Tag: Israel

Categories
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

Categories
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

Categories
Opinions

Response to ‘selective outrage’: Vote against selective history

On Nov. 25, vote for sanctions against Israeli institutions

We graduate students voted with our conscience in January 2013, voting yes to Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel’s occupation of Palestine. In doing so, we learned that making an educated decision about BDS means not letting a selective history blindside you. Last week’s op-ed “BDS and the CSU: a story of selective outrage” by Bradley Martin was a great example of the selective omissions and common myths propagated by those opposing BDS. These myths need to be debunked so that a more comprehensive history can emerge.

First, Israel’s occupation does relate to us as students. For example, our tuition dollars are complicit with Concordia’s bilateral agreement with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, which assists in the development of tanks and technologies reinforcing the occupation and wall dividing Israel and Palestine. BDS does not condemn Israeli individuals, but rather such particular institutional relationships that make us complicit with Israel’s violations of international law—just as the boycott campaign against South Africa did not target South Africans, but the institutions supporting apartheid.

Another common myth is that BDS would “single Israel out for isolation, when such standards are not applied equally across all governments,” in Martin’s words. This myth sits on bankrupt historical grounds. Syria and North Korea are heavily sanctioned by the international community. The reason Saudi Arabia is not sanctioned is because of the interests of Israel and its allies in oil-rich industries. If that escape from sanctions comes as a shock, the case of Israel is what really “sticks out like a sore thumb,” to use Martin’s words. It is not BDS, but the international community’s lack of sanctions, that historically singled Israel out. According to the WRMEA, Israel has enjoyed the largest amount of aid from the U.S.A (and a cozy relationship with our own Stephen Harper). So not just our tuition dollars, our tax dollars are complicit with Israel’s violations of Palestinian human rights.

When Martin argues that BDS ignores how “235,000 Palestinians have been displaced inside Syria since the beginning of the conflict two years ago,” he conveniently forgets to mention that Israel was created in 1948 by forcefully displacing 800,000 of the Palestinian population from their homeland to the West Bank, Gaza Strip and other parts of the world, as documented in Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s book, Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Add to that 300,000 Palestinians and 150,000 Syrians who were displaced during the 1967 Israeli invasion of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights. These examples remind us that BDS does not have selective memory; unfortunately, Israel does.

 Martin created yet another smoke screen when he claimed that BDS would hinder technologies on campus. I would like to remind him that South Africa’s apartheid regime also hosted advanced academic and technological innovations, yet this did not stop the international community from successfully and strategically boycotting that regime. According to Sasha Polakow-Suransky, author of The Unspoken Alliance: Israel’s Secret Relationship with Apartheid South Africa, it only stopped Israel, whose joint nuclear research with the South African apartheid regime led Israel to be the only state in the Middle East still owning nuclear bombs. BDS is not selective about history, but it is selective about its most strategic targets, which will ultimately be up to its student members to determine.

 This brings me back to the mandate of student associations. Contrary to what Martin suggests, the mandate of your student union is not permanently engraved in stone on any website or in any constitution; rather it is carved out by you, critically minded students, who decide what role you believe students should have on your campus and in your society.

In this spirit, we hope that you will take the time to make an informed decision, based on a comprehensive sense of history and of students’ valuable role as critical thinkers in a democracy, and vote YES to BDS from Nov. 25 to 27.

Keivan,
Member of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Committee of the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA)

Categories
Concordia Student Union Opinions

BDS and the CSU: a story of selective outrage

[Press photo] “The BDS movement calls for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel for its alleged crimes against the Palestinian people.”

Vote ‘No’ to the BDS movement on Nov. 25

On its website, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) describes itself as an organization that “offers a number of important services to help make sure that students [sic] lives are as fun and problem free as possible.” The CSU also claims to defend the rights of students and represent their interests. Indeed, these are honourable principles that any student union must uphold if it is to ensure that their university is a safe haven for their students to engage in the free marketplace of ideas. It is therefore baffling as to why the CSU would go against their own principles.

In the 2014 CSU By-Elections Referendum, scheduled to take place from Nov. 25 to Nov. 27, the issue of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement sticks out like a sore thumb. While all the other questions deal with important issues that affect the lives of students, such as the establishment of a daycare centre and the improvement of student housing conditions, it is the former issue which seems awkwardly placed.

Support for BDS against the State of Israel runs counter to the principles of what the CSU claims to uphold, as well as most standards of decency.

