For two hours Monday afternoon, Lior Biran sat a table in the middle of Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota with a sign that read “I am an Israeli, ask me anything.”
Biran, who is touring American college campuses as part of Students Supporting Israel’s “Triggered Tour,” where the group brings IDF reservists to college campuses to give their perspective and firsthand experience of what is happening in Israel, faced questions that were largely respectful, occasionally aggressive, and one person who called him a “war criminal” who should “burn in hell.”
“I love you. have a great day,” Biran said in response.
Zachary Sadoff, a UMN student who was sitting at the table with Biran, said the event went better than expected.
“We had one person that actually that was very receptive,” said Sadoff of Zaid, a student who was originally a Somali refugee in Cairo, Egypt, before coming to the University of Minnesota. Sadoff said that, despite an interaction with another student who was less receptive, there was still a positive takeaway.
“Even though we respectfully do disagree, he was receptive enough to listen to us,” Sadoff said. “Which I think is the important part of engaging in dialogue.”
Biran answered direct questions about his view of the current Israeli government – “not a fan,” he said – and what solution he thinks there is to the fighting with Hamas and Hezbollah.
“We’ve been fighting [more than] two and a half years; if there is no solution by this point, we’re in trouble,” he said. “If it were that easy, we would have offered them a state. I mean, we don’t have to fight anymore. It would be easy.”
He said that in the current moment, he wouldn’t support a two-state solution.
“We cannot let people full of hatred, and when their main goal is killing me, have a country of themselves,” he said. “Eventually we’ll have peace. We’ll have that agreement. I believe that.”
Monday ended a four-day stay in Minnesota. On Friday night, Biran’s presence at the University of Minnesota Chabad led to sustained protests organized by Students for a Democratic Society, Young Democratic Socialists of America at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, and Educators for Justice in Palestine. SDS is not a registered organization on campus.
Chalk calling for “Death to Nazi Israel” was written outside UMN Chabad.
“It was, unfortunately, nothing new,” said Rabbi Yitzi Steiner, who leads Chabad at UMN with his wife, Chavi. “It was a very nice turnout. There were definitely some students that I know who stayed away [because] they were uncomfortable with it. But I think at the end of the day, there were more students who came than usual to a Shabbat dinner. And therefore, I think it was a success.
“The protesting is nothing new to us. We’ve been seeing this since October 7, and this is just a continuation of that.”
Steiner said that what made this protest different is that Chabad on campus isn’t just a student center – he and his family live in the house.
“The profanity that was said and that was done, it kind of takes it to a very different level,” Steiner said of the words shouted at the people in Chabad Friday night and what was written in chalk outside on the sidewalk. He said that rather the get rid of it, he was going to let his kids decorate to “show how we can turn this negativity and this evil into something nice and beautiful.”
Rabbi Jill Avrin, the Jewish Community Relations Council’s director of campus engagement, said the University of Minnesota Police and JCRC Security were on the scene and helped make sure the protestors stayed off the Chabad property.
“They were eager to be there and I think helped make the students who were attending feel comfortable,” she said.
Avrin said she wasn’t surprised by the groups that were protesting Biran’s appearance.
“The groups who were there were the activist groups who have really mobilized against Israel, and over the last two and a half years, and have used really strong and hateful rhetoric,” he said. “It’s a relatively small but extremely vocal activist community, and many of the protesters did not appear to be college-age.
“The vast majority of students are just going about their day, going to class, and these activists are creating in really horrible, hateful ways, this impression that the anti-Israel sentiment may be larger than it really is.”