“… On Wednesday, October 28,… the Ambassador of Israel [in Chile], Rafael Edad, arrived at the [Faculty of law of the University of Chile] to give/deliver a talk. While on the first floor a group of students were manifesting their repudiation, the diplomat talkded on the fifth floor.
The next day,… students linked to the Palestinian community convened an assembly [of the law students]. That’s how… it was voted, raising hands… against the presence of Israeli authorities in that faculty, as a preliminary and non-binding posture.
Vanessa Hites, CAMERA Fellow, president of the Chilean Federation of Jewish Students, and Law student an the Universidad de Chile
“I can disagree with many different positions taken at the University, but not so am I going to ban their right to be voiced. Nor am I going to censor the opinion that I don’t like. Nor will I prevent that the dissenting opinion can be expressed”.
“Yo puedo estar en desacuerdo con mil y una posturas que se tomen en la universidad, pero no por eso voy a prohibir su derecho a manifestarse. No por eso voy a censurar la opinión que no me gusta. No por eso voy a impedir que la opinión disidente pueda expresarse”.
Hites refers that two months ago the Secretary general of the PLO, Saeb Erekat had spoken in the same Faculty, “and my way of expressing disagreement was raising my hand and reproaching him respectfully.”
Its hypocritical that in the House of studies which symbolizes the republicanism in our nation – the reason I chose this University: for diversity, tolerance, intellectual pluralism-, vote to prevent the expression of a position. I find this aberrant, and is unprecedented in this University. Only in times of the dictatorship did they censor in this way”.
This article was originally published in El Mercurio and uses quotes from University of Chile CAMERA Fellow Vanessa Hites.