[Press photo] “The BDS movement calls for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel for its alleged crimes against the Palestinian people.”

It is discriminatory to single Israel out for isolation, when such standards are not applied equally across all governments. The CSU has not seen fit to condemn the systemic discriminations of women and minorities by Saudi Arabia, the torture of hundreds of thousands of political dissidents in North Korea, and many other gruesome and serious human rights abuses that take place throughout the world. Neighboring Israel is Syria, where a bloody civil war has led to the deaths of an estimated 200,000 people. If focus is to be put solely on Palestinian suffering, more than 2,000 dead in Syria are Palestinian refugees and more than 55,000 Palestinians were forced to flee the country, according to Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) estimates that 235,000 Palestinians have been displaced inside Syria since the beginning of the conflict two years ago. These figures dwarf the Palestinian casualties that have happened in conflicts with Israel.

If consistency was pursued, then there would be a call for BDS against Syria and those of Syrian descent. However, such actions would be equally as ridiculous as what is being leveled at Israel. It goes against the CSU principles that were highlighted earlier, in that it sets a double-standard. Israeli students and those who identify with the State of Israel will be demonized for their affiliation. What was once a safe-space for students of all different backgrounds to exchange ideas will be replaced with narrow-minded and intolerant policies fueled by an anti-Israel obsession.

Apart from the inherently discriminatory nature of this BDS motion, it is also downright idiotic. Intel’s new multi-core processor was completely developed at its facilities in Israel. Will BDS supporters seek to remove such products from Concordia University, since they are developed and manufactured in Israel? It would certainly make for a technologically-bare campus, seeing as Israel also hosts Motorola and IBM’s largest R&D facilities outside the United States. Microsoft and Cisco also built their only foreign R&D facilities in that country.

Selective outrage seems to be a theme among proponents of BDS. It is therefore crucial that students vote ‘no’ against BDS when it comes to a referendum and that the CSU fulfill its mandate for all students of Concordia University. Instead of seeking to stigmatize a group of people, we should all focus on ways to improve the quality of student life across the board.

Bradley Martin is a Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) Fellow at Concordia University.

Categories
News

Students petition for pro-Palestine stance

Petition brought forward and students will vote at by-elections this winter

On Friday, Oct. 17, a meeting held by the CSU confirmed that a petition concerning a referendum on Concordia’s stance on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement (BDS) can now be brought to students’ attention.

The movement is seeking to increase international pressure on Israel, both politically and economically. According the bdsmovement.org, “The signatories to this call represent the three major components of the Palestinian people: the refugees in exile, Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the discriminated Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state.”

Three Concordians brought forward their desire to distribute this petition, one of whom is CSU Councillor Rami Yahia.

According to Benjamin Prunty, CSU president, the meeting which was held last week was just a formality, as any group of three people or more have the right to collect signatures for a petition.

“The right to petition and ask for a referendum on a given topic is the right of all our members, but they have to come before council prior to circulating the petition,” Prunty said.

He said that the meeting only lasted 15 minutes, “which is indicative of the CSU’s desire to allow the membership to have this sensitive conversation amongst themselves. We will, of course, respect the result of any referendum as the will of our membership trumps the desire of the elected representatives,” Prunty said.

The meeting was held at 6 p.m. on a Friday. Israel on Campus: Concordia University expressed in a statement their discontentment with the fact that this meeting was held on the day of Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday, as well as after sundown, when Sabbath begins.

“I would like to express regret that we held a meeting on a Jewish holiday, and hope that our Jewish community members, which we will of course continue to support in the same way that we support any of our other community members, regardless of the outcome of this referendum, understand that it was not our intention to take a position on an issue during a period in which the Jewish community is sacredly unavailable,” Prunty said.

He also noted that the meeting was purely a formality, and it was not intended for an official stance to be taken on the spot at this meeting. He also said that, should anyone wish to speak to him on the subject, that his door is open during office hours — from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays at the CSU’s downtown office, located in H-711.

At a CSU special council meeting which took place on July 23, the CSU agreed that they were, “against the disproportionate use of force, the use of chemical weapons, the illegal settlements in Palestine and the blockade on Gaza all caused by the state of Israel.”

“The position of the CSU […] is to stand against the illegal occupation in Palestine and the question suggests a tactic for the CSU to endorse alongside our current position,” Prunty said.

Now that the petition has been approved, it will be possible for the students involved to start collecting signatures. For the question to be put on the ballot at by-elections, 500 signatures will be needed. Although the official question has not yet been decided, it will ask for the support of the BDS movement from Concordians.

