<p>
</p>
<p>Interesting, as the victimized student was on exchange from New York.</p>
<p>It looks like the school and the authorities handled the matter professionally. Drunk kids do stupid things and sometimes they get suspended or expelled.</p>
<p>sorghum, your comment seems to imply you felt the Israeli (I don’t read he is from NY)
was guilty. The Scottish student was a member of the Scottish PLO, and while drunk desectated an Israeli flag, along with the racial slurs.</p>
<p>What did you find so interesting?</p>
<p>I am totally baffled by your comment, parent1986 - I hardly thought I wrote enough to write so badly that I could misconvey my impressions so much …</p>
<p>The Scottish student was rightly convicted of a bullying and unpleasant attack on a Lithuanian-born American Jewish student with Israeli citizenship, it appears. [Mr Reitblat, ‘a chemistry student on exchange from Yeshiva University in New York’, is now accepted at Harvard, I assume on transfer].</p>
<p>I used the word ‘interesting’ because St Andrews is a very popular destination for American exchange students, a fair number of whom may be Jewish, and may wish to know something of the cultural environment there.</p>
<p>Reitblat was booed as he left the court. Seriously?</p>
<p>This is odd. Apparently the announcement of the conviction was met with boo’s and hisses in the courtroom…wow.
[Express.co.uk</a> - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News :: Sheriff is booed for verdict in race case](<a href=“Sheriff is booed for verdict in race case | UK | News | Express.co.uk”>Latest UK and World News, Sport and Comment - Express.co.uk)</p>
<p>And the accused claims he is a member of anti-racism campaigns and called the verdict ridiculous and would appeal:
[BBC</a> News - St Andrews student guilty of Israel flag racism](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-14638515]BBC”>St Andrews student guilty of Israel flag racism - BBC News)</p>
<p>And there is a Facebook group up dedicated to providing justice for the accused…</p>
<p>Something about the reporting (especially with the STV article but even the BBC) strikes me as odd and tabloid’y. It just seems so…off. Maybe it’s just a differing Scottish flavor of prose than I’m used to with American reporting? I wonder if we really know everything about what happened. Can’t put a finger on it…</p>
<p>Thanks Sorghum. I’ve been trying to find the Haaretz report which I saw earlier, but couldn’t locate it. </p>
<p>Newccuser, I agree about the Scottish flavor, plus, anything may be a blog post from a five year old.</p>
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</p>
<p>By members of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Do you seriously expect any civility when it comes to Israeli versus Palestinian political activism in other places (where the noisiest groups take the attitude that “Israeli = oppressor !” or “Palestinian = terrorist !”, accusing each other of racism while being racist themselves).</p>
<p>It seems to me that the issue of racism should not have been required in order to expel these bozos.</p>
<p>Scotland doesn’t have a First Amendment. Imagine if all the students who had burned flags (much less just putting a pubic hair on a flag) were expelled here. No one who went to college in the 60’s would have a college degree.</p>
<p>So the Israeli was a member of the Tea Party?</p>
<p>If you go into a guy’s dorm room, insult him, rub pubic hair on his possessions, and pee on his toothbrush, what does free speech or racism have to do with anything?</p>
<p>Insults are free speech. </p>
<p>Peeing on a toothbrush is $1.95 in property damage. Rubbing a pubic hair on a flag does no permanent damage. </p>
<p>As reprehensible as this students views and actions were, the university overreacted. The student who did this should have apologized and bought the other a new toothbrush. The Jewish student should have accepted the apology. Done.</p>
<p>TatinG, it was a hate crime, which ups the penalty significantly, at least in the U.S.</p>
<p>The student did apologize but criminal justice systems can take on a life of their own, even after compensation. In the US, the prosecution is a third party and they can do what they wish, even against the wishes of the accuser.</p>
<p>In this case, the accuser wasn’t too forgiving, perhaps because the “apology” still accused him of being a tyrant.</p>
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</p>
<p>Seriously? So all mistreatment boils down to material damage or its meaningless? So what about obvious cases of harassment, bullying, verbal abuse…those would be trivial too if you can just replace the objects involved? </p>
<p>I honestly don’t have enough information from this article to judge whether the court did the right thing or not, but I am absolutely very glad I now live in a country that has laws against hate crimes.</p>
<p>It probably wouldn’t be considered “speech” in the US to desecrate a flag that belongs to somebody else, or at least not protected speech.</p>
<p>The desecration of the flag would be protected free speech. The theft of someone else’s flag would be petty larceny. Putting a pubic hair on a flag might be vandalism, maybe not. No permanent damage was done. </p>
<p>I believe very strongly in freedom of speech. Doesn’t matter if someone’s feelings get hurt. Threats of harm and repeated harassment are another matter. But if a person cannot make politically charged statements there is no free speech. Someone on the other side is always going to be offended.</p>
<p>The victim was alone in his dorm room minding his own business when two guys came in and subjected him to a series of bullying acts with a cruel overtone. Having a thug urinating in your sink, while insulting/threatening you, seems to me to be somewhere between harassment and terrorism.</p>
<p>The only protected free speech here should be his right to hang any flag he likes in his own room.</p>
<p>How about urinating all over the room? No permanent damage, $20 for laundry?</p>