Palestinian students try to stifle freedom of speech on Wellington university campus

“It is shameful that students on a New Zealand university campus have tried to prevent an open exchange of views on a complex, longstanding Middle East conflict,” said Caelan MacBeth, a spokesperson for AUJS (Australasian Union of Jewish Students). “The basis upon which a university is built is that of debate, open discussion, equality of representation, and the right to free speech.”

He was responding to the call from a Palestinian student group for Victoria University of Wellington Students Association (VUWSA) to cancel the booking for a meeting in the Cotton Building on 29 September.

Two Israeli medical/business school students on holiday in New Zealand, who served in the Israeli Army, are offering to share their experiences as reserve soldiers in last year’s conflict between Israel and Hamas.

The Palestinian student support group wanted to flout the NZ Bill of Rights Act, which affirms the right to freedom of expression (section 14), by preventing the Israelis from speaking at Victoria University of Wellington.

“The authoritarian methods of Hamas’s rule over Gaza have no place in New Zealand, and we applaud the decision of VUWSA and the university to reject the Palestinian students’ demand,” MacBeth said, “We hope you will come to hear those whom some would have silenced.”

ENDS

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