Tag: BDS

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Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions and Palestinian rights

Graphic by Florence Yee.

Panelists from the Green Party, CJPME and Concordia students deliver panel on BDS

On Thursday, Concordia hosted the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) Town Hall, which featured four panelists discussing the goals and achievements of the movement, as well as the misconceptions surrounding it.

The speakers included Grace Batchoun, the co-founder of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME); Dimitri Lascaris, a former member of the Green Party of Canada’s shadow cabinet; Alex Tyrrell, the leader of the Green Party of Quebec; and Rami Yahia, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) internal affairs coordinator.

Tyrrell said these discussions are leading up to the Green Party of Canada convention in December, intended to overturn the party’s current BDS position. The Green Party of Quebec is in support of the BDS movement, however, Tyrrell later said at the federal level, Elizabeth May refuses to support the policy.  “We really hope that as many Green Party members as possible show up to support BDS,” said Tyrrell.

BDS Town Hall panelists include Alex Tyrrell, Dimitri Lascaris, Grace Batchoun and Rami Yahia. (From left to right) Photo courtesy of Dimitri Lascaris.

According to the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the goal of the BDS movement is to promote Palestinian rights. The movement calls for the boycott of Israeli and international companies that infringe on Palestinian human rights and occupy Palestinian land. According to BNC, the movement also pressures other governments to end military and free-trade agreements with Israel, and remove the country from international associations such as the United Nations and International Federation of Association Football (FIFA).

Lascaris discussed how a trip to Palestine gave him a first-hand look at the injustices the Palestinians face. One man he met, a 77-year-old citrus farmer, cried as he said, “They are breaking my connection to the land.” The Israeli state had extended the wall that separates the two nations—right down the middle of his lemon tree grove, Lascaris said.

“The companies that profit off of Palestinian suffering are profiting off of suffering all over the world,” said Yahia. He listed G4S, Caterpillar and Elbit Systems as examples of companies the BDS movement is boycotting. Yahia said that more and more companies are dropping their Israeli subsidiaries in response to BDS tactics.

Two years ago, Yahia was part of a campaign that succeeded in having the CSU officially endorse BDS. “That motion was to condemn the disproportionate use of force by the Israeli government after the massacre of 2014,” said Yahia.

Yahia said 2,500 students participated in the referendum, making it the “highest turnout in by-election history on campus.” This summer, Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir (SdBI) institute also gave their official endorsement. The panelists encouraged students to lobby their own faculties to do the same.

Yahia discussed the opposition he’s faced for his pro-BDS stance. Before the referendum, opposers of the BDS movement on campus labelled the campaign as antisemitic. Yahia even faced criticism from the CSU which he had believed to be progressive and supportive of this movement. “I was told I was too pro-Palestine to join an executive team at one point within the [CSU],” said Yahia.

Similarly, Lascaris lost his position within Parliament when he and other Green Party shadow cabinet members criticized the B.C. Green Party leader’s condemnation of the BDS movement.

Batchoun suggested that community members send letters to their MP requesting meetings to discuss the BDS movement. She also suggested signing up with CJPME as a media responder, which entails thanking publications who have covered the issue fairly and criticizing ones who, for example, say it is disputed territory when it is occupied territory.

Starting Oct. 3, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights is hosting “Decolonize Palestine,” a week filled with events in correlation to BDS and Palestinian culture. Additional information can be found on the SPHR Facebook page.

Graphic by Florence Yee

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Concordia President looks to 2015

Alan Shepard discusses budget, a new library, and the BDS movement

Concordia President Alan Shepard has said the university is becoming increasingly vocal against the ongoing austerity cuts, but that respectful negotiations and accommodation from both sides would be the only way forward under an austerity mindset.

“I don’t like to draw lines in the sand because [these] relationships are long-term,” said Shepard on the limits of patience. He said that compared to many of Quebec’s other institutions, Concordia remained one of the ones better off financially. “I’ve never been the type who drew lines in the sand.”

