Non-Tolerance of Racism or Anti-Semitism
Imagine, a university head threatening a religious cleric with a lawsuit. Presumably for defamation. With the purpose in mind of shutting down the free speech of a citizen of Canada. For stating the obvious. And even though it is obvious through the very candid actions of the individual threatening the lawsuit, it may also be somewhat uncomfortable to be publicly labelled as an anti-Semite.
But if the evidence is there, well - there it is.
Here is the absurdity of the situation: the president of an institute of higher learning which was established for the very purpose of opening any and all issues to scrutiny, discussion, examination, distillation and even discriminatory judgement, albeit supposedly objectively, threatening to bring legal action against an individual who has scrutinized, examined, discussed, distilled and made a judgement - fairly subjective given the circumstances.
Is that anomalous? But there it is, Rabbi Aaron Hoch of the Dan Family Village Shul in Toronto forwarded an email to hundreds of people on his community mailing list. The subject was the address at York University by former British Member of parliament, George Galloway. And the subject of the address was no mystery, for Mr. Galloway is a staunch supporter of a fanatical religious militia that has taken governance of Palestinian Gaza.
And Hamas - whom Mr. Galloway lauds and attempts to supply with funding and vehicles and other goods, while fully understanding the Hamas mandate to destroy the State of Israel - is a declared terror group, recognized by the Government of Canada as such. So here is a Canadian university which permits the annual launching of a slanderously pernicious event titled "Israeli Apartheid Week", where the vilification of Israel and the hounding of Jewish students is a celebrated event.
A university, moreover, that carefully selects its feature speakers. When another student body invited Daniel Pipes, intellectual, lecturer, writer, expert on Middle East affairs, to speak at York University in February, the event was shut down by the university. The usual explanation is that the university seeks to prevent incidents of violence occasioned by disruptive and message-disturbing guests.
Rabbi Hoch's sin was to describe the president of York University, Mamdouh Shoukri in a manner to which Mr. Shoukri took grave exception: "Mr. Shoukri has again showed (sic) his amazing tolerance for anti-Semitism and lack of vigilance regarding the feeling of safety for Jewish students on campus", an observation which formed part of Rabbi Hoch's email. In which email he also encouraged a protest take place at the time of the speech.
Which resulted in a letter from the general counsel insisting Rabbi Hoch "remove (the message) from your website and to direct your supporters to cease and desist the distribution of the poster". There was no poster. But there was an apprehended protest. And there is the indelible apprehension leaning heavily on experience that Jewish students at York University have been threatened and intimidated and placed in violent situations.
The same letter characterized the Rabbi's comments as "untrue". And that "We expect a retraction and apology forthwith." Meanwhile, it seems to be perfectly within the bounds of reasonable debate at a university to have Jewish students hounded and chased, threatened with violence, hearing a group of other students shout after them "Zionism is racism", and "Racists off campus".
In fact, the current president of York University's student federation is one of the members of the pro-Palestinian group that swarmed Jewish students in the past and barricaded them in their lounge while treating them to shouted racist slurs. Yet the letter to Rabbi Hoch from the university's legal counsel argued he was "encouraging disturbance and provoking others to disturb the peace".
So let's consider this: York University president Mamdouh Shoukri is complicit and comfortable with the presence of a former British MP (who was suspended from the British House of Commons for involvement in the illegal diversion Iraq Oil for Food funding), well recognized for his unalloyed support for a terror group, and his noxious opinions of a democratic nation, and will not countenance the speaking presence of another academic who supports Israel.
But if the evidence is there, well - there it is.
Here is the absurdity of the situation: the president of an institute of higher learning which was established for the very purpose of opening any and all issues to scrutiny, discussion, examination, distillation and even discriminatory judgement, albeit supposedly objectively, threatening to bring legal action against an individual who has scrutinized, examined, discussed, distilled and made a judgement - fairly subjective given the circumstances.
Is that anomalous? But there it is, Rabbi Aaron Hoch of the Dan Family Village Shul in Toronto forwarded an email to hundreds of people on his community mailing list. The subject was the address at York University by former British Member of parliament, George Galloway. And the subject of the address was no mystery, for Mr. Galloway is a staunch supporter of a fanatical religious militia that has taken governance of Palestinian Gaza.
And Hamas - whom Mr. Galloway lauds and attempts to supply with funding and vehicles and other goods, while fully understanding the Hamas mandate to destroy the State of Israel - is a declared terror group, recognized by the Government of Canada as such. So here is a Canadian university which permits the annual launching of a slanderously pernicious event titled "Israeli Apartheid Week", where the vilification of Israel and the hounding of Jewish students is a celebrated event.
A university, moreover, that carefully selects its feature speakers. When another student body invited Daniel Pipes, intellectual, lecturer, writer, expert on Middle East affairs, to speak at York University in February, the event was shut down by the university. The usual explanation is that the university seeks to prevent incidents of violence occasioned by disruptive and message-disturbing guests.
Rabbi Hoch's sin was to describe the president of York University, Mamdouh Shoukri in a manner to which Mr. Shoukri took grave exception: "Mr. Shoukri has again showed (sic) his amazing tolerance for anti-Semitism and lack of vigilance regarding the feeling of safety for Jewish students on campus", an observation which formed part of Rabbi Hoch's email. In which email he also encouraged a protest take place at the time of the speech.
Which resulted in a letter from the general counsel insisting Rabbi Hoch "remove (the message) from your website and to direct your supporters to cease and desist the distribution of the poster". There was no poster. But there was an apprehended protest. And there is the indelible apprehension leaning heavily on experience that Jewish students at York University have been threatened and intimidated and placed in violent situations.
The same letter characterized the Rabbi's comments as "untrue". And that "We expect a retraction and apology forthwith." Meanwhile, it seems to be perfectly within the bounds of reasonable debate at a university to have Jewish students hounded and chased, threatened with violence, hearing a group of other students shout after them "Zionism is racism", and "Racists off campus".
In fact, the current president of York University's student federation is one of the members of the pro-Palestinian group that swarmed Jewish students in the past and barricaded them in their lounge while treating them to shouted racist slurs. Yet the letter to Rabbi Hoch from the university's legal counsel argued he was "encouraging disturbance and provoking others to disturb the peace".
So let's consider this: York University president Mamdouh Shoukri is complicit and comfortable with the presence of a former British MP (who was suspended from the British House of Commons for involvement in the illegal diversion Iraq Oil for Food funding), well recognized for his unalloyed support for a terror group, and his noxious opinions of a democratic nation, and will not countenance the speaking presence of another academic who supports Israel.
Labels: Anti-Semitism, Crisis Politics, Culture, Politics of Convenience
posted by Pieface | 12:54 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home