(JTA) — The president of Hillel International called on Ohio University to apologize to four pro-Israel students who were arrested during a protest.
“I cannot understand how the university administration could have possibly allowed the university police to arrest these students,” Eric Fingerhut said in his letter Friday to Roderick David, the university’s president. “These students are owed an apology from the university.”
Pro-Israel students had staged a filibuster during Wednesday night’s meeting of the university’s Student Senate.
The students called for the resignation of the Senate’s president, Megan Marzec, over a recently recorded video in which Marzec poured a bucket of “blood” (red-colored water) over her head to support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
When the protesters would not stop speaking, Marzec asked the Senate to vote on whether the protesters should be arrested. The vote was approve and police removed them.
The protesters were charged with a fourth-degree misdemeanor, disturbing a lawful meeting.
Fingerhut, a former U.S. congressman from Ohio, noted his longstanding relationship with the university in his letter.
“I urge you to personally take charge of the university’s response to the arrest of the students, and to see that this wrong is made right,” Fingerhut wrote.
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