LIVEBLOG: Hotovely talk continues despite CJL cancellation, students protest

Update- 10:00 amThe Alliance for Jewish Progressives (AJP) commended the CJL for postponing the talk, despite Chabad's decision to continue the event, in a letter to the editor published last night in the Daily Princetonian."AJP appreciated the opportunity to engage in respectful protest and a lively discussion with Hotovely, but wants to reaffirm that the CJL made the right decision in choosing not to sponsor Hotovely’s talk without proper scrutiny under its Israel policy," the letter states. "With this decision the CJL showed its commitment to balanced discourse on campus. Thank you to the CJL staff. We hope to see this commitment endure."7:06 pm"The people that are calling themselves refugees are not refugees.""Keeping them in refugee campus is ridiculous. 70 years? get over it."6:50 pm"To help Palestinians, change the regimes that abuse and abolish human rights, that don’t give those children an education. Fight their leadership, don’t fight Israeli leadership. Israeli leadership is willing to give everyone equal rights..."Asking about Hotovely's views on education, one student asked how a discussion can begin if some say "some people don't people have history and this is our land.""Why is Israel the only country being singled out for this?" Hotovely said. "How come you challenge this question to the only Jewish state in the world?"6:38 pmValue, Hotovely said, is "the major word I want to talk about in my lecture." She asked audience members to share problems of the 21st century.6:26 pmYair Lapid's Tweet, in English: "The cancellation of the speech by Hotovely shows 'progressive' liberals are only interested in hearing themselves."6:15 pm“This conflict is not about land," Hotovely said. "After the year 2000, the Israelis realized this was not about land."6:11 pmHotovely said she hadn't heard of plans by government to make a database of American Jewish college students, raised as a question by a student.Here's a link to an article about it from last month: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.8174486:01 pm Hotovely began by inviting audience members to ask her questions before she speaks. A few, paraphrased, include:What role, if any, American Jews should play in giving their opinions about Israeli-Palestinian issues?I came here to get the other side of an argument I've only heard one side of...how do you promote dialogue in your everyday work and policy?I wanted to ask specifically about the demographics of voting in the state of Israel...if the citizens in the West Bank were to be given the right to vote.5:50 pm Rabbi Eitan Webb has opened the event:"You all know this event was on again, off again, on again."“I wanted to see the land that god has given to the Jewish people.”“Conversations are how we learn.”"President Eisgruber writes that the emphasis on independent thinking is at the heart of a liberal arts education.""We bend over backwards to give free speech to all and it is an honor to make sure this right is upheld to all.""I think this is a great pride to academic freedom we came today in order to speak, in order to create a dialogue."5:42 pmThere has been a bit of coverage in Israel-centric newspapers (mostly conservative ones) of the event today, particularly the CJL withdrawing its sponsorship last night in response to student protests.Jerusalem Post: http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Princeton-Hillel-director-cancels-Deputy-Foreign-Ministers-talk-on-campus-513541Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/princeton-hillel-cancels-hotovely-speech-after-dovish-jewish-groups-protest/Chabad announced today that it would sponsor the speech after the CJL dropped out, so the speech is on, as planned. Multiple CJL administrators are in attendance. The speech hasn't started yet, as it looks like they're trying to make room to let more people--many of them protestors--inside.5:33 pmSpeech is about to start. Among the groups here, there are four PSafe officers in the room, a couple aides and security staff for the MK, a couple photographing, a guy in an APES sweatshirt, at least one person from ODUS.PSafe had its Operations Support Unit's truck parked outside Lewis Library, blue and red lights flashing.5:10 pmLast night, the Princeton Alliance for Jewish Progressives (AJP) circulated a letter of protest objecting to a public talk scheduled for today by Tzipi Hotovely, an Israeli political and member of Knesset, hosted by the University’s Center for Jewish Life. A few hours later, after the Daily Princetonian published the signed letter, the CJL cancelled the event.This afternoon, Chabad announced that it would sponsor the event. Hotovely will now speak at the original location and time, Lewis 138 at 5:30 pm.Rabbi Eitan Webb at Chabad, in an email sent this afternoon, stated:“As a firm believer that every person is entitled to speak, and that dissent and debate are meant to be done in person with even more speech and not by preventing speech, I am glad and honored to be tonight's sponsor.”Last night, the CJL stated it would “indefinitely postpone the program” until “we can properly vet the program in the CJL. In the AJP letter, students claimed that the talk violates the CJL’s own official policy on Israel-related events to not “sponsor groups or speakers that, as a matter of policy or practice, foster an atmosphere of incivility, intend to harm Israel, or promote racism or hatred of any kind.”Further, the letter stated that the CJL’s Israel Policy has “previously served as a thinly veiled method to exclude left-wing voices” by refusing to co-sponsor AJP-proposed events.Students protesting the talk gathered in a Frist classroom at 4:30 pm this afternoon to make posters: "I believe in Palestinian History- Why don't you?", "If this is Judaism, I am not a Jew", "MK, Hotovely, I respectfully disagree."Students are now gathered outside Lewis 138.