About 20 anti-Zionist activists from as far away as New York gathered outside of Smith-Buonanno Hall Wednesday night to protest a speech by Mort Klein, the controversial leader of the Zionist Organization of America.
Providence ANSWER, or the local chapter of International Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, placed posters around campus encouraging Brown students to picket outside the speech.
Only one Brown student picketed.
"I saw flyers for a picket against Mort Klein, and I looked him up online, and I feel very strongly against the policies of the national Zionist Organization of America," said Caroline Colesworthy GS.
Colesworthy, a second-year graduate student in the Center for Environmental Studies, said she has joined ANSWER marches in the past even though she is not active in the organization.
Even though only one Brown student joined the rally, many organizations and individuals from the Providence community indicated their dissent from Klein's message.
Chanting "Free, free Palestine" and toting Palestinian flags and signs proclaiming their messages, the ANSWER protesters picketed outside of Smith-Buonanno during Klein's speech. They remained peaceful throughout the evening. At one point, they gathered on the steps leading into the building, but they quickly complied with requests from Department of Public Safety officers to keep the exit clear.
The protesters did not disrupt the speech or impede audience members from entering Smith-Buonanno; people who entered and left the building through the Pembroke Green entrance might not have seen them at all.
The largest protest group was from Neturei Karta International, a New York-based organization that describes itself as "Jews united against Zionism." About a dozen of its members, all Orthodox Jews, traveled to Providence from New York to picket outside of Klein's speech.
Their mission is to "pray for the speedy, peaceful dismantlement of the state of Israel," said Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, the organization's leader.
"We do world traveling. I have been in Yemen, I have been in Iran, and I have been in South Africa. We do world travel to educate," Weiss said.
Colesworthy said that she needed to show people that she disagreed with Klein's views. "I see Mort Klein's organization supporting an oppressive regime that I think is inhumane. I want to be sure that people realize that he is coming to my space, and I need to let him know that I feel that what he and his group do is wrong," she said.
Weiss said that Neturei Karta seeks to educate people about the differences between Zionism and Judaism. "The representative of the ZOA does not represent Judaism in any manner. It does not represent Jewish ideology and not the Jewish nation. ... Judaism is basically the diametric opposite of what Zionism is," he said.
"They are trying to (use) the Torah and (use) Judaism and (wave) the Bible to legitimize their political movement," Weiss said of the Zionist movement.
Signs carried by Neturei Karta members read "Torah forbids any Jewish state" and "Israel does not represent world Jewry."
Some Orthodox Jews oppose Zionism because religious doctrine says Israel should exist only when the Messiah returns.
Weiss implicated Zionists in exacerbating hatred toward Jews. "It is the greatest factory of creating worldwide anti-Semitism. The irony is that they say they are here to have a safe zone for Jewish people worldwide, and yet they create and exacerbate anti-Semitism worldwide," Weiss said.
Barrington resident Susanne Hoder said that her experience traveling throughout Israeli and Palestinian territories compelled her to spread her message. "I thought it was important to go and see for myself, and, having done so, I think it is important to speak out," she said.
"I have seen tremendous suffering on the part of the Palestinian people, and I believe that as people of every faith in America we need to look to the cause of the conflict instead of just trying to annihilate the people," Hoder said.
Hoder carried a sign that read "No more U.S. $ for Israel's ethnic cleansing! No more silence!"
Despite the low turnout of Brown students at the rally, Providence ANSWER organizer Alex Gould said the presence of community members and organizations showed support for his group's cause.
