Large German university cancels BDS event with Palestinian official
The university notified the Post in German and English tweets about the cancellation.
By BENJAMIN WEINTHALA demonstrator wears a shirt reading 'Boycott Israel' [File](photo credit: AFP/ MOHD RASFAN)
Ruhr University Bochum—one of Germany’s largest public academic institutions—informed the Jerusalem Post via Twitter messages on Monday that it cancelled a slated March Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) lecture targeting the Jewish state.“The university management cancelled the event taking place in RUB's rooms,” wrote the university to the Post on Monday. The Post reported on Saturday on the planned lecture from Salah Al-Khawaja, a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian National Committee BDS, who was scheduled to speak on “Palestinian civil resistance against the Israeli occupation power and settler politics as well as the Stop the Wall and BDS campaigns.”The university notified the Post in German and English tweets about the cancellation. The German tweet provided a link to the cancellation notice posted on the university’s website.The notice reads: “The working circle Palestine NRW rented a room for March 18 in the Blue Square. The Ruhr University Bochum distances itself from content of the announcement [for the BDS talk]. The event is cancelled because of these reasons and will not take place in the Blue Square.”The university is located in the industrial stronghold city of Bochum in the West German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) .Al-Khawaja is an executive committee member and coordinator of the People’s Committee of the Stop the Wall Campaign.The Ruhr University Bochum, which was founded in 1962, had just over 44,000 students enrolled in 2015, making it one of the five largest academic campuses in Germany.