Andreas Lajst, director of the Brazil chapter of StandWithUs, was to deliver a talk on Aug. 10 at the Federal University of Amazonas about the capacity of Israeli technology to aid isolated Brazilian populations.
When the Arab-Palestinian Federation of Brazil got wind of the event, it wrote online that “the university cannot be a stage to defend an apartheid regime.”
The university’s student union also called Lajst—the grandson of Holocaust survivors—a Nazi.
The university did not cancel the event, and protests that began peacefully turned violent. One anti-Israel activist hit the university rector in the face, fracturing her nose. (This occurred despite the presence of security guards.)
“These days, you must be heroic to voice your opinion if pro-Israel,” wrote Roz Rothstein, founder and CEO of StandWithUs. “Shout-out to the police who helped!”