling it an accident, he later became aggravated. Hoffman said that Prof. Shulamit Reinharz (SOC) offered to come over and seemed to offer to mediate, but then both walked away. After they left, a police officer told Hoffman that she had to let the man go, Hoffman said.

Hoffman said that she has since received helpful e-mail responses from Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan and other public safety officials regarding further investigation of the issue. However, regarding Public Safety's initial response to the incident, Hoffman said she "can't believe that that's how Brandeis staff would respond to an attack on a student. ... They were really rude and fervent in just trying to shut us down."

Another protester, Mariel Gruszko '10, said that when she stood up, "a woman directly behind me pulled my wrist and pulled backward so that I fell over, and the whole time she was saying things like, 'You're despicable.'" Gruszko said that others who were sitting in her row, whom she did not know, told the woman that what she was doing could be considered assault.

Gruszko said she did not intend to pursue the issue further because she did not know the person's name. "I'm surprised because a lot of the complaints that were made about the protest essentially come down to, 'It was rude of the protesters to get in the way of the event,' . but I think it's obviously much ruder to physically assault someone who was trying to protest as respectfully, quietly and peacefully as they can."

Callahan said with regard to the protesters, "Obviously they were disruptive, which is somewhat against [the Student] Rights and Responsibilities [Handbook]. . If students wanted to initiate some kind of [protest action], they could have conferred with the Office of Student Life."

Public Safety officials provided three chances for the students to stop the disruption before further action was taken, Callahan said.

Callahan said that he believed some vocal elderly attendees of the event were asked to leave because they were being disruptive. He added that another individual tried to approach Goldstone when Public Safety escorted him to his car after the event, and the person followed instructions to go on his way.

"Our basic message was that we felt the way that the event was set up was exclusionary. It did not include a viewpoint from the Palestinian community, and the way it was set up . basically set up the dynamic where Goldstone's report was essentially seen as anti-Israel," Jon Sussman '11, one of the protesters, said. "[The event] marginalizes people who are Zionists, like myself, and others who believe that the state of Israel has created serious crime and then is not necessarily living up to its stated ideals," Sussman said. Gruszko said that the protest wasn't organized by a particular group and that there were multiple organizations involved.

"I think that instead of disrupting the discussion, it would've been more beneficial to everyone involved to pay attention and try and actually listen to the opposition . than ignore them and stand up and protest," event attendee David Mandel '11 said.

Dafna Gutfreund '12 said that the protest made her feel uncomfortable. "Considering the nature of the discussion was to share information, an act of demonstration scared me because I didn't know what to expect next."

Rose Just-Michael '12 said she felt the protest was "disrespectful, ... and it showed Brandeis students in a bad light that they stood up in the middle of while [Gold] was speaking and took away time from [Gold's] platform."

Daniel Terris, director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life, which invited Goldstone, said that he would have preferred "to let speakers speak. That said, for the type of protest it was for people who felt compelled to make a statement, they made it in a way where the disruption [was] relatively minimal."

He added that he "also wanted to commend people who disagreed with those protesters for maintaining their sense of restraint."

"I think ultimately even the demonstrators are glad they had an opportunity to hear everything that was said," said Prof. Ilan Troen (NEJS), director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies, which invited Gold.

"These were people who felt they were unrepresented, and that was simply an error on their part," Troen said.

"The way in which we constructed [the event] was that the United Nations report was overwhelmingly accusatory towards Israel and this was an opportunity for the author of that report to confront for the first time a senior Israeli figure," Troen said.

-Brian Fromm and Nashrah Rahman contributed reporting.