One would have anticipated a calming of the hysterical anti-Israel rhetoric and often antisemitic activities on university campuses following the scathing Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism report condemning the hate and intolerance on university campuses. The report was followed by the Ottawa Protocol on Combating Antisemitism to reinforce Canada's commitment to confront antisemitism here at home and around the world. We should all be satisfied.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Rather than heed the warnings of our parliamentarians and the government, it appears universities have entrenched their position, resulting in an increased assault on tolerance, justice, and human rights. The universities profess to be the guardians of free speech and, in so doing, are aiding and abetting the increasingly toxic environment on campuses by providing public space to speakers who are divisive and hateful.
Of course, we are all advocates of unfettered speech. It is one of the cornerstones of a free and democratic society. But when one group is consistently targeted by hate campaigns, something is clearly wrong.
The trend of anti-Israeli activism on campus, writes the President of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Dr. Richard Cravatts "...has become a convenient way for antisemites to mask their true prejudice against Jews by claiming that their problem is only with the policies of Israel, not with the Jews themselves...they single out the world's only Jewish state for condemnation and hold it to a higher standard than any other nation." They do not call out for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against tyrannies like Iran, Syria, Hamas, North Korea, and others. Nor do they complain about gender apartheid, honour killings, and suicide bombers in places like Iraq and Pakistan.
Instead, they focus their hate on the one democracy in the Middle East. Let's look at some recent examples of accommodation of hate propagandists on campus:
This fall, the University of Toronto took great pains to protect Dr. Hakim Quick's right to speak on campus for 18 weeks at the invitation of the Muslim Students Association. According to Maclean's On Campus, Quick's controversial comments include one about "purifying" an Islamic shrine from the "filth of Christians and Jews." According to the same article, he described homosexuals as "one of the most dangerous groups coming to the surface." The university was well aware of Quick's controversial beliefs, having acknowledged the public pressure that led him to "publicly distance himself from some of his earlier offensive commentary." In giving its blessing for him to speak, the administration was not only insensitive to the concerns of groups Quick had targeted in the past, but complicit in giving a platform to hatred.
Another instance was the January 2012 tour de hate by Norman Finkelstein. A disciple of disgraced Neo-Nazi and Holocaust denier David Irving, Finkelstein recently spoke at five Canadian universities, including York -- a hotbed of antisemitism over the years. Among Finkelstein's horrific assertions he says, "Given the nonsense churned out daily by the Holocaust industry, the wonder is that there are so few sceptics." York University's reaction to the protests against his visit was standard university operating procedure -- defence of free speech, open debate, and not wanting to take "political positions." Sadly-- but not unexpectedly -- the university administration provided little sensitivity, compassion or leadership against this hatemonger, not dissimilar to its support of the visit by Hezbollah supporter George Galloway in 2010.
On January 25th, University of Western Ontario faculty member David Heap spoke on his home campus about his participation helping Hamas on the "Canadian" flotilla. As Jonathan Kay of the National Post eloquently put it, upon Heap's return, "Heap and his friends set their compass for a confrontation with the Israeli Defense Forces, the most humane and professional military in the Middle East. And their only real punishment for trying to bring material goods to a terrorist-controlled regime in Gaza is to spend a few days in climate-controlled, Internet-equipped Israeli jails complaining about their ordeal to journalist pals back home".
The very next day, an organization calling itself "The Coalition to Stop the War" sponsored a talk at McMaster University by a rabidly anti-Israel speaker named Zafar Bangash. Despite repeatedly issuing calls for the 'liberation of Palestine' and advising Israelis to 'go back where they came from,' McMaster asserted the presentation by Bangash would be respectful. However, his words were clearly hateful, inflammatory, and laced with veiled threats against Jews; Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center has turned the matter over to the police and is evaluating liability options against the university.
And on it goes. In February, a University of Toronto professor who has in the past brought anti-Israel speakers to campus will himself take the opportunity to speak in support of those who would destroy Israel, while Simon Fraser University in Vancouver is importing their anti-Israel rhetoric via a feminist speaker from Syracuse University in New York. A pro-Palestinian Norwegian doctor is currently on a four-university Israel-bashing tour, and a slick video just posted on YouTube by the "Students Against Israeli Apartheid" at Carleton university labels (and falsely libels) Israel an "apartheid state" and encourages other students to join them in an Israel divestment campaign of Carleton's pension fund.
It's time to admit the truth of what is happening across the country: The hate is rapidly proliferating. These speakers and those who support and fund them are the tip of the iceberg of the antisemitism and intolerance toward Israel and the Jewish community which is being sown on Canadian university campuses and beyond. The obsessive pattern of abuse of speech and the marginalization and discrimination of a targeted minority group -- Jews -- is heavily defended by universities under the banner of "free speech." The Jihad next door has become intolerable and unacceptable. The organized pattern of hate and intolerance on university campuses has risen to epidemic proportions and, left unchecked, will continue to grow.
Despite our best efforts to respond to this trend by offering alternative presentations with a different, more inclusive message (and we will continue to do so despite what I am about to say), and the heroic efforts of students and community leaders, it is no longer sufficient to simply counter events with ever more events on campuses. Events diminish the university's responsibility by creating a false perception of a balance of opinion -- which the university seeks to justify inaction. Jewish communities should not have to suffer double-victimization by having to prove Israel is not an apartheid state and that the infamous ancient antisemitic libels against the Jewish people are not true. Neither truth nor logic is a match for deep-seated ideologies.
