Since University President Frederick Lawrence's decision to halt its academic partnership with Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, Al-Quds President Sari Nusseibeh has also been suspended from the International Advisory Board of Brandeis' International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life while a report on the recent events at Al-Quds is currently being compiled by Brandeis faculty who visited Al-Quds last week. Meanwhile, Syracuse University announced it would also be suspending its partnership while Bard College decided it would not.

In a statement released this past Friday, Lawrence affirmed that he is committed to "keeping the lines of communication open" between Brandeis and Al-Quds.

Al-Quds reportedly had asked the University to reconsider its decision to suspend the relationship, according to a Nov. 20 article from the Associated Press. Nusseibeh later criticized Lawrence in a Nov. 22 article in the Times of Israel, saying that the University president had "gone overboard" in his decision to suspend the partnership.

Director of the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life Daniel Terris, along with Prof. Susan Lanser (ENG) and Prof. Daniel Kryder (POL), had originally traveled to Al-Quds last week to explore ways to develop the partnership between the two schools. According to a Nov. 21 post on Terris' blog, Lawrence asked them to gather information after news of the events that took place on the Al-Quds campus broke.

According to Lanser in an email to the Justice, they are currently writing the report and expect to release it sometime next week.

"The issues on the ground at Al-Quds University are much more complex than has been reported on blogs and in the press," Terris wrote on his blog. "These issues deserve careful consideration and conversation."

Terris wrote later in the post that "at this point ... nothing that we have learned during this period has changed our conviction ... that Sari Nusseibeh and the Al-Quds University leadership are genuinely committed to peace and mutual respect."
Syracuse decided to suspend the relationship between Al-Quds and its Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism three days after Brandeis' decision, according to a Nov. 22 article from the Jerusalem Post, which reported Nov. 24 that Bard would continue its relationship.

In an email to the Justice, Prof. Jytte Klausen (POL) expressed criticism of the decision. "My concern is that by withdrawing we have given the extremists what they wanted, and allowed then [sic] to cut off moderate Palestinians from participating in exchanges with the outside world," she wrote. "I wish President Lawrence had waited to make a decision until the faculty fact-finding group returned and provided a rapport."

The academic partnership was halted in response to what Brandeis called an "unacceptable and inflammatory" statement released by Nusseibeh regarding controversial demonstrations that took place on Al-Quds' campus earlier this month, where participants donning "black military gear" and "fake automatic weapons ... marched while waving flags and raising the traditional Nazi salute," according to a Nov. 18 BrandeisNOW press release.

In the Nov. 22 Times of Israel article, Nusseibeh explained that he had originally condemned the demonstrations on the campus in a statement "saying such manifestations of militarism are unacceptable" and called for an investigation into the incident.

According to Nusseibeh, Lawrence had then contacted him "expressing anger, and calling for a condemnation of Nazi-style militarism." Though Nusseibeh agreed to wait for a draft statement from Lawrence, he said that he felt it "expressed more [Lawrence's] immediate needs than my needs as a university president having to handle a culture rather than a one-time event" and chose to write his own statement addressing the "matter," "limits" and "values" of free speech.

Brandeis' Nov. 18 press release stated that "While Brandeis has an unwavering commitment to open dialogue on difficult issues, we are also obliged to recognize intolerance when we see it, and we cannot-and will not-turn a blind eye to intolerance."

The statement released by Al-Quds opened by saying that the "university is often subjected to vilification campaigns by Jewish extremists" and that it had been misrepresented as "promoting inhumane, anti-Semitic, fascist and Nazi ideologies."

While the BrandeisNOW press release described the demonstrators as "raising the traditional Nazi salute," a spokesman for the political branch of Islamic Jihad quoted by the Associated Press explained that the symbol represents a "desire to reach holy Jerusalem, currently under Israeli control."

Lawrence addressed Nusseibeh's comments in his Nov. 22 statement.

"Al-Quds University President Sari Nusseibeh has made a number of remarks and serious accusations to the media that have not been conveyed to me personally or through my staff," Lawrence wrote. "I am reaching out to President Nusseibeh today and hope that he will be open to that discussion."

Lawrence concluded the press release by stating that he "will not respond to specific issues raised in the public media."

-Jessie Miller contributed reporting.