During a string of JUF-sponsored visits to local university campuses last week, Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid — an outspoken critic of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel — was met with hostile protest by anti-Israel activists.

JUF’s Israel Education Center organized lectures for Eid at the University of Chicago, DePaul University and Northwestern University, as well as with JUF’s Jewish Community Relations Council for a group of several dozen faith leaders, diplomats, and local Jewish leaders. ( Watch video of Eid’s lecture at JUF. )

In his talks, Eid — founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group and chairman of the Near East Policy Institute — discussed corruption within Palestinian politics, the dearth of effective leadership, and his opposition to BDS, which he says harms Palestinian workers. He pointed out that 2,500 Palestinians lost their jobs when the Israeli company Soda Stream moved their factory from the West Bank to Southern Israel last year.

Eid was confronted by hostile protesters at all three of his campus lectures. At University of Chicago, the lecture was shut down after police had to remove a protesters for hostile behavior ; at DePaul University, activists were removed for shouting curse words at Eid in Arabic; and at Northwestern University, Eid cancelled the event after seeing the same protesters in the audience, saying that it would not be productive and he did not feel safe.

In response to these protesters’ attempts to effectively shut down dialogue on the issue of Palestinian human rights, Israel Education Center Executive Director Emily Briskman, in an op-ed published by JTA , wrote about the risk posed to free speech on college campuses and challenged universities to better protect it for all points of view.