Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced open criticism during a speech at Columbia University Monday during which University President Lee Bollinger called him a "petty and cruel dictator," The Associated Press reported.
"You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated," Bollinger told Ahmadinejad in reference to his previous denial of the Holocaust, the AP reported.
Ahmadinejad was also questioned on his famous declaration to "wipe Israel off the map."
"We are friends with the Jewish people," he said, according to the AP. "There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security."
In addition to hundreds protesting Ahmadinejad's visit Monday outside the lecture hall at Columbia, thousands also jammed two blocks of 47th Street in front of the United Nations protesting Ahmadinejad's address to the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday.
-PATRICIO CHILE
