UPDATE: Columbia University Plans to Welcome Iran’s President Fall Through
UPDATE: The Columbia Spectator is reporting that “the President of Iran will not speak on campus Friday due to logistical reasons, according to University officials.”
In yet another outrageous move, Columbia University has invited Iranian President Ahmadinejad to address its students. The New York Sun reports:
The invitation comes a day after Mr. Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly that Israel’s creation was “a great tragedy with hardly a precedent in history” and that the Jewish nation “has been a constant source of threat and insecurity in the Middle East region, waging war and spilling blood and impeding the progress of regional countries, and has also been used by some powers as an instrument of division, coercion, and pressure on the people of the region.”
Yesterday, the foreign minister of Israel, Tzipi Livni, called on the international community to “stand against” the threat of Iran, whose suspect nuclear program has become a top security concern for President Bush and Israel.
This is not the first time Columbia has been at the center of controversy regarding its anti-Israel actions. Professors in Columbia’s Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC) Department were accused of anti-Israel bias and intimidation of students who voiced contrary opinions. And at the beginning of 2005, a university panel advocating a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict served as a forum for vicious propaganda and hate speech against Israel.
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