New York- A protest against Donald Trump’s speech, prepared by a number of rabbis and Jewish students, on Monday at a conference of the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC over what they say are his belittling comments about Muslims and other groups.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s three-day annual conference in Washington is expected to be attended by about 18,000 people. It is not clear how many will either boycott or walk out of the Republican presidential front-runner’s address.

“He has taken every opportunity to vilify women, Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants and the disabled,” said Jeffrey Salkin, a rabbi in Hollywood, Florida, who asked rabbis across the country to join him in a boycott. He said 40 had agreed and signed a protest letter he hoped to distribute at the conference.

Come Together Against Hate” is another group of rabbis and students planning to walk out of the room after Trump takes the stage. Jesse Olitzky, one of its organizers, said he did not know how many people would participate. The group’s Facebook page had 300 members.

On the matter, some of the students received an email earlier this week from AIPAC warning that if they disrupted the speech, they would have their conference access revoked. An AIPAC official said on Thursday the message “went out in error and was not authorized.”

“I know nothing about that,” Trump said in an interview on Thursday when asked if he had heard about the planned protests and whether he intended to respond. When he announced his candidacy last summer, Trump said some people crossing the U.S. border from Mexico were criminals and rapists, and promised to build a wall along the border.

Noting that only in December, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country; saying that his statement came on national security grounds. Last week, he told CNN: “Islam hates us.” The Anti-Defamation League and an organization of Reform rabbis condemned his comments.

AIPAC, which is non-partisan, routinely hosts presidential hopefuls at its conference. Trump’s remaining Republican rivals, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Governor John Kasich, will address the group as well.
“The job of AIPAC is not to decide whose policies we like or look into the souls of people,” said Seth Siegel, an AIPAC veteran who said he was not speaking on behalf of the organization.

“It’s the organization’s job to try to educate elected officials about how to deepen the U.S.-Israel relationship for the benefit of both parties,” he said. “Having Trump speak at the policy conference is unambiguously part of that mission.”