Shepard also reiterated the university’s distancing from the recently successful Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) vote, saying to restrict the flow of students between Israel or limit research purposes was a form of discrimination at odds with Concordia’s pluralistic mandate.

The BDS campaign seeks to sanction Israel based on what it calls human rights abuses against the Palestinians. It raised controversy at the school last semester amid multiple allegations of violations from both sides. Now the question is how it will be enacted and what the stance will be between the student body and the administration.

“Concordia does not and will not discriminate against any student wishing to study here,” said Shepard, who penned a response against BDS when it was voted in back in December 2014.

On a more positive note, Shepard said the Webster Library would begin undergoing renovations that will expand student spaces by shuffling several office floors to the Faubourg building and turning the space into study areas and a sprinkle of state-of-the-art technology, including 3D printers. In addition there will be special rooms calling for absolute silence and technological upgrades improving online help and data sharing.

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News

Concordia votes YES to Boycott, Sanction, Divest (from Israel)

How things go from here is now up to students, campaigners. 

The count is in, and Concordia’s student body has voted to support the Boycott, Sanction, Divest (BDS) movement against Israel. Final count: 1276 Yes votes, 1067 No votes, and 237 abstentions or spoiled ballots.

Javier I. Hoyos, Chairperson of the Yes Committee, broke the news to an exuberant group waiting on the threshold to the Concordia Student Union (CSU) office, where the tally was carried out.

“[I feel] speechless. I can’t believe it,” he said, saying he felt his side at a disadvantage with the last-minute question change. He said he was surprised the final tally showed a large number of Yes votes coming from John Molson—the centre of the No campaign.

There still exists the possibility of challenging the results. Shelly Kubik, Chairperson of the No campaign, wouldn’t confirm this would occur and simply said her team was studying the options available to them.

Hoyos said that if there is a challenge of the results his team’s report allegedly containing examples of numerous campaign violations by the No side could be utilized, assuming his committee decides on doing so.

Though the report is still private, CSU CEO Andre-Marcel Baril confirmed a $150 fine had been leveled against the No side for violations. Until Baril’s own report on the matter comes out, what those violations were won’t be available to the public either.

Hoyos cautioned that although the Yes side has won, the implementation is ultimately up the university administration. For now a committee open to the public will be formed on how to proceed and mold the BDS movement, which calls for economic, academic, and cultural sanctions against Israel for is alleged violations of human rights in Palestine, in a Concordian context.

“This is in order to show BDS is not arbitrary. We cannot jut ban any product, cut ties with any institution. We need to prove there is empirical evidence showing institutions and certain products are complicit in the occupation of Palestinian territories. Whatever decision we take will have to be accepted by the CSU, and be backed up by research.” Hoyos hopes to have this research take the first half of the year, with implementation beginning in the next fall semester. “Being arbitrary would be the worst thing we could do not.”

Kubik’s team will definitely be challenging the CEO’s fine. “Absolutely. The accusations are completely absurd.” She used the example of chalk note on a blackboard saying “Vote no to BDS” to the tenuous nature of the charges. No evidence exists showing who did it. “It could have been anybody who wrote that. As far as we’re concerned, it could have been anyone.”

Whatever happens from here on out, her campaigners will continue their efforts.

“We’re the people who have to lead. Will we be involved? For sure, we’re not going anywhere. We will make sure all of the students are treated fairly. That was what the campaign ran on and feeling comfortable and being singled out, which is what BDS does and will do.

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Byelection results mostly positive save for suspended BDS vote

Stance on Middle East politics divides campus

The 2014 Concordia Student Union (CSU) election results have come in, with winning councillors decided on and nearly all referendum questions voted in the affirmative.

The vote was not without controversy, as the truly divisive question around adopting the Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) movement concerning Israel was challenged in a last-minute judicial board meeting the night before polls opened and ultimately suspended pending criticism.

