SPHR Concordia is keeping Palestinian culture alive and atmospheric
During an evening of food, music and conversation on the 7th floor of the Hall building on Jan. 25, the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Association (SPHR) at Concordia aimed to raise money to donate to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for Palestinian refugees. Tickets were sold for $15 each and the group managed to raise over $1,000.
The event, called Eat Like A Palestinian, began with a buffet of traditional Palestinian dishes like fatouch salad, frekeh soup, and msakhan. The food was prepared by Om Ossama, a Palestinian woman dedicated to supporting Palestinian community events through her cooking skills. Many of the event’s attendees were learning about Palestinian dishes for the first time.
Eat Like A Palestinian, an event which sold out on Facebook, took place on the seventh floor of the Hall building on Jan. 25. Photo by Mishkat Hafiz.
Syrian-Canadian student Marya Akkad, who attended the event, said “it’s very atmospheric and cultural. Everyone is very welcoming, and the music reminds me of home.” She added that she was pleased with the strong cultural identity at the event.
After dinner, a live band played traditional Arabic songs with a combination of instruments; an oud, a saxophone and drums. Guests clapped to the music and sang along. A few got up to dance. After the band was done, people continued to dance to Palestinian songs played over projected images of Palestine and symbols of its culture.
Later, one of the team organizers started a Palestinian trivia game. The prizes were traditional Palestinian accessories, which were also sold at the event. The trivia game also provided an opportunity for people to contextualize Palestinian hardships through historical facts. The dinner party reflected Palestinian culture through the hospitality of the organizing team, and tales of endurance of the Palestinian people.
Many of the organizers believe this type of event keeps the Palestinian culture alive, instead of focusing on the political disputes surrounding the country.
President of the SPHR Concordia, Houda Kerkadi, spoke about the motivation behind hosting the event. “We were thinking of ways we can help, [rather than] simply [asking] people for money,” Kerkadi said. She also hoped to provide an interactive experience that combined raising money with a cultural experience.
“We asked ourselves, ‘What would combine people of all ethnicities and backgrounds together like food?’ Arabs don’t always agree on political leanings when it comes to Palestine, but we can all agree that we love the food,” Kerkadi said.
SPHR Concordia is planning a few more events this semester, including Israeli Apartheid week and an end of year celebration.
Bissan’s father joined a Concordia professor and CSU official to discuss her circumstances and next steps
Concordia University held a press conference to discuss the circumstances and future of Bissan Eid, a pregnant Concordia student who has been stuck in Gaza for four months awaiting Israeli permission to leave, on Thursday, April 13.
The press conference, which was moderated by journalist Stefan Christoff, featured speakers Rami Yahia, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) internal affairs coordinator, Norma Rantisi, a professor in Concordia’s geography department and Hadi Eid, Bissan’s father. The three speakers made statements regarding Bissan’s circumstances, and laid out their plan of action.
According to Hadi, his 24-year-old daughter went to Gaza, where she was born, in June 2016 to visit family and get married. Under Israeli law, all citizens must obtain an exit permit from the Israeli government in order to leave, regardless of citizenship. Hadi said his daughter, who has been a Canadian citizen since 2005, first applied for the permit four months ago, but has yet to be approved. He claimed she has not been informed as to why she is being denied the permit.
Bissan is working towards her master’s degree in civil engineering, and is currently eight months pregnant. Hadi said Bissan wants to return to Canada before her due date in May, both to ensure she is surrounded by her loved ones and that she has the best possible medical care.
However, since she is in her third trimester, there is a high probability airlines will not allow her to fly for health reasons. Yet, Hadi said, if Bissan is given an exit permit, she will at least be able to give birth in Jordan, where he claims the medical care is better than in Gaza.
“Doctors have said that it is a difficult pregnancy,” Eid said. “If airlines deny her, that’s one thing … but we would prefer for her be in Canada to give birth.”
Efforts to bring Bissan home include a petition calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene in the situation, and a social media campaign using the hashtag #BringBissanHome intended to raise public awareness about Bissan’s situation and put pressure on the Canadian government to act.
The CSU has posted on their website a list of ways Concordia students can help support Bissan. The list includes a link to the Change.org petition to be sent to Justin Trudeau, a letter template students can use to mail to their provincial and federal MPs, and Concordia President Alan Shepard’s contact information which can be used to implore him to play an active role in calling for the government to help Bissan. The CSU has also asked students to share Bissan’s story on social media to increase awareness and support.
