"It's more than [the student's] story now . . . Their story is harassment and intimidation. The story now includes not how what's being taught is taught, but what is being taught, and who has captured these departments."

The article identifies Jacobs only as the sponsor of the David Project (which made the film "Columbia Unbecoming"), ignoring his primary reputation and intense labor for the anti-slavery movement, which was the substance of not only his speech, but that of the three black Africans he invited to speak with him. All spoke eloquently about Arab Islamist imperialism in Africa, which is certainly related to Arab imperialism and propaganda in academia. More from Jacobs in a letter to the NYTimes:

Our documentary "Columbia Unbecoming" has sparked not an "academic squabble" but a fundamental debate about the use of the classroom for propaganda. The issue extends beyond Columbia professors' denouncing Israel's right to exist. The hyper-focus on Israel-Palestine obscures any academically credible understanding of the region by discounting the plight of ethnic, religious and racial minorities in the Arab world.

Professors hostile to Israel obstruct the study of - and Americans' natural instinct to help - the Arab region's victims and second-class peoples: the black slaves of Mauritania, the Iranian Bahai, African Muslims now slaughtered in Darfur, Christians in Iraq, Sudan, Egypt and Lebanon, not to mention women, gays and dissidents. Columbia's Palestinianism is, apart from a being a bias against the Jewish state, a weapon of mass distraction.

The Forward article quotes the "outsiders" to illustrate their "extremism," but these are simple statements of fact to me:

In one especially fiery speech, Phyllis Chesler, professor emerita at the College of Staten Island and author of "The New Anti-Semitism," argued, "The largest practitioner of apartheid on the planet is Islam, in terms of both religious apartheid and gender apartheid."

Charles Jacobs, president of the David Project, the Boston-based organization that helped fund the documentary, "Columbia Unbecoming," dismissed "Palestinianism" as a "cult and a hyper-focus on the conflict of Israel" that "obscures any academically credible understanding of the region."

. . . Many speakers on hand Sunday used the opportunity to throw the insults lobbed at Israel back at the pro-Palestinian elements on campuses. "Professor Massad," said Brigitte Gabriel, the Lebanese-born founder and president of American Congress for Truth, addressing the most criticized member of Columbia's Middle East studies department, "I'll borrow some of your academic freedom now and say that Arab nations are the real racist and oppressive states."

Chesler, in a speech enthusiastically received by the crowd, said that the Palestine Solidarity Movement, an organization that has demonstrated on many American campuses, "is a group in my opinion that's quite similar to the Ku Klux Klan, or to the Nazi party."

Well, duh.

This guy took notes on all the speakers I missed. (I got there just as Sharansky began speaking.) Very thorough - nice job.

Alkmyst also has a short description of all the speeches; good summaries although I disagree with some of his assessments.

Phyllis Chesler posted her speech here, so I don't have to transcribe my notes for that one. (I have to say, she makes it sound like the heckling was non-stop, but it was intermittant and never severe enough to drown her out, and it came from two people, who got immediate glares and shushing and sarcastic rejoinders every time they opened their mouths. It wasn't anything like this.)

But it was a great speech.

Word is getting out to Israeli Columbia alumni, and they are not happy.