Simon Wiesenthal, a renowned Nazi hunter and namesake of the Wiesenthal Centre, a United Nations accredited non-governmental organization, has called on Rector Frederick Lowy to bring Benjamin Netanyahu back to Concordia.
Wiesenthal has never before issued statements pertaining to similar situations on any other campus in North America. He felt that the events at Concordia called for immediate action and a personal intervention.
“I recently learned that your university cancelled a scheduled speech by Israel’s former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu after anti-Israeli protesters rioted and rampaged,” Wiesenthal said in a letter received by the rector last Tuesday. “I urge you to reschedule Mr. Netanyahu’s appearance at your university as soon as possible. Failure to do so will only further embolden those who see violence as the only way to achieve results.”
The letter was hand delivered to the rector by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles. Rabbi Cooper explained that the 93-year-old Wiesenthal, who lives in Vienna, felt compelled to become involved in the situation at Concordia after hearing about racist slurs uttered at Jews during the protest outside the Hall Building.
“To allow their violence and intimidation to succeed in silencing an important voice should be unacceptable to a university which promotes the values of freedom of speech and open exchange of ideas,” Wiesenthal said in the letter.
Rabbi Cooper came to Montreal with a message of his own. “For those few people who were involved in violence [of Sept. 9] and were involved in overt hatred of Jews, from their perspective, they have won,” he said. He called on the rector to take immediate actions against students believed to have broken the law, but urged him to reconsider his stance on the moratorium. “A temporary moratorium in response to violence is acceptable, but long range it is not an answer,” he explained. “You can’t have a moratorium on ideas.”
Rector Lowy has not yet announced whether or not the administration is considering bringing Netanyahu back to Concordia.
“The rector met with the representatives of the Wiesenthal organization, they stated their case, the rector listened,” said Chris Mota a spokeswoman for the university. “At this point he is not prepared to make any decisions.”
Talk of bringing Netanyahu back to Concordia has further illustrated the division that still exists between Hillel and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), the two main groups involved in the conflict.
“He [Netanyahu] should be brought back as soon as possible,” said Noah Joseph, co-president of Hillel Concordia. “Any other academic institution that had any backbone would have brought him back the next day.”
SPHR President Basel Al-Ken sees the situation differently and believes that requests to bring Netanyahu back are outrageous and will only aggravate an already volatile situation. “We had reasons to demonstrate his presence on campus the last time,” he said. “The same reasons are still there, if he comes back we will demonstrate again.”
