Western University : Hotbed of Anti-Israel Antisemitism

"As you have previously been advised, the Palestinian Culture Club is established under the policies of the University Students' Council, and as such, is not within the jurisdiction of the University. While the conduct of any individual students associated with a club may be subject to Western's Code of Student Conduct, your complaint fails to identify any students who are alleged to have breached the Code." 

"Though  your email indicates that the complaint provides student names and phone numbers, no such information appears to be included. Furthermore, the supporting documentation is comprised solely of what appears to be copied text, the origins of which are not demonstrated."

"Until such time as you provide the requested information, Western will not be able to proceed with your complaint."

David Foster, Western University legal counsel 

 

"Guys this is serious. [If] you wanna refer to them as something, refer to them as Zionists. If you get caught referring to them as Jews, they'll get you for antisemitism and ruin ur life."

"And this isn't an exaggeration."

"The government are slaves to these Jews."

Group chat participant 

• "They don't know that h4mas is literally OUR military and they just defend but somehow they are the problem??"
• The resistance is making decent progress tbh [to be honest]."
• "The yahood [Jews] own everything. That's how they control everyone. Money."
• "Just out of curiosity, does anyone know Alan [Shepard's house location. I heard it's public information."
• "someone kidnap the dog, maybe then he'll move [Alan Shepard, Western University president]."
• "I know they [Jews] are no shit, it just sucks eno[ugh] they control our education and jobs and everything that matters."
• "Bro they used to be a diaspora they can return to being a diaspora.
• "Imaooo telling a high Jewish population to go to a planet that is a gas giant wont turn out well."
• "Mars is suitable for them let them burn a little. But speaking of burning, the suns a pretty good spot. We  gotta make them hate their life not let them burn."
• "Allah will burn them but we should send em off alone." 
• "[We] need them to hate their life while they are living AND hate their afterlife." 

"The allegations put forward are currently before a rigorous independent process where we are fully cooperating with all legal processes."

"We will be fully rebutting the fallacious claims made that the PCC [Palestinian Cultural Club] in any way facilitated or was involved in the spreading of hate." 

"[Any] spurious allegations made that the PCC supports hate, or supports anti-Semitism is false, malicious, and defamatory. We will defend ourselves in court against such spurious allegations if they are made."

Palestinian Cultural Club spokesperson

 

 

A group of Jewish students at Western University infiltrated two private group chats in the wake of the October 7 southern Israel terrorist attacks. The chat groups were of two private groups that represented Palestinian students and their allies in the London, Ontario community and what came out of those group chats was illuminating in the sense of an awakening over what Israeli opponents say to one another when they feel they are speaking in confidence to others who believe as they do. 

 

Posted on the sites were antisemitic cartoons, pro-Hamas videos, a stream of Hitler memes, discussions on bringing knives to peaceful protests and  how best to escape notice over their sentiments. The lawyer representing these Jewish students has advised them for their safety to practise anonymity in fear of retribution.  After October 7, 2023 the group chats were energized. "Everyone this is a time where we all stand united!" was posted as an initial response to the groups involved.

 

With the emergence of reports of Israelis burned alive, beheaded, sexually assaulted, members of the group chats exchanged messages of attending rallies in support of Palestine and to protest Israel's then-unfolding military response in Gaza. With a view to self-protection, concerns were expressed for their academic careers should the content of their posts become public knowledge. Canary Mission was a concern as a website to identify and track anti-Israel activists.

 

Soon a link was sent out for a new chat venue: "Palestinian safe zone NOT Affiliated with Western", and in response members began flocking to the new group. Administrators of the new chat group were flooded with new members. Unknown to them there was a WhatsApp account linked to a group of campus Jewish students who quietly observed and documented what was being posted. It became swiftly clear that the chat group was comprised solely of those backing the October 7 atrocities.

"Calling us savages for fighting back after 75 years is insanity", wrote one member, responding to a video of Israel Defence Force soldier Naama Levy being abducted, sweatpants bloodied. "This is a lie. They're probably being treated better than how they were treated in their own homes", responded a member to a photo of the kidnapped Bibas family. During the conflict at various instances members expressed admiration for Hamas leaders. 

 

"The Zionists are now recruiting volunteers to infiltrate our protests disguised in kuffiyehs. We have nothing to hide or fear but still important to be safe. These lunatics are unpredictable and insane", posted one user during a discussion about anti-Israel protests, warning chat members to stay safe. A solution was recommended by another user: "Drop a loonie and see who picks it up", to identify the covert presence of Jews at the protests. 