Security intervened and removed both men from the event. Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) hosted a discussion on Palestine’s colonization
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), a Concordia student group that aims to raise awareness about human right abuses towards Palestinians, hosted a panel discussion on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine on Thursday night in Concordia’s Hall building.
The event was part of the Israel Apartheid Week 2017, a week aimed at creating international awareness of the settler-colonial relationship between Israel and Palestine, and the Palestinian apartheid. SPHR advocates for an end to Palestine’s colonization and aims to promote awareness of Palestinian culture and identity.
Photo by Alex Hutchins.
Nahla Abdo, a professor in the department of sociology at Carleton University in Ottawa, was the first speaker. The other two panelists were Nuha Dwaikat Shaer, a PhD candidate at McGill’s School of Social Work, and Rula Abisaab, a professor of Islamic history at McGill University.
Approximately one minute into Abdo’s presentation, two young men entered the auditorium wearing Israeli flags tied around their shoulders like capes. Both men, followed by a man filming them, walked up to the table where the panelists were seated and began to chant, “I’m Israel, I’m Israel, we are here to stay,” adding, “there is no Palestine, there was never any Palestine.”
Abisaab attempted to read the poem “With Green We Wrapped Him” by Palestinian poet Izzidin al-Manasrah over their chants. “We wrapped him in a shroud of green, white and black. A red triangle on rectangular flag,” she recited.
However, this did not deter the protesters, and the other two panelists and some audience members became involved in a verbal confrontation with them. At one point, several audience members chanted “shame shame shame” at them.
Both men repeated, “there’s no Palestine,” to the crowd.
CSU internal affairs coordinator and former SPHR president Ramia Yahia, who had been at the event moments before, said he heard yelling coming from the auditorium. Yahia said he suspected someone was attempting to disrupt the lecture.
Yahia, accompanied by CSU external affairs and mobilization coordinator Aloyse Muller, entered the room, and asked the men to stop.
Yahia said security arrived about five minutes after both executives intervened, and the men stopped yelling. Yahia said both men who were chanting wore badges from the Israeli army on their bag and t-shirts with the Israeli defence emblem on it.
When the two security guards arrived, they escorted the protesters off to the side. A group of people and a handful of CSU members followed them. The group talked for a few minutes, then the protesters were escorted outside by the security guards.
Howie Silbiger, identified as the man who was filming both men at the time, said he was there on behalf of Montreal Jewish News to cover the event. Silbiger said he was not affiliated with the protesters. “I was informed that the event was going to happen,” said Silbiger.
Silbiger, a Concordia Student, said he was followed to class by security and two members of SPHR who were recording, when security asked Silbiger to provide identification.
Security informed Silbiger a complaint was being filed against him did not state why, Silbiger said. “Our job is to cover news when it happens,” said Silbiger. He said he believes he was racially profiled by Concordia security. “I did nothing to disrupt or disturb the event, stood quietly in the back of the room and cooperated fully with security,” said Silbiger.
“There is an ongoing investigation,” said Yahia, concerning the men who disrupted the panel.
After the protesters left, Abdo resumed the presentation of her theory on the settler-colonial relationship between Israel and Palestine. “In the simplest way, I define racism as the relations between the superior and what they turned into inferior,” she said.
Abdo discussed the historical events that shaped the Middle East, such as the 1916 Sykes Picot Agreement, the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the 1948 Indigenous Genocide that led to the creation of Israel.
Shaer presented the subject of her doctoral thesis, which focused on the ethnic cleansing and quiet resistance of Palestinians in Area C—a section of the Gaza Strip. Area C is a highly-contested piece of land that both the Israelis and Palestinians claim ownership of.
There are over 180 Palestinian communities in Area C that want to stay, despite the Israeli government bulldozing their homes and denying their building permit applications, Shaer said.
According to Shaer, the Israeli court has yet to approve a single Palestinian building permit application in Area C. “Palestinians are quietly resisting occupation,” she said.
This resistance includes living in caves, makeshift shelters, sheds and tents, building structures on Saturdays (the Jewish day of rest) and purposely building incomplete structures since complete ones are more likely to be bulldozed, Shaer explained.
