Yosef Grodzinsky, a professor at Tel Aviv University, protested his country’s actions, saying they could not be defended in the name of democracy.
He also spoke out against justifications of the Israeli actions that he claimed were based on conceptions of the “malevolent Arab mind” which “cannot lead to peace.”
The protest came in response to Israeli military actions in the Occupied Territories which the divestment campaign organizers view as illegal and counter-productive.
The protest follows similar divestment movements at other universities, including Princeton and the University of California, Berkeley.
Harvard undergraduates attending the MIT teach-in said they supported the way the issues were addressed.
“I think all of the speakers brought out issues that should be brought to the public forum and that a lot of people are afraid to discuss,” said Rita Hamad ’03, public relations officer and former president of the Harvard Society of Arab Students.
“You should be able to criticize a government’s policy without being called a racist,” she said.
—Staff writer George B. Bradt can be reached at gbradt@fas.harvad.edu.