Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘hillel’

Writer and journalist Irshad Manji gave a talk at McGill University last week, where she reportedly issued a challenge to the Concordia Muslim Students Association to join with Concordia Hillel in inviting her to speak there. MSA promptly turned her down:

“I challenge the Muslims and Arabs at Concordia to give proof of their love of democracy by inviting me to come speak and creating an open forum for debate and discussion,” said the 35-year-old Manji, who’s been labelled by The New York Times as “Osama bin Laden’s worst nightmare.”

When reached for a comment, the president of Concordia’s MSA, Ahmad Hussain, promptly declined Manji’s request for an invitation. “I don’t know why she didn’t extend the same invitation to MSA at McGill. It’s not fair and very provocative. She didn’t wait for the MSA.”

Hussain continued: “I think she’s angry with her experience with Islam. She’s a self-proclaimed scholar of the Koran and she doesn’t even read Arabic. Honestly, I think she’s looking for publicity. She’s quick and rash to judge and she’s not qualified. Her message is based on little more than rhetoric and personal anecdotes laden with speculations and generalizations. I’ve read many academics and journalists have dismissed her simply because the content of her message is unscholarly and unfounded as I’ve mentioned before. I think the only people who sponsor her speeches and hail her as “refreshing”, are those who already agree with her.”

Sounds like a lot of excuses to me. Could it be that MSA is afraid of Manji’s message?

The CSU council decided to ban Operation SICK from ever having the right to become an official club at Concordia… but the SPHR-cronies who pushed the ban vote through on council can’t seem to decide on a consistent excuse.

-”We banned it cause it’s racist!”

That’s inconsistent to say the least.

-”No, I mean, we banned it cause it’s affiliated with Israeli Hasbara.”

So what?

-”We disagree with OpSICK’s political stance.”

But that doesn’t give you the right to ban them.

-”Whoops, I meant that my problem is really that it’s not honest about its affiliation with Hasbara.”

Well, you found out pretty easily; it can’t be THAT big a secret. Besides, how about a little honesty about who really funds SPHR?

-”Um, what I REALLY meant is that we banned it cause it’s redundant, there are already similar groups on campus.”

Again, so what?

-”I mean… I mean… hell, it’s run by pro-Israel people and we don’t like you and we’re not gonna let you become a club no matter what, so screw you and stop asking us for a legitimate reason cause we don’t actually have one!”

And that, of course, is the crux of the matter. Council had no legitimate reason to ban Operation SICK (which, by the way, does not focus only on Palestinians, but on groups from countries all over the world who use child soldiers or incitement of hatred among children). They just decided that it was a group run by their “enemies” (read: Jews, Zionists) so they would come up with some reason to ban it. Just like they came up with a ridiculous excuse to ban Concordia Hillel last year.

The Link reported that Concordia Hillel lost its court case against the CSU:

In an Oct. 10 decision, the Quebec Court of Appeals found against Hillel’s appeal on lifting the suspension of their lawsuit against the CSU. The court also found in favour of the CSU’s cross appeal to force the inclusion of the Union’s Judicial Board in the process.

The judgment, in my (admittedly non-legal-educated) opinion, seems on the face ridiculous. After all, the Judicial Board consists of people chosen by the CSU Council. The chances that Hillel would have gotten a fair hearing by the JB on this issue last year were pretty slim.

In plain language, this sucks. The CSU Council had no business banning Hillel last year, and the court ruling shouldn’t force Hillel to submit to heavy-handed blackmail.

Oh, and P.S., for anyone wondering what’s been going on at Concordia lately, SPHR is up to their usual Israel-bashing:

A petition presented to the CSU last week by members of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights has demanded the Union hold a general assembly on Nov. 6 to denounce Israel’s “apartheid wall” built along the border between Israel and the West Bank. Many human rights groups have condemned the wall, which groups say encroaches on Palestinian territory. The petition was signed by 250 students, even though only 100 are needed to force an assembly.

Yep, and if they called a general assembly asking people whether they thought all Zionists should be banned from the premises, it would probably get the 100 signatures in a heartbeat.

Great system, eh?

September 9th, 2002:

They came to shut down free speech. They violently rioted, as explained in this widely-circulated eyewitness account. They didn’t want Benjamin Netanyahu to give this speech – or, indeed, to speak at all – and so they gathered to riot, cause mayhem, and rough up people trying to attend.

The fallout made international headlines, led to the blame game almost immediately, and caused a ripple effect that is still being felt.

September 9th, 2003:

They’d have us believe that everything has changed. There’s a new CSU executive, a big orientation party for incoming and returning students, and a lecture series on conflict resolution.

But ultimately, behind the scenes, very little has changed despite surface appearances. Hillel, which had its privileges suspended by last year’s CSU is still fighting to get them restored. The so-called “activists” are still defending the rioting. Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited back to Montreal but not to Concordia. Antisemitism still gets printed in the Link as “legitimate political criticism”. Indeed, there is still much work to be done.

