On Oct. 3, Muhannad Halabi, 19, a resident of Ramallah, killed two Israeli men, Nehemia Lavi, 41, and Aharon Benita-Bennett, 22, in a terror attack in Jerusalem. He injured two others, including a two-year-old. According to an Oct. 3 Times of Israel article, a day before the attack, Halabi posted on his Facebook account that, “[T]he Third Intifada has erupted. What is happening to al-Aqsa [mosque] is what is happening to our holy sites, and what is happening to the women of al-Aqsa is what is happening to our mothers and women. I don’t believe that our people will succumb to humiliation. The people will indeed rise up.” 

Halabi was also a law student at Al-Quds University.

Another Al-Quds student, Dia al-Talahmeh, 21, died last month when a bomb he attempted to detonate at a West Bank checkpoint exploded, according to Agence France Presse.

Al-Talahmeh and Halabi’s actions and statements exemplify the culture of radicalism that exists at Al-Quds University. Obviously, I do not believe that most Al-Quds students are terrorists or support terrorism. Yet these attacks, as well as Nazi salutes and fascist imagery during rallies in support of Hamas and Islamic jihad in 2013 and 2014 that were attended by hundreds of students, according to a Mar. 25, 2014 article in the Washington Free Beacon; votes to fire professors that attempted to have meaningful dialogue with Jewish partners and raise Palestinian awareness of Jewish persecution; recent rallies against Israel and protests against the visiting of the Jewish state by the Indian president; and the naming of campus buildings after terrorists, among other actions, evince that Al-Quds University — both its administration and student body — continuously exhibit disdain for dialogue and worrisome support for hatred and violence.

The murder of innocent Jewish Israeli citizens by Al-Quds students further evinces why Brandeis should not reinstate our partnership with the university. 

Only when Al-Quds shuns its harmful culture and renounces support for terrorist organizations, truly attempts to promote understanding of and coexistence with Jewish Israelis and punishes those who promote hate speech should the possibility of reestablishing a partnership between our two institutions be considered.

Unfortunately, there are those on the Brandeis campus who fervently call for restarting the partnership while either ignoring or downplaying the actions, or, in the administration’s case, lack thereof, of those who attend the school.

On Oct. 13, the Brandeis University & Al Quds University Student Dialogue Initiative posted a statement on its Facebook page saying that members of the Initiative “deeply mourn the loss of life of Palestinians and Israelis alike.” In the last installment of my column, I described how the media was equating the deaths of victims and their killers and how doing so is inherently wrong. 

While not an article published by the media, by not differentiating between the terrorists and any victims, the Dialogue Initiative’s statement is guilty of the same crime. By stating that they mourn all loss of life alike, the Initiative equated the deaths of innocent Israeli citizens and their Palestinian murderers. Doing so is intellectually dishonest and morally unacceptable. The mere fact that the statement can be read in such a manner is itself denouncable. 

The statement also condemned the targeting of the al-Quds campus with “tear gas, beatings, shooting, and vandalism,” stating that they “are specifically keeping members of the Al-Quds community in our thoughts and prayers.”

Aside from the fact that the statement seems to consider the stabbing, ramming, and bombing of Israeli citizens as less dire than tear gas and vandalism, the Initiative’s only proof of the shootings and beatings was a Facebook post from a student at the university. Considering that Palestinian society has been spreading false reports of the attempted destruction of al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli settlers and security forces for the past several months, according to an Oct. 8 NBC News article, an allegation by one student should not be considered concrete evidence.

I was only able to find one article by the Ma’an News Agency, a decidedly pro-Palestinian outlet, describing anything remotely close to what the Initiative alleged. Even then, the article stated that “Israeli forces shot and injured three Palestinians with rubber-coated steel bullets in clashes outside the al-Quds University’s campus in Abu Dis.” According to the article there were clashes between Israeli security forces and rioting al-Quds students, and Israeli forces made sure to use nonlethal ammunition; hardly the violent raiding of the Al-Quds campus that people were made to believe occurred.

This leads to the next problem with the Initiative’s post. When I commented on it, saying that their statement equated the lives of victims and their killers, that the statement’s focus on the Al-Quds campus instead of the ongoing terrorism in Israel was disconcerting, and that the statement contained no mention or criticism of the Al-Quds students who participated in the wave of terror, my comment was removed and I was blocked from commenting further on the Initiative’s page. 

When another student commented on the post, asking for links to articles about the “shootings” and “beatings,” his comment was deleted. In fact, all comments that either questioned or criticized the post were removed. Other students let me know they were blocked as well.

For a group whose mission statement is supposedly all about “dialogue” and engaging in conversations with others on delicate or controversial matters, the Initiative’s actions were highly hypocritical. 

It appears that the members of the Initiative are willing to engage in dialogue with a university whose students state their support for terror, the murder of innocent Jews, and the rejection of coexistence, but not with fellow Brandeis students who might disagree with them.

The Initiative’s actions are disgraceful and completely antithetical to their proposed movement, the message of Brandeis University and academia as a whole. They are also telling. The Initiative holds attempts at “sit-ins” in the President’s office and decries the prevention of speech, yet it prevents others from speaking. It states that talking, not violence, is the answer, yet downplays violence against Jewish Israeli citizens.

Until the institution reforms the detrimental environment prevalent within its campus, Brandeis University should not reestablish its partnership with Al-Quds University. Moreover, the Brandeis University & Al Quds University Student Dialogue Initiative’s hypocrisy and equating of terrorists and their victims should be roundly condemned. Its statement noted that “the time for dialogue is now.” The Initiative should make sure that it adheres to its own words.