Video: Mass walkout at Wayne State leaves "IDF" spokesman lecturing to empty room

Students at Wayne State University in Detroit staged a silent protest and mass walk-out that left Israel Army reserve spokesman and Jerusalem Post correspondent Gil Hoffman lecturing to a virtually empty auditorium on November 1.

A video of the event just posted on YouTube shows Hoffman lecturing to hundreds of students. Many of them have their mouths symbolically covered in red tape, or have signs pinned to them protesting Israeli war crimes and calling to hold Israel accountable.

At a certain point, the students walk out of the large auditorium en masse leaving only a handful of people listening to the speaker.

Hillel, the national pro-Israel advocacy organization which sponsored Hoffman’s talk, billed him as “Chief Political Correspondent and Analyst for the Jerusalem Post.”

But Hoffman’s personal website identifies him as “A reserve soldier in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit.” Perhaps only in Israel can someone be taken seriously as an objective journalist reporting on military and political affairs while at the same time acting as an official mouthpiece for the army.

Comments

Great Protest

Permalink Vacy Vlazna replied on Mon, 11/07/2011 - 23:39

Bravo to the WSU student protestors who effected a dignified and powerful protest against a military representative of Israel's illegal occupation.

Bravo!

Permalink KDelphi replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 05:56

My father was a professor there...I love that place...

Goodmorning

Permalink Lila replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 10:58

Well done..
If only there were more people who'd say NO to the barbarian, sanguinary masquerade! Speak out for those who've seen their voice stolen! Scream for those whose misery and helplessness are bigger than any word of anger and despair.. Say it because you can.. because you can see, because you can feel, because you can talk.. Say it and never hold back..
We are all Palestine!

Very powerful protest!

Permalink Varsha replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 11:51

Very powerful protest!

WSU protest

Permalink ariadna theokopoulos replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 19:23

Amazing how powerful a silent protest can be. Bravo WSU! Great to see that the young generation's brains are not washed yet. Gives us all hope.

WSU

Permalink Joe Fadel replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 20:13

Very much enjoyed your deeply visceral comments Lila!

Video: Mass walkout at Wayne State leaves "IDF" spokesman lectur

Permalink Enrique Ferro replied on Tue, 11/08/2011 - 21:57

"Perhaps only in Israel can someone be taken seriously as an objective journalist reporting on military and political affairs while at the same time acting as an official mouthpiece for the army."
True! Israel's NATO ally is more subtle: "journalists" pose as civilians, but they keep lecturing a global audience while making up their "news" ... or at worst using their "press" card to send bombing coordinates to NATO's aircraft ...

Kudos!

Permalink Marshalldoc replied on Wed, 11/09/2011 - 16:29

I thought this was a particularly effective protest. The majority of its effectiveness was that the audience was "packed" so that, upon leaving, the speaker was left with a venue that was virtually empty... a critical point in planning any such further protests. Having only a handful of people leave amounts to only the expression of personal disagreement with the speaker, a mass exodus says "society is unwilling to listen to you". To me, it certainly carried the weight of the Irvine 11's protest but without the unwanted legal entanglements they're currently fighting.