One year later, some baby steps in the right direction have been taken. What happens from here, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Well, it’s official: Benjamin Netanyahu will be returning to Montreal. But – perhaps wisely – he’ll likely stay far away from Concordia this time; he’ll be speaking at a local synagogue instead:

Netanyahu’s visit this fall will be as minister of finance in the government of Ariel Sharon. He will meet with Quebec business executives about investing in Israel.

The official nature of his planned tour contrasts with last year’s visit here – and to Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg – when he came as a private citizen. He was invited to Concordia by Hillel, the main Jewish organization on campus.

Various levels of security will be on duty the night of the planned synagogue speech, which Poupko said will be open to all “as long as they behave themselves.”

On the one hand, it would have been nice for him to be invited back to Concordia merely to prove a point about free speech. On the other hand, I wouldn’t put it past the same idiots to riot again, just like last year. At least this way, Netanyahu’s speech will likely be heard.

More fun news from Concordia (where else?) as a CSU-appointed hearings panel ruled that it’s ok to draw a swastika on an Israeli flag:

A student panel at Concordia University has dismissed a harassment complaint against activist Laith Marouf for drawing swastikas on an Israeli flag during a March 12 protest at the downtown campus.

In a 2-1 decision, the board ruled that while “Marouf’s gesture was in very poor taste,” it was made during a tense confrontation and did not qualify as harassment under the university’s code of rights and responsibilities, or warrant expulsion or other sanctions.

Adam Spiro, the finance student and Hillel member who filed the complaint, said he’s disgusted by the decision.

“It sends a terrible message,” he said, noting his paternal grandparents are Holocaust survivors. “It says that in the heat of protest, there are no boundaries.

“It legitimizes the swastika as a symbol of political discourse, which it’s not. It’s the worst symbol of hatred, racism and the genocide of 6 million Jews.”

So what is this, complaint number 912 against Laith Marouf that he gets tossed out? He was banned from Concordia two years ago, along with his buddy Tom Keefer, for spraypainting anti-Israel vandalism and threatening a security guard. But the university lifted that ban, and he’s been merrily shit-disturbing and displaying his intense hatred ever since. Apparently anything goes as long as you wrap yourself in the Palestinian flag and make ridiculous excuses for your actions, like this one:

At a May 14 hearing, Marouf testified he drew “the inverted swastika, the Hindu circle of life, not the Nazi swastika” on the Israeli flag, as a lesson in symbolism. However, he conceded he realized some people might not make the distinction and would be deeply offended.

Maybe it’s just cause it’s Friday, but I can’t seem to stop laughing at that one.

The Link is reporting that the lawsuit that Hillel launched against the CSU has been dismissed:

In a judgement delivered last week, Quebec’s Superior Court handed down a decision suspending Hillel’s lawsuit against the Concordia Student Union until it exhausts its options within the University to resolve its conflict.

Judge François Bélanger’s judgement cited the interventions of the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation as evidence that this issue is more a political one than one of racism or anti-Semitism. The judge also noted that the majority of CSU executives are themselves of Jewish origin.

It’s worth noting that the article text says that the suit has been “suspended”, while the headline reads “dismissed”. (Update: The headline has now been changed to read “Court Suspends Hillel Suit”. Think someone’s reading my blog?) As best as I can ascertain, the door is open for re-filing if Hillel satisfies the court that it has exhausted its options within the university. However, this doesn’t make much sense, since the university administration has no legal standing to intervene between Hillel and the CSU even if it wanted to. So I’m not sure what “options” the judge was talking about. The judge seemed to direct Hillel to approach the Board of Governers of the university, but even he acknowledged that the BoG has no power over the CSU:

The judge ruled that Hillel could approach Concordia’s Board of Governors, who according to him have “superintending and reforming power over all decisions affecting activities held at Concordia University or connected with the University,” adding that the Board would appear to have the power to issue sanctions, if not against the Union, at least against those students who run it.

But, the ruling added, because of political conflicts at the heart of the Union, the court would not force Hillel members to submit themselves to the CSU’s Judicial Board for a ruling.

Well, that last bit shows at least some minuscule amount of understanding about the workings of Concordia politics.

In a press release, the CSU’s VP Communications and favourite “we’re not antisemitic cause we have Jews in our admin” poster boy, Aaron Maté, claimed victory for the CSU on this matter:

“I welcome the Judge’s ruling,” said Aaron Maté, a CSU Vice President and 5th year Jewish student. “It’s an important victory for all of those who have been scared and intimidated to remain silent on the Israel-Palestine issue out of fear of being labeled with the serious charge of anti-Semitism or “self-hating Jew”. I hope that all members of the Jewish community, particularly Hillel and the leadership of the Canadian Jewish Congress, will recognize the serious damage that they are doing to our people by exploiting and undermining the meaning of anti-Semitism to intimidate and silence those who have the courage to defend Palestinian human rights.”

