Avi Mayer אבי מאיר
Last night, while speaking at the University of Denver, I was interrupted multiple times by protesters who had come to disrupt my talk. As I said to them while they threatened me and tried to drown me out, I would have been glad to engage with them and take every question they had, no matter how challenging. But they weren’t interested in civil, if difficult, conversation. They were there to shut it down. While the protesters were ultimately removed from the room by campus police, as the event wrapped up, we were informed that they had gathered downstairs and were planning to ambush me upon my departure. I was rushed out of the building through a back stairwell. I will have more to say about this experience—which ended on an unexpectedly beautiful note—but for now I’ll just express my gratitude to @UofDenver’s @JosefKorbel School of International Studies, the Center for Middle East Studies (@MiddleEastDU), and the Department of Campus Safety (@DUCampusSafety) for ensuring that we were able to have a meaningful and substantive discussion on issues far too serious and consequential for puerile theatrics.