Categories
Opinions

Hate breeds hate: Israel and Palestine have to stop

A man holds a baby against his chest in Gaza, November 20, 2012. Photo by Gigi Ibrahim on Flickr.

The issue isn’t black and white: it’s history that can’t repeat

The Arab-Israeli conflict, as ever, divided world opinion this past summer. As the proverbial dust settles, as Gaza is rebuilt, and as Western legislatures debate recognizing the state of Palestine (if they have not already done so), the two warring parties must learn the lessons of this latest battle.

Complete, unbiased takes on the topic are rarely found. In Western media, various outlets are often either pro-Israel, or pro-Palestine—a product of a conflict which has produced countless dichotomies.

I, without any personal affinity to either Israel or Palestine, have been profoundly influenced by my research and by my friends who are both Arab and Israeli. Undoubtedly, they both present reasonable cases for the existence of their respective states.

As far back as Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Jews in Europe were subject to pogroms and isolated from the societies who believed them to be too resistant to assimilation or whatever the case may be.

Similarly, the history of the Palestinian people has not been particularly rosy either. The Mongols dominated the region for several centuries during the Middle Ages until the expansion of the Ottoman Empire reached Palestine in 1516.

The Sikes-Picot agreement of 1916 sought to chop up the soon-to-be defunct Ottoman Empire into spheres of British and French influence under the facade of League of Nations mandates. This was despite the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence, which had promised an Arab homeland for revolters against the Ottoman Empire (watch Lawrence of Arabia if you haven’t already).

A man holds a baby against his chest in Gaza, November 20, 2012. Photo by Gigi Ibrahim on Flickr.

The British Mandate of Palestine, as it became known, experienced massive Jewish migration, particularly after the Balfour Declaration which promised a Jewish national home. Arabs and Jews throughout the Mandate both fought and lived in peace, as contradictory European (mainly British) promises began to have fatal consequences.

When 1945 came along and the Allies found themselves with even more parts of the world to award to whoever they preferred, it seemed logical to go along with the UN partition plan which would allow for both Arabs and Israelis to share the historic lands of the region. (Particularly considering the horrors of the Holocaust, Eastern European pogroms, and the reluctance of European states to accept Jewish immigration.)

Brief history lesson over, we are in 2014 and the Israelis and Arabs still don’t seem to be able to peacefully coexist. The Palestinian Arabs are increasingly being pushed to the margins of society as much as they are geographically.

As long as the U.S.A exercises its veto power at the United Nations continuing to afford Israel practically unconditional support for their actions—which have recently included further annexation and settlement of occupied territories—the legitimate aims of the Palestinians will be ignored.

Perhaps they have gone past a point of no return, which will see Israel eventually swallow the remainder of the lands which are not theirs to claim. Or, perhaps Palestine will continue to rally support and international opinion condemning these acts which would make further Israeli expansion politically untenable.

It is a tragic story that is still being written. A consequence of religion, of European power politics, of circumstance and of war. I don’t think anyone has any answers, but the recent conflict where Hamas fired rockets at Israel from civilian locations for Israel to happily return fire, will surely not solve anything.

Indeed, it is a religiously charged struggle for land and power, which goes back several millennia and is still being settled. A strange notion today, in our world with fixed nation-state borders.

I hasten to not exhibit bias to either side, for I hope that I understand the bewildering historic complexities which have led us to today, where two people continue to wage an unsettled feud of the past.

All I know is that la haine attire la haine.

Categories
Opinions

Reconciliation lies in the admittance of guilt

This past Monday, Concordia’s Graduate Student Association hosted a public forum entitled, BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions): Do we have a role in the Palestine-Israel conflict? One of the panelists, Mary-Jo Nadeau, accused Israeli forces of targeting civilian homes, schools, mosques, United Nations shelters, and educational institutions in its recent assaults on the West Bank. When Nadeau, a lecturer at the University of Toronto, asked students “why [they thought Israel would] bomb schools and universities,” no one responded, myself included. Although I wanted to stand up, throw my clothes off like the woman in Titianic, and yell, “yes, yes Ms. Nadeau, please explain to me why Israel purposely bombs public schools,” I could not. I failed to be myself, thus allowing for yet another, very quiet Monday afternoon.

