Following the cancellation of a Gaza-themed students’ game with anti-Semitic overtones, the University of Liege in Belgium set up a pedagogic team to sensitize students to race issues.
The game, which had been planned for Oct. 18, was an initiation ceremony for students of the university’s philosophy and literature faculty. Themed around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the pamphlet of the ceremony warned the students seeking to be initiated, whom the invitation called “little Palestinians,” to “watch out for the big, mean Jew and to settle in safely and happily, if possible.”
The university’s rector, Albert Corhay, condemned the event and demanded it be canceled and that organizers publicly apologize.
On Oct. 24, faculty from the university told the Belga news agency that they have set up the team for sensitizing students to ethnic issues. — jta