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May 24, 2017 11:53 am
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Dartmouth Student Who Confronted Sarsour About Her ‘Take Their Vaginas Away’ Tweet Laments Administrative, Student Support for Controversial Anti-Israel Activist

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avatar by Rachel Frommer

Linda Sarsour. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The Dartmouth College student who recently confronted vociferous anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour about a sexist tweet of hers told The Algemeiner on Tuesday he was concerned about the support Sarsour has received from the school’s administration and his peers.

Zack Port, a member of Dartmouth Students for Israel, said he attended the on-campus May 12 Sarsour lecture because, “I was appalled to see that our school’s Office of Pluralism and Leadership (OPAL) was sponsoring Sarsour. I think people exhibited a selective memory with regards to Sarsour’s past comments and beliefs, and I felt the urge to respectfully point out just who Linda Sarsour really is.”

During a question-and-answer session, Port demanded Sarsour explain her now-deleted March 2011 tweet, which stated: “Brigitte Gabriel=Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She’s asking 4 an a$$ whippin’. I wish I could take their vaginas away — they don’t deserve to be women.”

Gabriel, a national security expert, and Hirsi Ali, a women’s rights activist, are both outspoken about the dangers of radical Islam, with Hirsi Ali being a victim of female genital mutilation.

In an exchange captured in footage released by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) on Campus, Sarsour evaded Port’s question, and instead noted that Port was a “young white man” speaking about issues that affect “communities of color” that he was “not directly impacted” by. Sarsour then suggested that the post was not hers, asserting that Port got the tweet as a “copy and paste from a right-wing blog. He doesn’t even know if it came from my Twitter account.”

Though Sarsour’s tweet is no longer available on her feed, a number of sources have published screenshots of the post.

Port told The Algemeiner, “If she’s gonna accuse me of lying, she should at least present an alternative explanation or account of the facts.”

He said he was “disappointed” when Sarsour dodged the issue.

“I also let out a chuckle or two at the richness of her refusal to answer my question based on my race and gender,” he added. “Here is someone talking about inclusivity, meanwhile displaying gross prejudice.”

Gilad Skolnick — the director of campus programming for CAMERA on Campus — told The Algemeiner that his group had worked with students to prepare for the Sarsour event, from developing questions to producing fliers on Sarsour’s views to hand out to attendees.

Ultimately, said Skolnick, Sarsour’s ideology is seen best in her “crude language, complete with making fun of the student’s ethnicity, and waffling about whether
or not her anti-woman tweet existed exposes her as nothing more than the angry, racist, sexist provocateur that she is.”

Port said he worries about the direction his college is headed in, noting that OPAL’s support of the Sarsour program paired with its refusal to co-sponsor an event featuring an IDF soldier are part of a series of “egregious insults” toward the Jewish community in recent months, including the promotion of a supporter of the  anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to a major administrative role. (Following controversy over the appointment both within and beyond the Dartmouth community, the faculty member withdrew from the position.)

Sarsour, who recently said that feminism and Zionism are inherently incompatible views, is scheduled to give the commencement speech at a City University of New York graduation ceremony on June 1.

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