University Collision Course

"My body and soul are ready to fight and die."
"This land will be proud that Palestinian babies are born men and women ready to spill their blood."
" I will soak a koffiah with your blood and save it to show to your siblings ... I will be named the mother of the martyr."
Ala'a Hamdan, former president, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, University of Calgary

"In the past, this has definitely come up. We've got over 300 clubs at the Student Union that stand on every side you can think of on every social issue. We believe in the right for a club to express their opinions and to keep the dialogue going on campus."
Ben Cannon, vice-president, University of Calgary student life

"The individuals who run the CUWI group have been personally targeting and harassing our organization and its members for quite some time. Everything from private harassment via social media to public heckling at events has been used. It's been so bad that we had to actually bar entry to two of their members from one of our events due to their belligerent behaviour in the past."
"CUWI has been smearing us for months. We didn't feel the need to respond to these false and baseless accusations as even their most basic facts about us are incorrect."
Sam Cooley, president, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights

Members of the Calgarians United With Israel (CUWI) advocacy group have taken issue with the comments posted on Ala'a Hamdan's Facebook page. Those were her comments inciting Palestinians to 'spill blood' in a battle call. She is the former president of the pro-Palestinian student group. And her comments, according to the current president of the group were taken out of context. Which is rather amazing, for what kind of context is actually needed to make more sense of those statements than appear on the surface?

The University of Calgary Students' Union fully supports the Palestinian group. Their attitude is that Clubs should be free to state whatever they wish, unless those statements reach the pinnacle of criminal intent. And that's a matter that police are able to distinguish, and to take action under the Criminal Code. CUWI has indeed reported those comments to the police.

"It's extremely melodramatic and poorly written but beyond that, it's hate speech, I think. This student group talks about justice and peace and she talks about blowing herself up and having her children blow themselves up. It's hypocritical", explained Ryan Bellerose, a founding member of the Calgarians United With Israel student advocacy group.

Mr. Cooley, the current president of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights, complains that the advocacy group hadn't correctly identified SPHR's president or its proper name. On its website, it claims, incorrectly, he says, that the pro-Palestinian group has been funded by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. Just incidentally, Ms. Hamdan is now the Calgary representative for that very group.

As far as CUWI is concerned anti-Semitism on campus is increasing. And its increasing presence infects local campuses, resulting in Jewish students feeling themselves to be persecuted, certainly making them feel ill at ease. The group was formed last year as an attempt to become more visible and involved, to counter the racist activism of the pro-Palestinian group which helps to mount an "Israel Apartheid Week" on campus.

"I was at a debate and while [there] they must have assumed I was Jewish. I was with a Jewish friend just to watch the debate and this buddy walking by leaned over and said to me 'I'm sorry the Nazis missed some of your family'. I was literally in shock", explained Mr. Bellerose.

Which goes some way to explaining his decision to become involved in trying to express his support for a beleaguered demographic in the student body.