The president of Brandeis University is in talks with officials at the Palestinian Al-Quds University to re-establish a partnership between the schools that was suspended over an Islamic Jihad rally.
Frederick Lawrence and Al-Quds leaders are discussing “next steps” with the “ultimate goal of re-establishing a partnership,” the Brandeis student newspaper the Justice reported last week.
There is no specific time frame for restarting the partnership, which began in 1998.
The efforts come more than a month after the release of a report by three Brandeis faculty members who examined the November demonstration on the Jerusalem campus of Al-Quds that led to Lawrence announcing the suspension of ties about two weeks later.
In their report, the faculty members concluded that Al-Quds acted immediately and appropriately in response to the rally and called on Lawrence and Brandeis to work to restore the partnership.
The Al-Quds rally featured protesters marching in black military gear with fake automatic weapons while offering the traditional stiff-armed Nazi salute. Banners with images of Palestinian suicide bombers decorated the main square of the campus, according to a statement from Brandeis. Several students also portrayed dead Israeli soldiers. — jta