Las Vegas mayor: UNLV pro-Palestinian protesters are ‘pieces of trash’ | Las Vegas | News

The new mayor of Las Vegas criticized pro-Palestinian UNLV student protesters Thursday at an event organized by a pro-Israel advocacy group, calling them “pieces of trash.”

Mayor Shelley Berkley criticized the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who demonstrated at UNLV earlier this year in a question-and-answer session during a pre-Hanukkah event organized by the Israeli American Council and attended by about 70 people. She said they were so disruptive that she was forced to leave an event at the university. Berkley also called them anti-Semitic.

“UNLV is my alma mater. I was the student body president at UNLV,” said Berkley, who is Jewish and previously served as a university regent in the 1990s. “I had every right to be there and there was no way I could go out the back door because of those pieces of trash.”

Berkley, who also served as a Democratic congresswoman for Nevada’s 1st District from 1999 to 2013, was elected mayor in November and sworn into office on December 4. While serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, she was one of the strongest defenders of Israel in the Democratic Party of Representatives.

Remembering hostages

Attendees at Thursday’s event, held at The Space, a venue near West Flamingo Road and Dean Martin Drive, also remembered the approximately 100 hostages Israel says are still in Gaza.

During the attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists and other groups killed about 1,200 people, took about 250 hostages and took them to Gaza. A previous ceasefire in November 2023 saw more than 100 hostages released, while more were rescued or their remains recovered last year. Officials believe at least a third of the remaining hostages were either killed during the Oct. 7 attack or died in captivity.

Amid the 14-month conflict, protests have erupted at U.S. colleges, including UNLV.

At Thursday’s event, the hostages were honored at a table with 100 lit candles and participants called for their release. A poster with photos of the hostages hung nearby. Berkley lit a menorah for Hanukkah, which runs Wednesday through Jan. 2 this year.

“So incredibly anti-Semitic”

When moderator Hayim Mizrachi, CEO of local commercial real estate firm MDL Group, asked Berkley today about the state of anti-Semitism in Las Vegas, Berkley told a story about how she spoke to a student group, the College Democrats of UNLV, during her mayoral campaign.

“I gave a talk to this group and it became clear very quickly that these are not the College Dems I remember from 60 years ago. This is a whole different group of people, obviously very pro-Palestinian, very disruptive and very angry,” said Berkley, 73. “And I, honest to God, can’t understand why these privileged kids who go to college and ” Everyone will be successful in their lives, they are so hateful and so incredibly anti-Semitic.”

Berkley continued, explaining that the interaction was not the first she had with pro-Palestinian advocates at the university. She said she saw several demonstrations during her campaign.

During her meeting with the student group, Berkley asked if members had compassion for the hostages taken. Berkley said the students answered no and called the hostages oppressors.

“I am worried about the future of Israel. …But more importantly, it made me worried about the future of this country. If there were people who were educated and white – they would all be white, all educated, all will be college graduates – they would be so negative about the only democracy in the Middle East, America’s strongest ally in the world. They denigrate us and hate us, and the only reason is that it is a Jewish state.”

“Right to protest against genocide”

In a Friday interview with the Review-Journal, Council on American-Islamic Relations deputy national director Edward Ahmed Mitchell called Berkley’s comments “disturbing and abhorrent.”

“It is deeply disturbing and disgusting that the mayor of Las Vegas would express such contempt for college students who simply exercised their right to protest the genocide,” Mitchell said. “These protests are no different than when they were in college, when students protested against apartheid in South Africa, the war in Vietnam and segregation. These students have hearts and care when they see videos of Palestinian children dying.”

Mitchell also called on Berkley to apologize to the students.

Attempts to reach UNLV’s College Democrats and UNLV’s Students for Justice in Palestine for comment were unsuccessful.

The Associated Press contributed to this story. Contact Akiya Dillon at [email protected]