The referendum question results were the following:

Daycare – 1551 (yes), 236 (No), 613 (Abstain)

Anti-Austerity – 1317 (yes), 342 (No), 717 (Abstain)

Student Housing –  1598 (yes), 182 (No), 613 (Abstain)

Hive Café – 952 (yes), 448 (No), 903 (Abstain)

IEAC separation – 865 (yes), 433 (No), 1197 (Abstain)

IEAC Fee Levy – 708 (yes), 761 (No), 1024 (Abstain)

CONMUN Fee Levy – 888 (yes), 653 (No), 944 (Abstain)

The new CSU councillors are, by faculty:

Arts and Science Council: Jason Poirier Lavoie

JMSB Council: Scott Carr, Taimur Tanoli, & Maylen Cytryn

ENCS Council: Faddy Kamel

Independent Student Council: Marie Briere de la Hossayere

BDS challenged, changed, concealed

The last-minute judicial board meeting was held between plaintiffs arguing the matter surrounding the BDS question violated or was unclear on several points. The three points brought to the Judicial Board were as such:

  1. The original nature of the question, calling for BDS ‘against Israel’s occupation of Palestine’ until it complied with ‘international Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights’, was alleged to be prejudicial in wording. The council voted that it was not but changed the wording of the question to account for the sensitivity. This necessitated new ballots be printed before polls opened.

  1. The complaint that Chief Electoral Officer Andre-Marcil Baril had not put the question to the public within the minimum 7 days before polls opened, as outlined in the rules. Upon reviewing a timeline provided by Baril, this point was also dismissed.

  1. The final complaint was that the scope of the question, if voted affirmatively, could have prejudicially impacted groups on campus that maintain ties with Israel, and lead to their ‘oppression and alienation’, according to the CSU Judicial Decision document. This complaint was dismissed because it was considered to fall outside the scope of the Judicial Board’s mandate, with the CSU judged as having sufficient democratic principles and legislature to prevent oppression and alienation of any group.

The vote was suspended until this Friday afternoon when Andre-Marcel Baril, CEO of the Concordia Student Union (CSU), felt the best way to reply to complaints by both sides was by bringing in an independent third party for the vote counting.

“Regardless of whether we win or we lose, there has been a breach of legitimacy. [The No campaign] violated too many rules,” said Javier I. Hoyos, chairman of the Yes campaign, who said he was concerned with the ‘overall distortions’ of the voting process.

“We actually wrote a full 30 to 40 page report that we sent to the CEO, [and] that we might make public. There [are] pictures, there is video, there are snapshots of Facebook conversations.”

Opponents of BDS made an unsuccessful last-minute appeal to the Judicial Board the night before voting on the grounds that the question was vague over what exactly constituted BDS and what its implementation would mean for the university. They were successful however in getting the question, which they considered to be prejudicially worded, changed.

“From the beginning we had to be straightforward about what we were demanding. The CEO actually asked us to change all the posters and flyers that said ‘human rights’ to ‘Palestinian human rights’. He said we weren’t here protecting human rights, but Palestinian human rights. But the opposition got away with saying pretty much anything. If we were considered too vague … how come the opposition got away with telling the universities we were going to exclude Jewish students from full access to our institutions?”

He alleges these violations included the destruction of BDS campaign posters and concerns over financing.

“We want a transparent report of their finances,” said Hoyos. “In our experience with our budget, we don’t know how they pulled the amount of things they did.” He said the No side said they’d spent about $300 for the campaign.

All in all, the number of individual violations allegedly amounts to over 20.

“These things might sound silly, but they keep adding up,” he said. “We don’t know whether we should disclose these now, or until after the count.”

Lauren Luz, spokesperson for the No committee and one of the original plaintiffs to the Judicial Board, denied the accusations. She said her team went through the proper channels and got Barill’s approval at every step.

“We have followed all the rules. We were never informed by the CEO or by the Yes campaign committee of any such report regarding our violations. It is at the discretion of the CEO as to what constitutes a sanction. Had the No campaign broken any rules or done anything out of conduct, we would have been informed of these supposed violations,” said Luz, adding that “both campaigns chose to spend their money in different ways.”

“For example, we chose to have pins made instead of putting up posters.”

