It Has Come To This

"If you permit a constant invective and demonization of the Jewish state and people who support the Jewish state, some people will feel that this gives them the permission or responsibility to carry out this kind of attack." - Len Rudner, Ontario Chapter, Canadian Jewish Congress

He's right, there. Freedom of expression permits Canadians to vent their views on just about everything and anything. It is a right we share with one another. We also share an unwritten social contract that obligates us to respect one another, despite our differences of opinion. This is what ensures civility. Of course, there are Canadian anti-hate laws, and these are meant to ensure that no one or no entity publicly spouts invective meant to arouse the passions of hate for the purpose of creating tensions meant to lead to physical violence.

And then, of course, there are those grey areas in between. And precisely 'in between" appears to represent the slander and vilification that takes place on an annual basis in Canadian universities through the sanctimoniously-disturbing mounting of "Israeli Apartheid Week", meant to cast blame on the State of Israel as an outcast state, one that vigorously practises outright discrimination of a virulent kind against non-Jews. Originated through an alliance of Muslim-Canadian radicals along with like-minded leftist unions and academics, Israel becomes a pariah state.

And although the unions and the academic pro-Palestinian factions claim facetiously that this outrageous singling out of one country - a liberal Democratic one which extends equality of citizenship and opportunity to all its people - as opposed say, to mounting a vigorous blame-session on Zimbabwe, or North Korea, or Iran, or Sudan, or Democratic Republic of Congo, where people are starving, are being butchered, and women and girls raped - as fair and just, it is, in fact, anti-Semitism by any other name.

And as much as university spokespeople attempt to cloak the proceedings of IAW, as business as usual in the robust exchange of opinions, as "opportunities for students to discuss emotional issues", the fact remains that this lop-sidedly outrageous vilification of one single country in a world replete with despots and murderous tyrants afflicting their people through their cruel impositions of self-entitlement and vicious little tribal wars, has become an accepted expression of ongoing criticism of the world's oldest group scapegoat; Jews.

"If you are from the right wing or a supporter of Israel, it gets around pretty quickly because Carleton is one of the worst campuses for having a division between Palestinian and Jewish students. It is a really polarized campus between left and right, Jewish and Arab students." - Mark Klibanov. "The first thing they said before punching my friend is that we were Zionists. This situation surprised me, but the intentions of these people did not."

"These people" were a rabble of perhaps ten bar-hoppers with decidedly disturbing intentions. Obviously, among them were students of Carleton University. For someone among them recognized others who also attend the university, when seen at a bar in Gatineau, over the river from Ottawa. The person recognized was 22-year-old Nick Bergamini, vice-president of the Carleton University Students' Association, out for the evening with his friend and roommate Mark Klibanov.

On attempting to leave the Le Volt bar on Promenade du Portage, that 10-man crew of village idiots began shouting in English and Arabic that the two men were Zionists and Jews. An affiliation which obviously to this crew is violently illegal, a danger to civil society that must be stamped out at all costs. "These people must have been Carleton students because I recognized one of them. I said I love Israel because I support Israel's right to exist. I told them not to do this because I knew who they were, but I got hit hard on the back of the head. We ran to the bar entrance because bar security was there", explained Mr. Bergamini.

The Jew and the Zionist thought they'd walk across the Chaudiere Bridge back to Ottawa, and near a parking lot close to the bridge three men in a car pulled up. "One of them rolled down the window and said: 'I am the one who hit you, you f----g Jew', although I am not a Jew. Two guys came out of the car, and one of them tried to kick my roommate. One attacker said, 'Open the trunk', and another guy pulled out a machete that glinted in the street lights. I yelled that they had weapons and we started running as fast as we could. I saw the guy wind up with the machete as I looked back", Mr. Bergamini recounted.

Obviously, this was done in good fun. The attackers were just having a night out on the town, themselves. Certainly, April Fool's Day is past, but what the hell.... "I am happy that I am still alive. We both could have been killed (Sunday) night because he swung a machete at my neck. I have never spoken to that guy in my life, but it is known at Carleton that I have been to Israel and that I have a Facebook site supporting Israel", said Mr. Bergamini. He has been made aware of just how dangerous it is to have such illicit sympathies.

And Jason MacDonald, spokesman for the university explained, "The Israel and Palestine issue is one of the things that can cause people to become emotional" (not criminally homicidal?). "Our job is to make sure that these debates can happen without anyone's personal safety being threatened. We have met with student groups on both sides of such issues and told them that we are not here to tell them what to think, but certain kinds of behaviour are not acceptable."

Nice to know that the university is a safe learning environment for all students. Just trying to recall the last time a Jewish student threatened the life of another student and hefted a machete to ensure that the message was well received.