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April 25, 2003
SFU incumbents get dumped
University elections knock out the anti-Israel student representatives.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
In a landslide rout, the student government of Simon Fraser University
(SFU) has been tossed out and a new group elected, after a campaign
that featured a bitter campus debate over the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.
The election followed a confrontational period in which the Simon
Fraser Student Society adopted a resolution condemning Israel and
siding with the Palestinian cause. The level of debate over the
issue made many Jewish students on campus uncomfortable and drew
the close attention of both the university administration and the
Jewish community. Brent Zacks, president of SFU's Israel Advocacy
Committee, was elected to the new government as the at-large arts
representative. There are 13 elected positions on the society's
board and only one member of the previous administration was returned.
Two positions remain unfilled as they were uncontested. Those seats
will be filled by appointees of the newly elected government.
A resolution adopted by the outgoing government stated that the
Simon Fraser Student Society "calls for the immediate end to
the illegal U.S.-backed Israeli occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, the right of return for all Palestinians to their homes
and an end to Israeli apartheid."
Zacks ran on a slate that sought to reconsider the anti-Israel resolution.
Zacks and two others from his Students First slate were elected
and, in conjunction with members of other slates who were successful,
Zacks expects the resolution to be rescinded, but not until further
education and discussion take place on campus.
"There needs to be education before people can make their decisions,"
said Zacks, adding that the very low voter turnout for these sorts
of elections has always allowed a small number of vocal people to
set the agenda. In addition to conventional debates that feature
spokespeople from both sides of the issue, the new government may
undertake a formal process of interviewing students on their opinions
to ascertain a truer picture of campus attitudes and reduce the
influence of self-selecting activists.
Zacks stressed that any sort of polling process would have to be
undertaken in a fair-minded way by open-minded students. He acknowledged
that he, whose
opinions on the subject are well-known and entrenched, would not
be part of the interviewing process. Moreover, if a consultation
process demonstrates strong support for the anti-Israel position,
the resolution could stay on the books.
"If we can involve students and there is strong support for
the current resolution, there's not much we can do," he said.
The election included some unpleasant tactics, including an apparently
concerted effort to remove Zacks' campaign posters.
"I think I put up about 150 of them and by the end there were
about 10," said the fourth-year political science student.
"I don't know who ripped them down, but it's obvious someone
didn't like what I said."
Zacks' opponent for the arts rep position is associated with the
Palestinian Solidarity Group on campus. Ironically, Zacks credits
his 16-vote margin of victory to a raft of spoiled ballots that
included some with his name scrawled out and comments to the effect
that Zacks is a racist.
"It was certainly pivotal in my election," he said. "I
wouldn't have won if they hadn't [spoiled their ballots]."
The elections took place March 25 to 27 and results were announced
March 29. But in case people try to read the election results as
a referendum on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Zacks cautioned that
there were other critical factors at play. Zacks was victorious
with a mere 277 votes and many of those came from personal contacts
he has in residences and in athletics programs. Moreover, as much
as Israel has dominated the campus debate, Zacks estimates that
as many as 150 of the votes his slate received came as a result
of their promise to replace powdered soap with a liquid alternative
in campus washrooms. Nonetheless, Jewish students on campus are
feeling less isolated after a successful Israel Week recently, in
which on-campus displays and information material met with surprisingly
positive and constructive – or at least not negative –
reactions from most students.
Fanning the flames of the debate have been more than a year of controversial
articles in the student newspaper, the Peak. One, which ran
two weeks before the student elections, condemned candidates like
Zacks, who seek balance in the discussion. In a piece titled "Consult
this," Peak features editor Ian Rocksborough-Smith criticized
candidates who sought to cool the discussion.
"With the exception of a few, most candidates want to recognize
both sides in the conflict, as if there is a moral parity to be
struck between an aggressive imperial power with a nuclear arsenal
and a desperate yet resilient indigenous population with jammed
Kalashnikovs and rocks – as if there isn't clearly an oppressor
and an oppressed," wrote the editor.
The SFU debate reflects the tenor of attitudes on campuses across
Canada over Middle East affairs, including opposition to the war
in Iraq. At Montreal's Concordia University, a violent demonstration
against an aborted appearance by former Israeli prime minister Binyamin
Netanyahu led to a protracted conflict that saw the student government
on that campus cut funding and recognition to the Jewish student
organization, Hillel. That action is being challenged in Quebec
courts by the students, with the support of Canadian Jewish Congress.
More recently, the university administration has asked the Quebec
government to decertify the student union at Concordia. Though the
Montreal university – which has a reputation for radical politics
– is home to the most public conflict over the Middle East,
other campuses, such as the University of Toronto, have seen their
share of strife, including a series of petitions calling on universities
to divest from Israel.
Meanwhile, B'nai Brith Canada has set up a Web site – www.jewishstudentscanada.ca
– that offers a portal for Israel activism and camaraderie
for Jewish students across the country.
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