The pins have also proven to be a point of contention, with Hoyos claiming he had seen the No side wear them during the voting period, where the slightest campaigning is forbidden. Luz denied this, saying her team knew the rules and did not sport pins but could not stop students uninvolved in the campaign from doing so if they wanted to.

It also appears a non-student was behind the ripped posters.

“The CEO verified this using camera footage provided to him by Concordia security,” she said, and CSU President Benjamin Prunty confirmed this had been brought to their attention.

Both sides are now awaiting the result of the vote before deciding what they’ll do next.  Whatever the final tally, Hoyos says his side will continue to press their findings.

“That is something the CSU will have to look into in the future, perhaps by calling in independent monitors to look into the behaviour of both parties.”

The BDS vote count will take place on Friday, Dec. 5, and is expected to be made public by 7 p.m.

 

 

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Opinions

Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israeli Apartheid

BDS Quebec endorses “Yes to BDS” campaign at Concordia University

This summer, the world witnessed yet another massacre of Palestinian civilians in Gaza: men, women and children who are occupied, besieged and, since 2007, subject to a total blockade by the armed forces of Israel, the occupying power. This blockade is illegal, immoral and inhuman.

But the immorality of the collective punishment Israel is inflicting on the Palestinian people goes well beyond the borders of Gaza. Israel is an apartheid state, as defined by the UN Convention on the Prevention and Suppression of the Crime of Apartheid. Israeli apartheid is based on the same three pillars as South African apartheid:
different rights for different groups
discriminatory access to land and population separation in different geographical zones,
total control of the population and military repression.
Palestinian citizens of Israel suffer legalized and institutionalized discrimination at the hands of the Israeli state, simply because they are Palestinian. Like South Africa before 1994, Israel is a “democratic” State for its Jewish population – though certain categories of this population face injustice – but a profoundly anti-democratic one for Palestinians.

Israel is the only state in the world which benefits from total impunity before the international community. The states of this community have woefully failed in their duty to hold Israel responsible for the constant violations of rights of the Palestinian people, leaving Israel free to continue its occupation, its colonization and its dispossession with total impunity.

Where the international community has failed to hold Israel to account, it is up to civil society to lay the grounds for change by supporting and engaging in the world wide campaign to Boycott, Divest and Sanction the State of Israel.

In the coming days, Concordia students will be asked to join this large international movement in favor of human rights, justice and equality for all. On behalf of the Québec BDS Coalition, we want to praise Concordia students for, once again, standing on the right side of history. Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israeli Apartheid!

Steering committee of the Québec BDS Coalition
(which counts over 30 organizations including major labour unions and community organizations across the province).

Rushdia Mehreen
Member of the steering committee of BDS Quebec

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Concordia Student Union Opinions

A letter to the CSU regarding the BDS

To whom it may concern,

As a Jewish Israeli/Canadian student enrolled at Concordia University, I am deeply disheartened by the BDS resolution calling for a “boycott of all academic and consumer ties with any institution or company that aids in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.” I do not see the relevance of a University taking a stance against a country that has no bearing to the University’s existence, other than reaping from its resources, generous contributions and donations, as well as demographically speaking, constituting a decent fraction of the student population.

Having resided the last few years in Israel, and unlike most of the people submitting uneducated and false, propaganda-influenced accusations, I find it absolutely sickening to think that I could potentially be funding a University that is boycotting my homeland based on false pretenses. While studying at Bar Ilan University, which happens to not only be an Israeli University, but a religious Zionist one, I studied among Arab classmates. Freedom of Religion granted to them within a religious institution. The people ‘suffering under apartheid’ are practicing their religion freely in the most religious, Zionist campus in Israel, taking advantage of all the opportunities the country has to offer, as they should. While hospitalized at Tel Hashomer, one of the prestigious hospitals in Israel, I was treated by an Arab doctor…Where is the inequality and lack of opportunity that you intend on protesting?

Apartheid? Is an Apartheid state one that not only admits students regardless of their beliefs, but provides low cost dorms to Jews and Arabs alike, without discrimination? The Arab population of students attending Haifa University, is a whopping 30 per cent.