Hypocritical and slanderous statements like the ones made in this forum are precisely the reason why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has yet to be resolved. Leaders on both sides seem keener on pointing out the flaws of their opposition rather than making the admissions of guilt necessary for peace. While the Palestinian Authority doesn’t miss a chance to condemn Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, Israelis lament the rocket fire coming out of Gaza. Instead of pointing fingers, why can’t both sides not only admit, but stress their own wrongdoings?

I am a Jew. I am a Zionist. I am an ardent supporter of the two-state solution. I admit without reservation that Israel’s handling of the Palestinian crisis in recent years has been grossly ignorant and irresponsible. However, in Monday’s forum, there was no such recognition of guilt.

Panelists spent their allotted time criticizing the actions of Israel and failed to mention any responsibility on the part of Palestinians. As a result, the forum proved to be more of a slanderous outcry for action than a productive dialogue.

The BDS campaign, the central topic of Monday’s forum, is a movement which is, in my opinion, in a direct opposition to peace. It demands an end to “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and for the complete dismantling of the security fence currently dividing Israel from the West Bank and Gaza. Such demands are not only one-sided, but are also prone to widespread misinterpretation.

Jeremy Ben Ami, founder of the pro-peace group J-Street, writes that “too many in and around the BDS movement refuse to acknowledge either the legitimacy of Israel or the right of the Jewish people as well as the Palestinian people to a state.”

In addition, singling out what could be called the only democratic state in the Middle East seems hypocritical. Why not boycott the likes of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Iran, where human rights violations are rampant and corruption widespread?

Yves Engler, one of the panelists, fervently argued for the boycott of Israeli made goods, yet fell short of supporting this year’s government sanctions on Iranian oil.

The situation isn’t improved by the fact that some of Nadeau’s statements are a bit misleading. Israel does not, in fact, intentionally bomb public institutions. Rather, it makes a considerable effort to avoid civilian casualties. Yet when Hamas continues to fire rockets from densely populated areas, it becomes increasingly difficult for Israel to fight its enemies.

With such a polarized debate, it is easy to point fingers and perhaps that is precisely what I am doing here in these concluding remarks. However, it is only to highlight the shortcomings of the panel. Instead of vilifying one another, let us be more commodious in our arguments so that we may come one step closer to reconciliation.

Categories
Arts

A different kind of survival guide

The Slut challenges our notion of promiscuity.

Selected as one of the movies to be part of Critics’ Week at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, The Slut is an Israeli-made film that presents the life of a promiscuous woman, Tamar, who has two young daughters. Within the first few minutes of the film, Tamar is shown having intercourse with various men. Those scenes are not only explicit, but they reinforce the fact that men only want her for sex and nothing more, presenting her as a slut.
When Tamar decides to have sex with a man, it is for survival; she wants to get something in return without having to pay for it. For example, she gets two brand new bicycles for her daughters by sleeping with the man who frequently repairs her bike.
The arrival of Shai, played by Ishai Golan, changes Tamar’s life. He starts acting as a father figure to her daughters. He proves to Tamar that she can count on him and that he is serious about their relationship. Shai, in comparison to the many other men Tamar has slept with, doesn’t only see her in a sexual light, but as the woman she truly is.
Golan plays his role beautifully. He makes us believe that it’s possible for a woman in Tamar’s position to fall in love and to have a chance at happiness. Shai is symbolic of Tamar’s chance at finally breaking free of her dependence on men, since he is giving her everything that she needs and asking for nothing in return.
Director Hagar Ben Asher tried to cast an actress to fill the role of Tamar, until she came to the realization that she wanted to make this film, in every aspect, her own. One of the techniques she uses to make her portrayal of Tamar believable is the way she transmits her emotions. She makes every action count for a reason, such as dropping the eggs she’s holding to make herself look busy when a man comes asking to have sex with her.
The movie continues with the repercussions of Tamar’s reputation as a slut as she tries to establish a relationship with Shai. Men are still approaching Tamar for sex and she must decide whether or not to give into temptation. Her decision has a strong impact on Shai, and forces him to commit an act of violence. Ben Asher describes violence as being essential in love, and vice versa. This gives us an explanation for Tamar choosing to comfort Shai after what he has done.
The Slut is definitely a film that will move you from the beginning to the end by changing your perception of Tamar. She is not promiscuous by choice. This ultimately gives the viewer a chance to wonder who the real slut in the movie is.

The Slut starts at Cinema du Parc on March 16. It will be shown in Hebrew with French subtitles. More information is available at www.cinemaduparc.com.

Exit mobile version