NEW YORK (JTA) — More than a dozen anti-Israel protesters disrupted a presentation at the Jewish National Fund’s conference in Atlanta.
Ken Stein, the director of the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel of Emory University in Atlanta, was speaking on presenting the Jewish and Zionist side of Israel’s history at a plenary session at the Intercontinental Hotel when about 15 people entered the room shouting, according to a member of the audience.
Eventually the protesters were ushered out, with some pushing and shoving, the audience member said. They continued their demonstration outside the hotel.
The audience member, who requested anonymity, said Stein, who had stopped speaking when the protest began, was able to reconvene the crowd of about 400 and continue his presentation.
"The whole thing was about two or three minutes," the audience member said.
The audience member said the JNF crowd initially thought the interruption was a "creative part" of Stein’s speech, as what the protesters were shouting was not understandable. The protesters had entered when a slide in Stein’s presentation on the history of Zionism popped up asking: "What did the Arabs know and when did they know it?"
Upon recognizing that the intruders were protesters, however, the crowd began shouting for them to leave.
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