A conference on LGBTQ issues scheduled to take place at Bar-Ilan University on Wednesday, Dec. 25 will be held under heavy security, because the Leeba Center group was running a campaign of "PR terrorism" against the event, the university said Monday.
Leeba Center's website says the group is "dedicated to thwarting efforts to undermine Israel's Jewish character and protecting the Jewish identity of the state."
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The conference, devoted to "gender-queer" issues, will discuss milestones for the LGBTQ community in Israel; the problems faced by the Palestinian LGBTQ community; and other related topics. Leeba Center board member Oren Heoning called the conference "an abomination." and said it was a "concession to all the radical agendas that seek to destroy our family and our state."
When the university began to publicize the conference, Leeba launched a campaign that included a video and an announcement that leading religious Zionist rabbis opposed the conference. The material features a quote by one of the rabbis, warning that the religious Zionist establishment would steer its students away from Bar-Ilan University.
In another press release, Leeba claimed that the lecturers scheduled to speak at the conference were aligned with the radical Left, and that some of them were activists in the BDS movement.
On Monday, Bar-Ilan University issued a strongly-worded statement that "The Leeba Center is carrying out PR terrorism based on fake news, and does not understand what academia is."
The university said it was determined to put on the conference as planned, with unprecedented levels of security.
Conference organizers said the event was under attack by a campaign of "PR terrorism" by "extremist groups that twist reality. Organizations such as Leeba and Hotam have turned censorship and personal persecution into their own weapons."
