Staging Strategies and Slanders

"These guys [the BDS movement] have failed. They don't have a mass movement. They have tactics where they can sneak things through in the middle of the night. They don't even represent the opinions of Palestinians."
Dylan Hanley, associate director, university relations, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

Dylan Hanley contends Canadian universities appear to be moving closer to Israel. To wit: increased collaboration in research, and exchange programs. Faculty unions, he contends, typically are taken more seriously by their members, less given to ideological commitments leading to demonization of another country and its academics.

In fact, the anti-Israel movement within universities, supported by student unions in solidarity with Arab and Palestinian students at the universities and the usual left-approach that gives credence to the underdog and spurns the party that is claimed to be exercising the power of 'apartheid' appears healthy enough.

And if their tactics reflect those of the Palestinian Authority bypassing the bargaining table with Israel in favour of a direct UN approach, it is not incidental. The student unions utilize a riff of that tactic with their secretive undemocratic voting practises giving no advance warning about votes and pulling the voting rug out from under all qualified voters, to achieve their ends.

Like the Palestinian Authority having little-to-no-interest in forthrightly and legitimately bargaining for peace, boundaries and surrendering of some aspirational entitlements in favour of forming a state of their own, preferring the direct, albeit toothless UN approach to achieve recognition, the student unions prefer to avoid debating the wisdom of using their institutions as geopolitical soapboxes.

Canadian universities have joined in their efforts relating to Palestinian' solidarity', with disparate groups aligned to harness the emotions of Middle East campus activists with a specific goal in mind - a university-sanctioned boycott of Israeli academics. It is clear enough that the academic institutions themselves cleave to the universality and openness of academic exchanges holding their international counterparts in respect.

The student union activists embroiled in a protest movement against the 'Zionist imperialists' is another thing altogether. After all, the university setting is supposed to represent free-thought and freedom of association. The passions unleashed by young people whose preferred one-dimensional view of a difficult and complex situation are not to be undone by anything approaching rational discussion, has silent assent.

The students involved in their movement to completely assault the legitimacy and integrity of Israeli academics, to inform them in no uncertain terms that they have been irredeemably corrupted by association with their government's actions and will not be accepted as equals in polite Western universities that cleave to the Palestinian 'cause', mean to shove policies to ostracize and punish Israel up their university administrations' backsides.

At York University the Federation of Students has voted to join the "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions" movement, which has the righteously sanctimonious support of graduate student unions at Concordia, University of Regina and University of Toronto. The decision of the student union does not bind the administration or faculty; though the boycott insists that York sell its shares in companies doing business with Israel.

The administration protects itself by disowning any responsibility or intention to become part of the BDS movement by reminding those protesting the "insidious nefarious strategies to garner support" for the student union, that "As you may know, the York Federation of Students is an independent, autonomous student government and their leadership is duly elected through a democratic process".

Which may speak more to the fact that most students are focused on their academics. It is the vocal, excitable, mission-seeking minority that tends to gather in a clique to take possession of the majority vote too disinterested and disinclined to become involved, and leaving the stage completely open to the committed few.