The Truman Center at Hebrew University in Jerusalem is to host Dr. Mahmoud Al-Habbash, who serves as the Advisor on Religious and Islamic Affairs to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and as the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Shari'ah Justice. Al-Habbash is being invited to debate MK Ofer Shelah (Yesh Atid) regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Al-Habbash has spoken openly in favor of terrorism against Israelis and said that “the land of Palestine will be returned only via violence.” He has also spoken in support of terrorists themselves when he said “There is no higher rank in the eyes of Allah that the rank of a martyr.”
The Truman center wrote on the invitations which it sent out to the event that “the two speakers will discuss and argue about some of the burning issues regarding the recent security situation: The wave of terror and the intifada of the individual, child martyrs, the Gaza tunnels, the strengthening of ISIS in the Middle East, the rise of Islamic extremism, the Palestinian Israeli conflict and the peace process.”
Following the invitation being issued to Al-Habbash, the director of Im Tirzu’s student group at the university, Haim Frenas, wrote to the Minister of Education and director of the Council for Higher Education in Israel Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) and to the Truman Center demanding that the invitation to Al-Habbash be rescinded due to his open support of terrorism.
While noting that "freedom of expression is praiseworthy," he described the invitation to a man who supports deadly terrorism against Israel as "inconceivable."