 Despite having denied that he aimed the stone at an Israeli guardhouse , the Beirut newspaper As @-@ Safir ( The Ambassador ) reported that a Lebanese local resident reported that Said was at less than ten metres ( ca . 30 ft . ) distance from the Israeli Defense Force ( IDF ) soldiers manning the two @-@ storey guardhouse , when Said aimed and threw the stone over the border fence ; the stone 's projectile path was thwarted when it struck the barbed wire atop the border fence . In the U.S. , despite objections by some student groups at Columbia University and the Anti @-@ Defamation League of B 'nai B 'rith International ( Sons of the Covenant ) , the university provost published a five @-@ page letter defending Said 's action as academic freedom of expression : 
