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June 24, 2005
Campuses still biased
Zionist activist condemns anti-Israel sentiment.
PAT JOHNSON
Attempts to boycott Israeli universities and academics suffered
a blow recently, when British university educators rescinded a policy
of blackballing three Israeli universities. The decision was made
for a variety of reasons, among them the principle of academic freedom,
but not before the irrationality of such a boycott was made evident,
with the help of a Vancouver activist.
Howard Stein, a retired medical doctor, educator and a founding
member of the B.C. Campus Action Coalition, told an audience at
West Vancouver's Har El synagogue last week that he intervened in
a case where an informal academic boycott threatened the lives of
Palestinian children. Hadassah Hospital had attempted to get a gene
from a Norwegian researcher, but was rebuffed because the scientist
had a personal animus toward the Jewish state. The story was a little
more complicated, however, because the gene was needed by Israeli
Jewish and Arab researchers working on a cure for a rare blood disorder
that affects primarily Arab children. In short, the boycott of Israel
was having a detrimental effect on the lives of young Palestinians.
"I wrote her and told her that and she eventually relented,"
Stein said in a presentation to the HarEl men's club on June 15.
He was speaking on behalf of the B.C. Campus Action Coalition, a
group of post-secondary educators, which was formed to respond to
the strength of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic attitudes at colleges
and universities in the province.
Though the Norwegian incident was an ad hoc response by one misguided
academic, the decision by Britain's Association of University Teachers
to rescind its boycott may be indicative of cooler heads in an environment
where Israeli academics have been targeted at the expense of academic
inquiry.
Stein gave an overview of Canadian campus incidents in recent years,
from the most notorious - the destructive riot on Montreal's Concordia
University campus, incited by anti-Israel activists protesting the
visit of former Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu - to less
familiar and more subtle incidents of personal affronts and dubious
political discussion.
At Simon Fraser University last year, Stein said, a speaker refused
to take a question from a Jewish student, saying he would communicate
with Jews only through bullets. At SFU and elsewhere, Jewish, Israeli
and Zionist speakers have been prevented from expressing their opinions
by organized riots, disruptions and threats, Stein said. Views that
conflict with the prevailing pro-Palestinian attitudes have been
stifled. Campus newspapers and student bodies have been taken over
by small groups whose primary agenda is to vilify Israel. At Langara
College, Zionist students were told that letting an Israeli speak
on campus would be like inviting Hitler's propagandist Joseph Goebbels
to lecture. This was a week after the college welcomed a panel discussion
on "Why Israel is an apartheid state."
A year earlier, Jewish students on Toronto's York University campus
were attacked by "peace" demonstrators. At the same campus,
a sukkah was destroyed during Sukkot. Countless events that depict
Israel in the most demonic terms are held - without incident - on
Canadian campuses.
Vandalism has struck Jewish organizations on campus, including at
the University of British Columbia. Professors have punished pro-Israel
students through lowered marks and disparaging comments in class,
Stein said, and intimidation is a common tool in an environment
where intellectual discussion should prevail.
"These people are very, very aggressive, in physical ways,
in addition to verbal ways," Stein observed.
Some university administrators are to blame for the current atmosphere,
Stein suggested, because the worst incidents of anti-Jewish and
anti-Israel extremism go unpunished.
"Because there's no punishment, these keep occurring,"
he said.
The situation on Canadian campuses should raise more concern than
it does, Stein said, not only because of the threat it poses to
Jews, but because it also threatens free expression, academic inquiry
and balanced discourse.
Stein singled out for criticism groups that he said should naturally
be allied with pro-Israel forces on campus, such as campus gay and
lesbian clubs.
Despite the fact that Israel is the only country in its region where
homosexuals are protected by law - in some Middle Eastern countries,
homosexuality is punishable by death and even in relatively "liberal"
Arab states, being openly gay is a recipe for disaster - Canadian
gay groups on campus have passed resolutions siding unequivocally
with the Palestinian cause.
Stein noted that some of the strongest critics of Israel on campus
are themselves Jewish. Anti-Israel activists exploit Jewish critics
of Israeli policies, Stein said.
"Sometimes your biggest foes on campus are Jews," said
Stein, noting that, along with gays and lesbians, some of the most
natural allies have been co-opted against Israel. That Muslim student
groups, the plethora of pro-Palestinian clubs and student New Democrats
are among the most vocal critics of Israel is no surprise, Stein
said.
"That's obvious," Stein said. "But what you don't
realize is there are people who should be on our side, but aren't."
Pat Johnson is a B.C. journalist and commentator.
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