Members of a Muslim student group at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee crashed a celebration thrown by one of the campus’ Jewish Student groups. This confrontation ended in the arrest of a Muslim student who allegedly punched a Jewish student.
In a Facebook message to The Badger Herald from Diana Azimov, president of the UW-Milwaukee Jewish Student Association, Muslim students came to “Israelpalooza” screaming at the participants and not leaving when asked by security.
According to Azimov’s message over Facebook, the Jewish students who came to set up the event in the morning found chalking, which they viewed as anti-Israel, including a swastika.
“Jewish students on campus felt intimidated by the actions of the students who came to disrupt our event,” Azimov said in the message.
Yamin Masalkhi of the UW-Milwaukee Muslim Student Organization said he and others did participate in chalking the event because of the emotional nature of the Israel celebration, but he said they were not responsible for the swastika.
While Masalskhi said some of the messages were indeed controversial, neither he nor any of his members felt the swastika was an appropriate protest message, and those who engaged in the chalking and the protesting of the party were “just a group of guys” who “wanted to make a point.”
Both Masalkhi and Azimov gave accounts of Muslim students climbing the top of the rock wall at the party and planting a Palestinian flag on top of it.
Masalkhi said a Jewish student at the party took the flag and threw it in the garbage, and after a heated exchange, the Muslim student punched the Jewish student.
According to Masalkhi, the student was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, but was released hours after.
Masalkhi said he apologized on behalf of the student who was arrested, but it was not well received.
He said while some students who came to the event were affiliated with the Muslim Student Association, the students were not there on behalf of the group and acted independently.
“There is a lot of tension going on down there,” Masalkhi said. “[This] is not really a celebration to us.”
Masalkhi added this was an isolated incident.
“We have (had) pretty positive relations with Hillel in the past” Masalkhi said.
According to Masalkhi, leadership from both organizations came together the next day to discuss how to work together in the future.
UW-Milwaukee spokesperson Tom Luljak said there is an internal review of the actions of some students by the Department of Student Affairs.
Luljak said there are talks scheduled today with representatives from the UW-Milwaukee Hillel group, and said he hoped the talk would let students know the university is committed to allow all students to voice their views and opinions without fear of harassment.
