Anti-Israel Student President Has Jewish Students Arrested For "Disturbing" the Peace

Last Friday, we reported on a Student Senate President of Ohio University, Megan Marzec, who was challenged by the university's president to take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Instead, in an offensive, ignorant and crude move, she, while wearing a t-shirt that read "Ohio U Divest from Israel" poured a bucket of fake blood onto her head, saying that it "symbolizes the thousands of displaced and murdered Palestinians atrocities which OU is directly complacent in your cultural and economic support of the Israeli state."

Of course, many people were offended by Marzec's actions, with the Student Senate apologizing for the incident and clarifying it does not reflect their own beliefs, and with the Director of Hillel at Ohio University, Rabbi Danielle Leshaw, saying how "the Jews of OU feel sad, betrayed, and angry. It's possible this has never happened before in the history of this campus."

It seems, however, that the university is content with continuing to betray its Jewish students.

On Wednesday, just days after Marzec's video became available online, four pro-Israel students of the university were arrested, charged with "disturbing" a meeting of the Ohio University's student senate.

While reading an excerpt from a conservative blog post, the President of Bobcats for Israel, 22-year-old Rebecca Sebo, was detained by university police, after Marzec, according to the university's school paper, The Post, called them them to detain her and three other pro-Israel students, saying that their speeches defying her blood bucket challenge "disrupted" the peace.

The students have been identified as 20-year-old Maxwell Peltz, Sebo, 19-year-old Jonah Yulish, and 20-year-old Gabriel Sirkin.

Rabbi LeShaw told the Post that the students were charged with a misdemeanor of “disturbing a lawful meeting,” which, in Ohio, can result in a $250 fine or a maximum of thirty days in jail.

As reported by the Post, the pro-Israel students began speaking during an open-comment period at the beginning of the senate meeting, which was apparently “kicked off with yelling and confrontation between two groups supporting and opposing Marzec.”

According to the Blaze, William Jacobson, a law professor from Cornell University, said the pro-Israel quotes were merely reading a list of pro-Israel quotes that were listed on his website.

As you'll see from the video of the senate meeting, Sebo and her peers attempt to continue reading, while Marzec shouts over them, and threatens to call the police, which she eventually does. What's worth noting is what the students are reading at this point: university statements that reject the academic boycott of Israel, with statements issued by Brandeis University (the second school to withdraw from the ASA after announcing its boycott), the University of Chicago and others.

The video displays a very tense and aggravated meeting, which ends with the Jewish students being arrested and led away by police, disturbingly, to the senate's applause. As they were ushered away Marzec stated, “I will never apologize for standing with the people of Palestine."

What's most alarming about it, and the entire BDS movement against Israel to begin with, is the fact that many of these students are completely unaware and uneducated on what is a very complex situation transpiring in the Middle East. If you're not an expert, you really shouldn't be vocalizing your opinions on it. However, on a campus where expressing yourself is a right, even when it ostracizes others, many have come to Marzec's defense when she allegedly received death threats after her blood bucket challenge went viral.

Students encouraging BDS may also be unaware that if they're really going to boycott Israel, they should throw away their Microsoft Surface tablets and may as well get rid of their smartphones to be on the safe side, too.

Much of that tech was developed in Israel, I'm afraid.