'Machete used in anti-Semitic attack'

A Canadian student supporter of Israel and an Israeli engineering student at Carleton University say they are lucky to have survived an attack with a machete, near a bar in Gatineau, across the Ottawa River from the Canadian capital, the National Post reported on Monday.

Nick Bergamini, 22, vice president of the Carleton University Students’ Association, said he and his roommate Mark Klibanov, 20, were leaving the bar late on Monday night when a group began yelling in English and Arabic that they were Zionists and Jews, said the report.

Bergamini was quoted in the article as saying that he recognized one of them as a Carleton student, although he couldn’t remember how many there were, and that he responded to them, “I love Israel, because I support Israel’s right to exist.

“I told them not to do this, because I knew who they were, but I got hit hard on the back of the head. We ran to the bar entrance because bar security was there.”

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This thread would have 40-50 posts and be on the greatest page.

Reality of DU.

would view this type of violence in a similar manner--deplorable. Beyond that I'm not sure that this rises to the same level of a national or regional crisis--and thereby perhaps less response. Clearly the victims were attacked but was it on the level of the Settlements?

This was a vicious, anti-Semitic attack. Politics are irrelevant.

There's no evidence to support your claim, but it feels good to say it, doesn't it?

I for one, hope whoever hacked these kids up gets their heads slammed into the door of the cop car a few times.

Sorry to burst your bubble, proteus.

leaving the bar late on Monday night. Having worked around bars and spending time in bars I never seen a fight start just out of the blue. Somebody said something to somebody. I'm not taking sides only that the story as told seems a little thin.

"I'm not taking sides!" There is only one side of the story presented here.

I mean regardless if "words were had" you don't start hacking and chopping at the other drunken asshole.

no one got hacked. They say someone threw a machete and missed. Sounds made up to me.

Palpable hatred, no doubt about it.

I do notice that the only two sources for the story are the two students that were attacked. No one in the bar noticed anything? No police reports? No statistics on frequency of such hate crimes? Nothing from the bar security that provided the haven from the first round of attacks?

Shame to have only one perspective on a story like this...

Bnai Brith Canada Responds to University Attack
April 8, 2010

B’nai Brith Canada has called on Canadian universities to ban anti-Israel agitation on campus in light of an alleged machete attack on pro-Israel students. Reportedly, on April 5th, two Ottawa students, both well-known for their pro-Israel views, were assaulted when they left a local lounge in the early hours of the morning, by a large group of anti-Israel agitators, one of whom was wielding a machete.

“It is simply outrageous that pro-Israel students have been assaulted in our nation’s capital for nothing more than their pro-Israel views,” said Frank Dimant, Executive Vice President of B’nai Brith Canada. “One of the assaulted students, who is not Jewish, was reportedly first struck in the back of the head, and then chased with a machete swinging within inches of his neck. The Jewish student, who along with his friend was called numerous derogatory and anti-Semitic slurs during the assault, was a local organizer of B’nai Brith’s recent Imagine With Us pro-Israel campus initiative – an initiative which was banned by York University.

“We have been warning about the spill-over effect of anti-Israel hate-fests such as ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ for years. We reiterate our call to university administrations across Canada to ban anti-Israel agitation from their campuses. We simply cannot continue to put up with the situation where anti-Semitic hate-fests such as Israel Apartheid Week are permitted to disseminate their hatred, leading to pro-Israel students being assaulted on our streets, while events in support of the Jewish State are banned.”
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=53224