Anti-Semitism Shielded by Self-Righteousness

"Basically, the room was weighted toward the motion passing. It was clear for anyone who could see it. The environment, it was hostile. It was confrontational. I didn't feel comfortable as a Jewish student on campus."
Shannon Riley, president, Hillel student group, Ryerson

"What it calls for is a comprehensive catalogue of punitive measures against Israel -- and Israel alone in the world -- and these measures include boycotts of Israeli products, Israeli academics, Israeli professionals, Israeli artists, Israeli scientists. It calls for total and complete boycotts of everything Israeli, including investments by universities in Israeli companies."
Howard English, Toronto area president, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs

"The student union is a corporation independent of the university, we have to be clear there. The university does not support a boycott. We don't support divestment, nor do we support sanctions against Israel. We've been consistent on this point."
Michael Forbes, spokesperson, Ryerson University

Darren Calabrese/National Post   A building on Ryerson University's campus is seen in downtown Toronto Monday, June 18, 2012.

 

Several hundred Ryerson University students during their annual general meeting voted "overwhelmingly in favour" of supporting the anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction (BDS) campaign. Several hundred representing tens of thousands of students enrolled at Ryerson. In 2009-2010 there were 5,500 first-year students alone at Ryerson. The study body was surveyed to reveal that about 50% represented visible ethnic minorities.

One might imagine that among so many individuals whose origins are ethnic, another ethnic group would be seen as just another ethnic group, albeit not a particularly visible one. They needn't be visibly recognizable as different, however, since name, affiliation and occasionally garb is an identifier, and being a Jew is to be part of a demographic that suffer from endemic anti-Semitism. If, into that cauldron, one pours an unhealthy dollop of minorities originating in the Middle East, much is explained.

But even that is not enough to explain the vibrant hatred extruded from those whose tribalism and  religion casts Jews in the light of evil; their influence extends toward others for whom the ethnic designation is equally repulsive through the pervasive lens of hatred for Jews. Since the BDS movement on campuses throughout North America has become an annual event, the question is why is a counter-organized push-back not engaged in to provide the buffer of denial?

Resolution supporters have embraced the absurd concept of Israeli "apartheid", preferring by far to overlook Palestinian violence as a causative to separate attackers from the attacked. It is the very presence of the Jewish state that is anathema to the Arab and Muslim nations in the Middle East, denying that this is their ancestral home, and their presence internationally lawful.

And despite generations of violent attacks against Israelis, it is only the plaintive portrayals of Palestinian "refugees" whose status has become permanent until such time as Israel abandons itself to an overwhelming surge of 'returnees' that is seen as justice denied.

So it is that hopes for boycotting companies like Home Depot, Canadian Tire and other large and small retailers to blackmail them into compliance, to result in the isolation and ostracization of Israel that the Israel-bashers and Jews-haters will find their satisfaction in life as campaigners for the humiliation, slander and hoped-for-come-uppance of the Jewish state. Seeing themselves as righteous activists supporting a victim helpless to protect themselves from oppression, the BDS crew prevail.

And that is the disgrace in society; that there are insufficient numbers of people objectively intelligent enough and caring enough to declare themselves fed up with the sanctimonious vitriol directed toward Israel, afflicting it with the burden of knowing that it is alone in its struggle for survival against onerously difficult odds.

For shame!