LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A visiting professor from Israel is upset over the way the University of Nevada, Las Vegas handled an incident where a group of pro-Palestinian protestors stormed into his lecture.
The lecture was canceled, but it had nothing to do with the war in the Middle East.
“Situations like that should be prevented. I don’t think that this is acceptable in any way in academia or anywhere,” Asaf Pe’er told 8 News Now.
Pe’er was in Las Vegas for an international astrophysics conference. He was invited to speak at UNLV on the topic of black holes, but it was disrupted 15 minutes into his lecture.
“You are not welcome on UNLV campus,” a protestor is heard saying over video.
The UNLV chapter of Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation posted a video of the incident on its Instagram page.
Pe’er is Jewish and a university professor in Israel. He travels around the world and speaks at college campuses.
He says the head of UNLV’s physics department asked him to speak on Feb. 27, but then a group of students holding signs and banners, began shouting at him.
“Here’s a relevant discussion. There’s no hospitals. There’s no ambulances. Do you know how women, men, fathers, families are decimated because of your government,” a protestor said.
“I told them, like guys I understand you wish to protest but this has nothing to do with it,” Pe’er said. “This is a scientific event. I was asked by the physics department to talk about a physics subject.”
University Police were called, and Pe’er says his lecture was canceled instead of the demonstrators being kicked out.
“One can enter any lecture hall and stop any lecture in any field. That doesn’t make sense in the university level,” Pe’er said.
The Anti-Defamation League – Desert Region, Jewish Nevada, and the Israeli American Council sent a letter to UNLV President Keith Whitfield asking for an investigation.
“The targeting of an Israeli Professor simply for his national origin is outrageous—Professor Pe’er was not on campus speaking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or the Israel-Hamas war. Rather, he was speaking to a physics class on his subject matter expertise—which has nothing to do with the conflict,” the letter stated.
ADL Regional Director Jolie Brislin says Jewish students at UNLV have complained of antisemitism on campus.
“This is not okay and we urge President Whitfield to stand up and to denounce this and call it for what it is antisemitism,” Brislin said.
According to the ADL, there has been a 210% in anti-Semitic incidents being reported locally compared to the same time period last year.
“This is not okay. We are not immune from this and we need to stand up as a community and denounce this,” Brislin said.
UNLV issued a statement to 8 News Now regarding the incident:
The events of February 27, 2024 involved a visiting Israeli physics professor who was delivering an open lecture as part of a public physics symposium. His lecture was interrupted by protestors voicing their views about the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
After conferring with University Police, UNLV faculty decided to pause the lecture by Prof. Asaf Peer as a result of the interruptions. Even though the professor said he never felt unsafe, University Police, as a precaution only, accompanied him as he left the building. Prof. Peer was able to complete his lecture virtually later that day. Two days later, the professor was able to give a second in-person lecture on campus that was not interrupted.
At President Whitfield’s direction, UNLV’s leadership is reviewing the decisions and actions associated with the event to help determine how we can better handle such situations in the future.
UNLV’s Office of Student Conduct, per President Whitfield, is also reviewing video and images from the event to determine if students were involved…
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