Misconceptions spread

ELLIOT CAMPBELL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

On Saturday, Feb. 8, I attended a conference held at the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University (SFU), entitled Dispelling Misconceptions: Media, Conflict and Imperialism in the Middle East. The conference title, however, was a complete misnomer, as the panelists all reflected a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel perspective. A more appropriate title would have been Spreading Misconceptions: An Arab/Palestinian view of the Middle East.

The speakers included members of the Palestinian Solidarity Group, the Canada-Palestine Association, an editor of electronicintifada.net, Gabor Maté of Jews for a Just Peace and students and faculty members from the SFU history department.

All of the speakers expressed opinions that could be seen as anti-Israel. Issues included the "unfair situation" in Israel, praise for the University Divest from Israel campaign taking place in the United States, the characterization of Israel as an "apartheid" state and the erroneous statistic that 80 per cent of the Palestinians were "forced out" of their land in 1948. Israel was sometimes referred to as "Palestine." The Jewish Western Bulletin was even criticized during the course of the conference for publishing an article in December 2001 entitled "Slant at SFU worries Jews," which chronicled complaints that the SFU student newspaper had an anti-Israel bias.

I was one of the few vocal supporters of Israel in attendance. I was cut off by the moderator from responding to misleading information that panelists provided as an answer to a question I had asked. Ironically, the moderator argued that this was not a forum for debate. Another Israel supporter, a friend of mine, was personally insulted by one of the panelists, who asked if he was "married to Izzy Asper or something." The questioner had asked about the disproportionate amount of media coverage Israel gets. For a conference that had a stated goal to create a dialogue and "dispel misconceptions," it did a poor job.

Unfortunately, events such as these are not unique on Canadian university campuses. In fact, it is a festering problem. We all know of the riots that occurred at Concordia when Binyamin Netanyahu tried to speak, and of the hurdles Daniel Pipes had to go through to speak at York. Recently, a professor at the University of Toronto used a university server to circulate a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel letter and resolution to all faculty members. And just last week, the Simon Fraser Student Society, which purports to represent all students at SFU, approved a motion calling for an "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."

Students are on the "front lines" and, as such, require more support from the community. They are mobilizing and attempting to be proactive, as well as reactive. Israel advocacy committees now operate at the University of British Columbia and SFU and are doing outreach at colleges in the city. Students are acting because we aspire to curb the anti-Israel elements on campuses, appropriately referred to as the "rot" by Pipes.

Elliot Campbell is a communications student in his final year at Simon Fraser University.

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