(JTA) — Two students at Ottawa’s Carleton University were attacked with what they say was a machete for their being Zionists.
The roommates were attacked early Monday morning as they left a bar near the university by a group of about 10 men yelling in English and Arabic that they were Zionists and Jews, according to reports in the Canadian media.
Nick Bergamini, 22, vice president of the Carleton University Students’ Association, is not Jewish but is a student supporter of Israel, according to the National Post. Mark Kilbanov, 20, is an Israeli engineering student at the university.
Kilbanov told the newspaper that the machete narrowly missed hitting the back of Bergamini’s head, but that the men outran their attackers.
"If you are from the right wing or are a supporter of Israel, it gets around pretty quickly, because Carleton is one of the worst campuses for having a division between Palestinian and Jewish students. It is a really polarized campus between left and right, Jewish and Arab students," Kilbanov told the National Post.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
