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April 2, 2004
Nasty incidents mar campuses
Israel's friends here are struggling to get their message out
to students.
PAT JOHNSON SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
A year ago, the Bulletin reviewed the situation faced
by Jewish and pro-Israel students on local university campuses.
This week, we consider the progress and setbacks of the past year.
For the second year in a row, Jewish students of Vancouver-area
post-secondary campuses have helped organize events that demonstrate
the Israeli side of the Middle East conflict. For the second year
in a row, the events proved successful, drawing heated and passionate
debate, leaving the organizers rejuvenated and convinced that there
remains a willingness on the part of most local students to discuss
the conflict with open minds and hearts.
But recent events on campuses have not been without their worrying
glitches. Some Simon Fraser University students raised the spectre
of a chill on campus free speech by shutting down a representative
of Israel's government last month, refusing to allow Consul-General
Ya'acov Brosh an opportunity to speak, drowning him out with chants
of "Racist out" and other accusations.
Critics on the campus of Langara College have given similarly rough
treatment to Israeli visitors over the past year. At the University
of British Columbia, presentations like that by American academic
Daniel Pipes were subject to vocal protests, but went ahead as planned.
Others, such as the visit by an Israeli Bedouin who sought to speak
about Israeli multiculturalism, was denied space by the Langara
College students association. (That presentation went ahead after
a faculty member stepped in and sponsored a room for the event.)
Critics of the speakers have argued, variously, that representatives
of the Israeli government (or anyone who has served in the Israeli
military, a group that includes almost every Israeli citizen, since
national service is mandatory in Israel) should not be permitted
to speak on campuses because they represent an illegitimate, occupying
power.
At a public presentation last week on the SFU campus, a group of
anti-Israel activists engaged in debate with Leo Adler, the Toronto-based
director of national affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. The
chasm between the two sides remains evident, though this time the
meeting did not devolve into mayhem. Some participants in the protests
have said they make a distinction between representatives of the
government of Israel and nongovernmental spokespeople for the Israeli
cause. The Bulletin has attempted to interview the most vocal
of the students at recent protests and has been brushed aside.
Though a small group of activists has made a strong presence felt
on Vancouver-area campuses, they are actually a self-selecting audience
who go from campus to campus, often the same few dozen faces, to
protest Israeli and pro-Israeli speakers wherever they appear. Members
of Hillel, the campus student group, and members of recently formed
Israel advocacy groups on three area campuses say they encounter
far more open-mindedness toward Israel when they set up posters
and information tables during "Israel Week" events. Such
a week took place recently on the Langara College campus, occurred
last week at SFU and was continuing this week at UBC when the Bulletin
went to press.
Local Jewish students say the Israel Week events give them hope
and invigorate them to continue to represent the case for Israel
on campuses. But, with campus newspapers nationwide as forums for
massively unbalanced depictions of Mideast events and campus activists
keeping the heat on Israel as a top priority in campus politics,
students know they have a tough uphill slog.
Elliott Campbell graduated recently from SFU and has joined the
Hillel staff as campus outreach co-ordinator to community colleges.
Until last year, there was almost no organized pro-Israel (or even
Jewish) presence on most community college campuses. Now, with the
work of small groups on campuses and the assistance of Campbell
and other Hillel staff, rising condemnations of Israel at colleges
are no longer going uncontested.
In conjunction with Langara's new Israel Advocacy Club, Hillel has
brought pro-Israel speakers to Langara's campus. Campbell said the
speakers have raised controversy, but denies that Hillel is provoking
Israel's enemies by organizing such meetings.
"The point of bringing the speakers in is to allow people to
hear other points of view," said Campbell, who added he has
hope that the campus environment will improve. "I'm cautious
[but] I'm hoping, obviously, that these things will get better."
He expressed optimism that the situation at UBC and other B.C. educational
facilities will not reach the depths it has in other provinces.
Still, the tensions on local campuses reflect the pitched battle
taking place at universities and colleges elsewhere in the country
and, in fact, around the world. There is a widespread acceptance
among Jewish community organizers and Israel activists that, for
now at least, Canada's campuses are the frontlines in the battle
over who is right and who is wrong in the Middle East. It is an
issue that seems as passionate and divisive as was the Vietnam War
in a previous era, a point made by Adler in his presentation last
Friday. But it is the recognition of the importance of this forum
that has led to a major undertaking by national Israel advocates.
The major new initiative of Canadian Jewry to defend Israel's cause
has taken the form of CIJA, the Canadian Council for Israel and
Jewish Advocacy, an umbrella intended to co-ordinate and improve
the moral defence of Israel here in Canada. Under that umbrella
falls the National Committee for Jewish Campus Life, which is undertaking
a national campaign to raise the level of discussion of Israel affairs
on campuses and to alleviate the sense of isolation and fear felt
by many Jewish students.
The conflict continues, however. Nationwide, Montreal and Toronto
continue to be hotbeds of nasty clashes. Concordia University is
facing a request to ban swastikas on campus after increasing graffiti
including the Nazi symbol has appeared at the school. In an incident
on the campus last fall, a protestor scrawled a swastika on an Israeli
flag. Repugnant pamphlets have appeared at Concordia targeting Jewish
faculty members, depicting the campus as controlled by Jews and
with the university crudely drawn to resemble a synagogue. In one
image, reported by the Montreal Gazette, the university's
crest was emblazoned with a Star of David. Concordia's rector, Fred
Lowy, was branded "chairman of the Concordia kibbutz,"
according to the Gazette.
In Toronto, Hillel was banned as a disciplinary measure by York
University officials after a confrontation last month with anti-Israel
protestors who set up a mock "checkpoint." Hillel students
report that administration officials stood by for an hour as the
confrontation continued, then acted against the Jewish student group
in the aftermath, by temporarily halting Hillel's club privileges.
Still, Zac Kaye, executive director of Hillel of Greater Toronto,
said things have gotten better generally and he has not heard of
any students who are afraid to self-identify as Jewish on campus.
"That's not the reality," he said, adding that Hillel
is not losing perspective. While ensuring that Israel advocacy has
a place in the group's activities, Kaye notes that the broader mandate
of Hillel is to provide Jewish education, culture, social activities
and other services.
Kaye believes Zionists may be inclined to overestimate the strength
of pro-Palestinian supporters on campus and, like his Hillel colleagues
in Vancouver, he believes his group is setting the agenda in the
debate over Mideast affairs, while forcing anti-Israel groups onto
the defensive. Where he sees difficult challenges is in the classroom,
where anecdotal reports suggest professors are commonly critical
of Israel, and among trade unionists like the Canadian Union of
Public Employees, which is taking stridently anti-Israel positions.
At McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., meanwhile, the student
government has put a Zionist club on "probation," appointing
the former president of the campus Muslim Students Association as
a "governor" of the group, an act the club equates with
censorship and as contradictory to the concept of free academic
inquiry.
Eyal Lichtmann, director of Hillel Vancouver, acknowledged these
have been tough times for Jewish students, but added the pressures
of recent years have helped build a generation of strong leaders
for the Jewish community and for Israel advocacy. He credits four
members of Hillel who recently attended a Vancouver presentation
by the American commentator Noam Chomsky and challenged the noted
linguist's interpretation of events.
"It takes enormous guts to stand up in a place like that and
to have the whole room booing you," said Lichtmann. "We
have a lot of work still to do, but I'm very, very proud of the
work the students have done."
Pat Johnson is a native Vancouverite, a journalist and
commentator.
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