 

And nor were references to the Holocaust and Adolf Hitler strangers to the group chat. There was no cautionary intervention from those administering the WhatsApp chat. "I feel like sending hitler stickers is going to leave a horrible horrible mark if someone else sees", wrote one student. "If we can refrain from using anything hitler related, that would be amazing", another responded. Posts about a female Jewish business student's social media account condemning Hamas terrorist sympathizers elicited a response: "I'm a geology major, I got some pretty rocks that I can use to 'fix' her brains. Just gotta work on my aim." 

 

 

 

The Jewish students made an attempt to go through university channels to address what they had seen of concerning rhetoric in the group chats. One of their lawyers, Jonathan Rosenthal, filed a 17-page complaint to the university on their behalf, distilling the comments' nature on the group chat. No formal investigation was ever taken based on the Jewish students' reluctance to identify themselves as complainants. 

 

Jane O'Brien, associate vice-president of human resources at Western confirmed having received the complaint and requested that the lawyer "identify the students involved" and that any incident alleged to represent "a breach of the Code of Student Conduct" be outlined, informing Rosenthal that concerns relating to the Palestinian student club's campus status should be directed to the student union, the University Students' Council. "I will NOT be disclosing the names of the complainants" responded Rosenthal, citing "safety concerns". Their identities, he said being "simply irrelevant", requesting the university proceed on an investigation.  

"The USC [University Students Council] and Western University are two distinct entities with distinct jurisdictions."

"The USC was made aware of the anonymous complaint and conducted an investigation to determine if it fell within its jurisdiction. When it was determined this complaint was outside its scope, the USC referred the complaint over to Western University's Student Code of Conduct Office."

USC spokeswoman Rebecca Rebeiro  

"It sounds like there's enough here certainly to start a security intelligence investigation, possibly to start a criminal intelligence investigation."

"It's complex and interesting. The knife [discussed in a chat as a take-along] is sort of a whole separate tactical question because it suggests deliberate obfuscation for a tool that's intended to be used as a weapon."

"They key thing about the chat here is we live in a democracy, so the state can't simply go in and monitor people's chats even if they wanted to. [Obtaining warrants for such chats requires a high] evidentiary threshold."

"[The evidence is] unlikely to be admissible in a court of law because of how it was obtained]."

"Is there the long arm of some terrorist organization or someone affiliated with that organization behind this, trying to generate some cohesion around these sorts of issues? At that point, of course, it becomes clearly within the terrorist realm."

"What  you and I don't know is whether anybody behind this chat, themselves -- for instance, someone here on a student visa -- who through their family or by other means is linked to one of the organizations. That's why it's important to investigate these things."

"This is a really important story because I think people completely underestimate what goes on in our university campuses." 

Christian Leuprecht, professor, Royal Military College of Canada 

Pro-Palestinian protesters during convocation at Western University in London, Ont., on June 20, 2024. Photo by Derek Ruttan/Postmedia Network

 

Lionizing Francesca Albanese

"Israel is responsible for one of the cruellest genocides in modern history."

"Colonial endeavours and associated genocides have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector."

"Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous people of their lands -- a mode of domination known as 'colonial racial capitalism'."

"This is a political economy that was always eliminatory and has turned into genocidal mode."

"This is a necessary step to end the genocide and dismantle the global system that has allowed it." 

Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories 

 

"[Her] biased and malicious activities [have long made her unfit for service as a special rapporteur with the United Nations]."

"[Albanese has been busy] writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defence, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC [International Criminal Court] pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives."

"We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty."

"Albanese has spewed  unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West." 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio 

Francesca Albanese meets with NDP member Salma Zahid  Photo: X

 

Francesca Albanese's full-blown Critical Race Theory embrace in lock-step with her vile inbred brand of antisemitism pretty well sums up and exemplifies both behind-the-scenes and the upfront stand of the United Nations and its body of member-states weighed heavily in favour of the agenda of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in concert with the non-aligned bloc of nations who unfailingly vote for any move to censure Israel within the general assembly of the international group. Her outright reviling of the State of Israel, demonizing it at every opportunity lays bare the level of Jew-hate that has become ever more blatant and demeaning of civilized societies.