In recent months, it appears universities have undertaken an aggressive posture; it is surely no coincidence that divisive speakers continue to enjoy an open-door policy, with no fear of being called out for spouting even the most outrageous accusations and lies. This will ultimately be a costly position for all Canadians because, as history demonstrates time and again, bullies are never content to stop at the weakest kid in the schoolyard.
Follow Avi Benlolo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/avibenlolo
Because of its immensely powerful lobbies (e.g. AIPAC in the US,) unlike Iran, Syria, etc., Israel is protected from international censure by western governments, especially Ottawa and Washington. Indeed, the US provides Israel with "no strings attached" taxpayer funded aid (i.e., money a bankrupt US must borrow from China and other creditors) in the amount of nearly $10 million per day along with another $one billion per year in tax-deductible contributions from individuals and organizations. Nor should we forget that US taxpayer aid for Israel is set aside in a separate account before the fiscal year begins and accumulated interest is payable to Israel. No other recipient of US aid enjoys these privileges.
As for Canada's role, it is not an exaggeration to describe the Harper government's relationship with Israel as fawning, total subservience and a gross embarrassment for all Canadians who respect hard-won international human rights law.
In short, Israel is rewarded for its well documented human rights violations whereas Iran, Syria and other countries are punished through crippling sanctions.
This week, at Penn State UniversityÂ, Jewish students were accused of being "kapos" for their participatÂion in a Boycott Divestment and Sanctions conferenceÂ. That is true anti-SemitÂism and, strangely, was perpetrateÂd by people who are, themselvesÂ, Jews.
The argument that Israel's behavior has to be blindly defended because the Israeli government claims it speaks for all Jews leads only to repression and violence. The repression and violence that is used every day against PalestiniaÂns is easily exported anywhere in the world, including Canada.
University!
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/019178.html#comments
Those who draw such an equivalency do insult to the actual victims of bigotry and race-hatred.
What's next? Are those who disagree with American policy to be labeled anti-Christians?
The state of Israel systematically ignores the human rights of the palestinian people who live in its territory. Until this is corrected Israel will be nothing more than a theocracy, and certainly not a democracy.
Perhaps if the rhetoric on the part of the author and others like him were toned down a little, their opposition would not have to resort to such extremes to counter them. This is a verbal arms race that no-one is winning. Name calling is one of the hallmarks of a bully, and calling someone who questions a government's actions an anti-Semite absolutely qualifies.
The U.S. State Department's report on International Religious Freedom: "Arabs in Israel...are subject to various forms of discrimination [and the government] does not provide Israeli Arabs...with the same quality of education, housing, employment opportunites as Jews."
The Independent, Dec. 27/2011
"Secret paper reveals EU broadside over plight of Israel's Arabs"
Excerpts:
"The confidential 27-page draft prepared by European diplomats...charts a wide range of indicators showing that Israeli Arabs suffer 'economic disparities ... unequal access to land and housing ... discriminatory draft legislation and a political climate in which discriminatory rhetoric and practice go unsanctioned.' “
“While EU leaders regularly criticise Israel over its activities in occupied territory – including the growth of settlement building – the draft is unusual in tackling a highly sensitive issue within Israel's borders."
"The paper points out that while being up to 20 per cent of the population, Israeli Arabs own only 3 per cent of the land. It says Arab average earnings are only 61 per cent of those in the Jewish community, with 50 per cent of Israeli Arabs living in poverty, according to the OECD."
Is it possible to take issue with anything that the Israeli government does, without being an anti-semite?
All else is fair game. And that is exactly what Israel supporters keep saying.
That said, there's nothing wrong with an Israel supporter questioning why someone who is not Palestinian is so obsessed with Israel's human rights abuses in the territories and yet silent about much worse human rights abuses in the middle east, in China, in Russia, and indeed in many other places. Compared to China, Russia and every other Muslim country, including Turkey, Israel has a very good record of human rights. It's not perfect and the current government is horrible, but Israel doesn't lock up journalists (like Turkey) or tacitly encourage the harrassment of religious and ethnic minorities (like S.E. Asia) or deny the rights of their occupied people to self determination one day (like China).
The difference between Israel and all those other countries is that we already agree that their records are bad and there's not much to debate. Saying "other countries are worse" is no defense at all. Just because serial killers exist doesn't excuse rapists. Speculating on why someone doesn't focus on other cases is just a red herring and a dishonest debating tactic.
And let's not forget that most of those dictatorships that Israel gets compared to were propped up by the exact same people supporting Israel. Egypt's dictatorship was a client of the US, as is Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, and a host of other countries which people like to use as comparisons. Saying "Israel is the midde east's only democracy" is utter nonsense when you're actively working to make sure the other states in the region remain dictatorships, usually for the ostensible excuse of "stability".
Jewish people aren't the only ones with a "deep connection to the holy land"; that same connection exists for about two billion christians and muslims too. Their religions all mark it as a special place; that should be respected to a degree, but religion doesn't automatically justify policy, otherwise we'd have no basis for criticizing Iran's human rights record (which is also terrible).
Have any members of those who prepared the reports you mentioned spoken out forcefully against Israeli practices, like denying citizenship to 7 million non-Jewish Israelis? Or suggested sanctions on Israel until it stops its nuclear weapons program?
If not, seems likely they had a bit of an axe to grind with any group that in any way questioned Israeli policy.
Look at them honestly and you would see that.
I do not like the way the people of Palestine have been treated, I was born in Cnanda, does that make me anti-semitic?
Because I don't agree with the big wall and military state the "peaceful" nation of Isreal has become disturbs me. From a people who willing died in the camps rather than fight and go against their beliefs. Quite a fall.