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December 14, 2001
Slant at SFU worries Jews
Campus newspaper, The Peak, is a hotbed of anti-Israel
bias.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
Jewish students at Simon Fraser University have been intimidated
by some of the material being published in the campus newspaper,
The Peak, but a newspaper official said the solution is to
get involved and change the editorial policies.
Though the vitriolic nature of the articles has toned down since
Sept. 11, according to some, the paper has run numerous vigorously
anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian opinion pieces in the past couple
of years, particularly since the onset of the intifada.
In one article, a commentator presented his view of the Middle
East situation.
"I've been to Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem east and west,"
wrote Chuck Demers, the opinions editor, in a February article.
"I didn't see two peoples fighting for one land; I saw occupation,
dispossession and destruction. I didn't see a peace process, I saw
resistance seemingly smothered and pacified, an infant Palestinian
entity being choked in its crib. There's no war going on in Israel/Palestine;
wars don't concentrate almost all of their casualties on one side,
slaughters do."
In an annual humor issue recently, an article satirized media magnate
Izzy Asper but, in doing so, played up old stereotypes of Jews controlling
the media, said Gabe Meranda, director of Hillel UBC, who liaises
with the group at Simon Fraser as well.
"Their anti-Israel vitriol is offensive," said Meranda. "It's
lies. It's full of lies."
Elliot Campbell, president of Hillel SFU, said it is a very small
group that is putting the anti-Israeli propaganda in the newspaper,
but they are having a strong influence on discussion on the campus.
In one incident, Jewish students attended a meeting organized by
the Muslim Students Association that was billed as a program to
"discuss openly and evenly the issues of the current, complex situation
in the Middle East."
In a letter published by The Peak, the campus Hillel group
said its members were greeted by nothing but propaganda.
"The evening turned out to be a one-sided display of condemnation
and rhetoric," wrote club representatives. At present, members are
considering what options are open to them through complaint mechanisms
or via campus policies governing the school newspaper.
"We wouldn't rule out anything at this point," said Campbell.
He noted that things have quieted down in the past couple of months,
but he fears a revival when publishing begins again in the new semester
beginning in January, because of recent developments which have
seen the Israel Defence Force retaliate against terror by attacking
Palestinian bases. But the business manager of The Peak said
critics should put up or shut up.
The process for influencing editorial content is simple and easy
to influence, said Don Elder. In fact, the issue seemed to strike
a particularly raw nerve with Elder, who is a paid Peak staff member,
whose job is to assist students in running the paper, but who does
not get involved in editorial decisions. He freely acknowledged
that there has not been balanced coverage in the pages of his newspaper.
"Of course there hasn't," he said. "The students don't get involved.
There's 19,000 here and you get one or two that are pro-this and
come in and get the job and write whatever they want and nobody
does anything. That's been the story here for years."
He said Jewish students and those who disagree with the paper's
content have plenty of options available to them, including censuring
or supplanting existing editors.
"They can vote. They can vote them out. They can get involved.
They can come to the weekly meetings. They can get on the board....
They do nothing."
The paper is run by an eight-member board and editorial positions
are chosen by election. To illustrate how easy it would be to take
over the board, he said there were only about a dozen students at
the recent election for editorial positions.
"Did anybody run against this opinions editor?" he asked. "Did
anybody else apply for the job? No. It's an exasperation for me
to get them involved."
In order to get the 12 students out to the meeting, he said, he
put up posters, advertised the event in the newspaper, offered a
cash draw of $100 as a door prize and ordered $200 worth of food.
"I practically have to pay them to get involved in the newspaper,"
he complained. Elder said any student is welcome to join the staff
and people should not presume that they will be unwelcome.
"Our volunteer and promotions co-ordinator is Jewish," he said.
"They want to get involved, they go see Irma Arkus."
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