Abisaab read a selection of poems and parts of short stories by Palestinian authors.
She finished by reciting the same poem she had recited at the start of the discussion.
The Concordian reached out to Israel on Campus: Concordia, to which they provided their official statement about what happened. “Israel on Campus condemns this action done by non-Concordia students which decided to interrupt this event. IOC stands for freedom of expression and the right for everyone to express what they think and feel.”
Israel On Campus is a group geared to educate others on Israel’s commitment to democracy in the Middle East and its humanitarian efforts, history, culture and environmental initiatives
The Concordian reached out to the university for comment, however, we did not receive a response before publication time.
The history and current state of non-violent Palestinian prison resistance
Decades of politics have hinged on what transpires in the open spaces of Holy Land and over the lines drawn by the Israel-Palestine conflict. But how have Palestinians responded once removed from the outside and taken into the Israeli prison system?
Last week’s talk, “Prisoner’s Dilemma: Prison-based resistance and the diffusion of activism in Palestine,” sought to answer that question. Given by visiting McGill faculty member Dr. Julie Norman, who specializes in Palestinian civil resistance, the talk drew on her work with prisoners, former heads of Israeli intelligence and security services, and NGOs to shed light on decades of Palestinian prisoner experiences covering, broadly, the events since the Israeli territorial gains of the 1967 Six-Day War until today.
This was a time where, to cope with rising Palestinian resistance, thousands were incarcerated by Israel: some as prisoners, others under the label of ‘administrative detention’ or as ‘security prisoners’ who could be held for up to six months without trial or reason, and whose stay could be indefinitely extended. They were held in conditions Dr. Norman describes as terrible: poor nutrition and sanitation, little access to family, without basics such as writing implements and paper. Some were forced to refer to their jailers as ‘masters.’
Though many Palestinians were imprisoned for violent acts, many more were taken in a bid to ‘confine and diffuse’ the Palestinian drive for independence. Dr. Norman maintains the highpoint of such mobilization came in the ‘70s and ‘80s, mostly because of the unique confluence of social and political events occurring at the time. Ideologies were profuse, ranging across the spectrum, but particularly influential were the socialists and communist with their ideas of communal effort. As the prison system inflated and expanded, Palestinians learned how adapt.
Dr. Norman portrays this organization as happening on all levels in a ‘counter-order’ meant to destabilize the prison system. To deal with collaborators—or ‘birds,’ as they were called—on which every prison system depends on, prisoner groups banded together and maintained silence save for a single spokesperson who interacted with the wardens and acted as liaison. Smuggled radios were brought in and listened to by a select number who transmitted the day’s political news by way of messages secreted in tiny capsules and passed on in palms, mouths, and elsewhere; books were copied, sometimes spliced with other texts to make them harder to decode; group discussions on history, politics, and society were organized; and all throughout, the exterior supported them by political pressure in the form of vigils and marches. Hunger strikes, sometimes carried out by thousands, made force-feeding impossible and gave the prisoners leverage to improve their conditions.
As one interviewee told her, “Everything you find in prison has a story of resistance behind it. For example, the blankets: In Ramallah we had three blankets, though in the beginning we had one, and somebody suffered and resisted to increase the number of blankets. Later in 1991 in Hebron prison, we had six blankets, so through our demands we were able to increase the number over time. Everything you find in prison—the blankets, the cups, the pens, the paper, the books, the food—everything has a story of struggle behind it.” And everything was designed to “disrupt prison order and make it unmanageable.”
With the signing of the Oslo accords in the ‘90s, prison resistance shifted. As the political situation rapidly changed, the make-up and tactics of prisoners likewise shifted. Political fragmentation amongst Palestinians bred cynicism and disillusionment, and the rise of Islamic jihad organizations undid much of the message of nonviolence. The Israelis changed too: frequent transfers, pre-emptive crackdowns, and the increasing use of solitary confinement have chipped away communal action and turned it into individual resistance, even as actual prison conditions have drastically improved.
Yet as Dr. Norman makes clear the method of the fight may have changed, but the nature of the struggle continues.