Having been taxed as part of the working force, some of my hard earned salary went to providing water & electricity to Gaza, despite the ongoing conflict. Nahariya’s Galil Hospital has treated nearly 400 people injured in civil war in the past few years. The people treated were not Israeli citizens. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is Democratic. Arabs in Israel have equal voting rights and ironically, Israel is among the few places in the Middle East that allots Arab women the right to vote (they do not even hold such rights in most of the other Middle Eastern countries). There are eight Arab members in the Unicameral Parliament of Israel. Arabic, like Hebrew, is an official language of Israel. More than 300,000 Arab children attend Israeli schools.

A SodaStream factory located in the West Bank is closing due to Pro-Palestinian activists calling for a boycott, rendering 500 Palestinians, 450 Israel Arabs and 350 Israeli Jews unemployed. A 16:7 ratio of Arab to Israel workers somewhat contradicts the terms of an Apartheid.

With this being said, I find it rather distasteful that a University that has received a $5 Million donation from The Azrieli Foundation, as well as a $1 Million donation from Bronfman can even permit such a vote to be held within its institution, especially with the issue being so far from being connected at all. Azrieli also established the first endowed fellowship program for Concordia graduate students. Before calling for a boycott, one should do their research; we all benefit from Israel’s resources and achievements on a daily basis.

Israeli scientists are responsible for having developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer. The cell phone was developed in Israel by Motorola, Voice Mail technology and the ‘Disk on Key’ was also developed in Israel. Rummikub, the third highest selling board game globally, is manufactured in the southern town of Arad, also in Israel. A design submitted by Michael Arad (Israeli-born) was chosen for the World Trade Center Memorial, commemorating the tragic loss our nation experienced at the hands of terrorism. A novel stem cell therapy treatment to Parkinson’s Disease was developed by Israeli researches, the treatment uses a patient’s own bone marrow stem cells to produce the missing chemical that enables restoration of motor movement. Israel is always among the first to send out IDF soldiers and medics to assist in any natural disaster, or medical epidemic.

Throwing around allegations of Apartheid is not only irrelevant, but also quite offensive to those living in apartheid (eg; South Africa).  These are facts, not opinions. The accusation of Israel being an Apartheid country is an opinion, not a fact.

If you are going to call for a boycott, you cannot pick and choose your stance. If you call for a boycott, you have no right to benefit from the country’s achievements, or accept financial donations. You cannot boycott Israel and continue to benefit from its resources. The Concordia Student Union has no right to be taking a stance on something far beyond their understanding, with absolutely no bearing on its existence whatsoever. There is no place for hostility in a place that once provided us comfort and equality. We should be focusing on our common goal; a higher education.

-Ayelet Bender

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Opinions

Letter to the Editor: BDS

I’m glad to see Concordia students like Bradley Martin standing up against the despicable BDS movement. BDS is nothing more than a vicious attempt by misguided Antisemites to discredit the only just democracy in the Middle East: Israel.

While I’ll agree that being opposed to Israel or having issues with its policies does not necessarily equal Antisemitism, the BDS movement is inherently Anti-Jewish. It’s about trying to deprive Jews of their livelihood, not oppose government policies. And it is a massive failure.

Regardless of the fact that BDS is laughable and will never succeed in its goal of erasing Jews from the Middle East, it still must be opposed. The sheer stupidity of the movement is well explained by Martin (will the CSU have all Intel chip removed from the university?). This movement intentionally ignores atrocities around the world and attacks Israel simply because it is a Jewish state.

As the students of Concordia did when I was there in the 2000-2004, I believe they will wake up to the absurdity of their student government’s support of Antisemitism and, if not topple the CSU as we did back then, at least prevent it from embarrassing our school any further.

It’s no secret that year after year the CSU is hijacked by the extreme left because the vast majority of students believe it’s a complete waste of time and energy and ignore it. Once in a while, however, the CSU becomes such an embarrassment that the general population has to get step up and take it down.

Seems like that time is coming again.

Noah Sidel
BA journalism ’04

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