Oh yeah, cause Mate seems real scared and oppressed to me. Right.

It looks like the CSU and their buddies turned what was a straightforward case of an unjustified attack on Hillel into a political issue about the Palestinians, as they always do. And this time it seems they got away with it.

With the new CSU due to take office in a few weeks, some might argue that the whole lawsuit was moot in the first place. But that would be ignoring the principle of the thing. Hillel deserves nothing less than full reinstatement of funding, a sincere apology, and punitive damages for years of harassment and abuse. Obviously, this ruling is a serious setback to justice.

I’m always impressed at large-scale community showings of support. Today, thousands of Montreal Jews (organizers say 15,000) came out to stand up, show our colours, and be counted. Religious and secular, young and – as the speakers tactfully said, “not so young”, Ashkenazi and Sepharadic, students, seniors, professionals, and working stiffs, from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum, all were there to wave the blue and white and to proudly exclaim that “Am Yisrael Chai!”

Buses from all over the city brought people to Phillips Square. Luckily, the weather began to clear up and the sun even came through briefly. In the square, people were singing, talking, circulating, and picking up posters and flags. We then began to walk slowly down Rene-Levesque to Place du Canada.

Unfortunately, it was necessary for us to be escorted by a large security contingent. I say unfortunately, because we ought to be able to show our support for Israel without having to worry about security. But since this does not reflect reality, the organizers took the necessary steps to ensure that the day would come off without incident . . . and they did an extremely good job. The rally was peaceful, orderly, and went off without a hitch.

The theme of the day was peace. Left-wing and right-wing may not share the same vision on how to achieve peace, but everyone agreed that the ultimate goal is none other than Shalom. During the speeches, frequent choruses of “Heveinu Shalom Aleichem” and other peace songs broke out. And a plane flew overhead, carrying the banner “Canadians Support Israel”.

Apart from that, the day was centered around celebrating our widespread community support, within Montreal, Quebec, and Canada. An Israeli choir of young teenagers opened the event with singing and dancing in Hebrew. Speakers and distinguished guests included Montreal Mayor Gerard Tremblay, Federal MP Irwin Cotler, Provincial MP Russel Copeman, two representatives of the Christian communities – one from the Black community and one from the Asian, and the keynote speaker, former Quebec Premier Lucien Bouchard.

The speeches were short and most followed a similar pattern. In addition to some of the invited community guests, Israel’s ambassador spoke, as well as a representative of Hillel Montreal, among others. Most called for peace; all reaffirmed their pride in Israel and their absolute commitment to her existence and security.

Only when Lucien Bouchard made an indirect reference to the Road Map and talked about the need for a Palestinian state was there some uneasiness in the crowd. There is a strong desire for peace in the Jewish community, but there is also a massive distrust of the process and of the supposed peace partner. But Bouchard, for his part, stayed mostly on course, as did the other speakers. The whole idea was to focus on what unites us, not on what divides us. Most of the crowd probably did not vote for Bouchard, and many were probably out demonstrating against him and his sovereigntist ideas back in 1995 or even since. But today, people were happy to accept help and support from anyone willing to give it, no matter what other political issues they may disagree on. Lucien Bouchard is now a private citizen, albeit a prominent one, and he chose to take a stand today in support of Israel. Through MP Russell Copeman, Jean Charest’s government also lent its unequivocal support, thus uniting federalists and separatists, all standing together for Israel.

The rally closed with the singing of O Canada and of Hatikvah, and then the crowd dispersed rather quickly. On my way to the bus, I noticed a tiny group of perhaps a dozen pro-Palestinian protesters standing across the street, contained by riot police. They were outnumbered probably 1000 to 1 and I knew they were totally insignificant, but I was still dismayed to realize that the news reports on the event would likely focus on them and not on the main event. But I wasn’t about to let that bother me too much. They’re entitled to their views, but the sheer number of people out today waving the blue and white showed clearly where the widespread support lies.

Israel is 55 years old. Today is a day of celebration. As a number of speakers pointed out, it is also only one day after Yom HaZikaron, the remembrance day for the far too many who have fallen. We cannot celebrate independence without recalling the hard fight to preserve it. We must never take Israel – or our Atzmaut – for granted.

This comes from Mazin Fahmawi, a regular poster on the Link’s board and an SPHR member:

SPHR would love to see the link unbiased towards anybody because that will only show the true faces of what SPHR represents, making the public aware of the Palestinian Human Rights abuses, and what Hillel represent, a blind nationalist zionist ideology.

I could comment, but that pretty much speaks for itself.

Here’s more about the CSU elections, from the Canadian Jewish News. The print edition also has an opinion piece by Simon Bensimon of Hillel Montreal.