Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman on Sunday accused left-wing Israeli activists who helped shut down his speech at the UC Berkeley School of Law in Berkeley, Calif. last week of exploiting the plight of the 101 hostages still being held by Hamas for political gain.
“They adopted word for word the playbook of the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas movement,” Rothman, who chairs the Knesset’s powerful Constitution Law and Justice Committee, told JNS.
“It has nothing to do with the war or even with judicial reform,” he charged, referring to now-shelved plans to reform the country’s judiciary.
According to Rothman, the protesters “don’t like our policies and don’t see the right as the legitimate voice of Israel. It’s apparently very important to them to try to disrupt discourse and to prevent other voices from being heard. The sad thing is that some of them seem to think they’re doing it for the sake of Israel.”
Rothman’s Sept. 25 talk, titled “Restoring Democracy: The Debate Over Judicial Reform in Israel” and hosted by Berkeley’s Federalist Society, was shut down by the far-left UnXeptable group, whose members purchased the majority of the tickets for the event.
Protesters shouted at Rothman in Hebrew and English, “Shame on you,” “Go home,” “You said no to the [hostage] deal” and “You’re a member of Knesset, get to work,” video footage posted to social media showed.
In a Wednesday post on X, UnXeptable claimed that its “determined protestors in Silicon Valley made sure that Rothman would not speak and continue to lie abroad while 101 hostages are being abandoned in Gaza and while all of our families are running to bomb shelters” in Israel.
“Rothman continues to lie to the world and show his true face as the architect of the legal coup [critics’ term for the judicial reform push]continues to disparage fears, even insult Israeli citizens abroad and lie with a resolute face,” the group stated.
The debate was eventually called off and moved to Zoom after a “pro-Palestinian mob” pulled the fire alarm and threatened to break into the Berkeley auditorium, Rothman told JNS on Sunday.
According to the lawmaker’s account, “some of the protesters from the left were, sadly, clapping when the Palestinians and Hamas supporters shouted ‘Free Palestine’ and called for an arms embargo against Israel.
“I told them: See who your friends are who are shutting down an Israeli representative, instead of uniting and saying—as some people did—listen, I disagree with his politics, but he represents the State of Israel.”
Regarding the accusations of “abandoning” the captives, Rothman slammed the activists for “using the hostages as a tool for petty politics.”
Nobody in Israel, “And no one with a Jewish heart anywhere, or even just a human heart—does not pray every day for the return of the hostages,” he explained. The activists “don’t care about the hostages,” he asserted, adding, “They don’t like right-wing politics and use the hostages as an excuse.”
Raising awareness around the world regarding the challenges Israel faces “is one of the missions of every elected official who can speak two sentences in English or in any other foreign language,” the lawmaker continued. “In Berkeley, in San Jose, or wherever he’s invited. Whether from the left, right, or center; I think that’s the job of a member of Knesset.”
Rothman concluded, “I will speak for my people in this time of danger and time of need. I don’t think I need to be ashamed of this. I think anyone who tries to shut down an Israeli representative abroad because of his petty politics should be ashamed of himself.”