Marc Garneau Israel-Canada talk will be rescheduled
On Jan. 12, Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party Marc Garneau was scheduled to speak to university students on the subject of Canada-Israel relations. The event was to be presented as a co-sponsorship by both the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR). The morning of the event, CIJR received a call from the Montreal Police saying that there was a threat of violent protest from a demonstration estimated to comprise of at least 60 individuals.
These threats were very real and can be corroborated by several officers. It was indeed a cause for concern, considering that the police saw the need to call CIJR in the first place. The National Chairman of CIJR, Jack Kincler, therefore decided to postpone the event due to concerns over whether the building could be secured as well as to ensure the safety of attendees.
This comes at a very dangerous and sensitive time. The right to freedom of speech as well as religion recently came under attack with the horrific massacres that took place in France earlier this month. Twelve people were murdered in an attack against the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Known for its strongly secularist, anti-religious and left-wing views, the paper was targeted for its satirical cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. A French police officer was killed shortly afterwards. Two days later, another gunman entered a kosher food supermarket in east Paris and murdered four Jewish hostages.
Because of Quebec’s close cultural and national relationship with France, these attacks have resonated strongly with us. This is especially true with regard to the Jewish community, since so many have family and friends in France. This event was meant to be an opportunity to present a forum for Marc Garneau, a respected and accomplished Member of Parliament, to present his views concerning Canada-Israel relations and interact with students. It would not have been postponed had there not been a real concern over the safety of attendees. The fact that university students could be in danger for simply attending an event and meeting with their representative of government is an egregious violation of their civil liberties.
On Jan. 20, a similar situation arose at the University of York. Luke Akehurst, a Labour Party activist, was scheduled to speak about the Israel-Palestine conflict. That lecture was cancelled, due to fears of security risks. This only serves to highlight the seriousness of the situation we face and how even the mere mention of subjects pertaining to the State of Israel are under attack on campuses by those who oppose its existence. Proper security precautions must be made in order to ensure the right of free assembly for all people, especially in the wake of these massacres.
“We will not be intimidated. [The supressing of] freedom of speech must be opposed on and off campus,” says Director of CIJR, Dr. Frederick Krantz. It must be stressed that this event has not and will not be cancelled. To do so would be to give in to the whims of weak-minded fundamentalists, whose sense of self can be easily compromised by different opinions and something as trivial as cartoons. To value freedom in the form of expression and religion and not surrender to terror is the best way to send out a clear message that such thuggish tactics are not acceptable in civilized discourse.
As of now, another venue is in the process of being finalized and MP Marc Garneau has announced a willingness to reschedule. The event has been rescheduled to take place next month, at a location where the security of all participants can be ensured. One thing is certain: while this turn of events has been unfortunate and threats of violence should not be considered legitimate forms of expression, this is anything but a victory for bullies who seek to silence discussion on Israel.
Bradley Martin is a Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) Fellow and student at Concordia University.
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
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.
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.
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)
[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.
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.
Why the CSU shouldn’t have taken a stance on actions taken in Gaza
In today’s world, everyone has an opinion on social issues, whether they’re taking place here in the city or halfway around the world.
For the past few years, not many issues have garnered as much attention, and debate, as the Gaza conflict. Although Canada is not geographically close to Gaza, cultural ties have made the issue relevant for many Montrealers. In a school as culturally diverse as Concordia, with large quantities of both Jewish and Muslim students, it is understandable that students would simply agree to disagree on the subject.
And yet, the Concordia Student Union (CSU) which represents Concordia’s 46,000 students, and the school’s many cultural groups and clubs, has voted on whether or not they agree with the acts taken up by Israel towards Palestine.
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.”
Based on the wording used by the CSU, they probably did not mean to come out as sounding pro-Palestine. They simply stated that they disagreed with many of the things the state of Israel was doing. Still, their motion will inevitably cause members of the student body they represent to be alienated.
This is an opinion that many Concordia students, and many organizations, may not share.
There is therefore a definite discrepancy between what the CSU has stated, and what many students may believe. This should not be the case
We understand that, by taking this stance, the CSU had good intentions. Of course, peace should always be endorsed. But this is not the same. It would be unethical for the CSU to openly endorse a political party, so what makes this any different?
Many may be offended, and, at the end of the day, what will have been accomplished? The CSU cannot possibly have an effect on an issue of this importance. The CSU should consider spending their time in council discussing matters directly pertaining to Concordia students, like their many ongoing projects.