 

The provocations that spew from the mouth of this rapporteur are heard to great acclaim in the UN's general body, despite that as a global union purportedly in support of universal peace and harmony, in favour of human rights and respect for sovereignty of all its member-states, can countenance and approve of one tiny country re-established on its own historical ancestral territory as a democratic, inclusive nation tolerant of other religions and ethnic groups with full citizenship in the country yet can be vilified and sanctioned repeatedly while dictatorial regimes that oppress their citizens and threaten their neighbours are never sanctioned for their rejection of human rights.

 

Ms. Albanese issued a report in July: Forever-Occupation, genocide, and profit. Evidently one too many irritants for the Trump government in Washington, which has now sanctioned her. Her demand for "accountability for corporate entities and their executives at both the domestic and international levels" holds capitalism to account for the war being waged in Gaza by Israel against Hamas following the October 7, 2023 mass invasion of southern Israel by Palestinian terrorists on a vicious rampage of organized rape and savagery that resulted in the death of 1,200 people, the abduction into Gaza as hostages of another 250 Israeli children, women, elderly and foreign farm workers.

 

Alhough Albanese cited genocide no fewer than 59 instances in her report, mention of Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine merited no mention whatever, much less the role they have played in conducting countless suicide attacks against Israelis, mounting organized Intifadas, threatening Israel's extermination and in the process ensuring that peace could never be achieved between the Jewish state and its near neighbours who foment demonizing propaganda to convince sympathetic Western observers of Palestinian victimhood.

 

The popular myth that Palestinians want a 'state of their own', and that once granted that state all would be well, has been dashed time and again when Palestinian leaders have outright refused conciliatory offers from Israel that would establish a Palestinian state in exchange for recognition of Israel's right to exist. What the Palestinians do want is the erasure of Israel and the entire region -- Israel, Gaza and the West Bank to be handed to the Palestinians 'from the river to the sea'. And until that occurs Palestinians have pledged to continue their violent campaigns against peace with Israel.

 

Although the Albanese report refers continually to Post-October 2023, no mention whatever is made of October 7, 2023, that infamous date of Palestinian terrorists flooding into Israel on their mission of planned-and-executed mass sadistic cruelty. Instead she continues to link Israel with Fascist Germany, the perpetrators of the WWII Holocaust with its campaign to murder all of Europe's Jewish population, and which succeeded to the degree that six-million Jewish children, women and men of all ages died in the most gruesome circumstances of a state-organized death machine.

 

As for the United Nations' code of conduct for special rapporteurs -- that they uphold the highest standards of "probity, impartiality equity, honesty and good faith" -- it obviously was never meant to apply to its views and conduct with respect to Israel alone of all the UN's 193 member-nations. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- Francesca Albanese's shameful conduct, the United Nations saw nothing amiss in re-appointing her to a second three-year term as special rapporteur. 

 

She certainly has her supporters who wholeheartedly agree with all the sinister motivations and actions she attributes to Israel. Those whose sympathies lie strictly with solidarity with the Palestinians, who portray themselves as victims, forcefully exiled from their traditional heritage land, which they just happened to migrate to in the last century in a search for prospects for prosperity than what would accrue to them in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. And where they declared themselves not an assortment of Arabs from the outer region, but 'Palestinians' when that designation was used during the Roman era to denote the Jewish population.

 

Her supporters in Ireland, Italy and in Canada -- through the auspices of Canada's New Democratic Party -- have nominated Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize, lauding her commitment to peace and freedom as pertains Palestinians, pointedly excluding Jews. And a Change.org petition has been announced to gather signatures for her Nobel prize nomination. All stops out to achieve recognition for her noble work and the reward it obviously merits.

 

 

 

"As a former UN official, as the Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, and as a Canadian, I am horrified to see a United Nations Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, engage in Holocaust distortion and inversion."

Deborah Lyons, Canadian Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism 

 

"Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is the perfect recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize."

"It is time to recognise her work as the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, and her tremendous and courageous work to highlight the destruction of Gaza by Israel. At a time when politicians in Europe and America are failing to step up to the plate for peace, Albanese continues to work in a hostile international environment to bring an end to the war in Gaza, to bring about a lasting peace and to save lives in Palestine."

"Albanese stands as a counterweight to the hypocrisy of politicians–especially in Europe and the United States–from whom one would expect efforts to end the carnage in Gaza and the West Bank, rather than the prevailing support, tolerance, or wilful ignorance of Israeli war crimes."

Labour’s MEP for Dublin Aodhán Ó Ríordáin nominates Francesca Albanese for the Nobel Peace Prize with S&D colleagues

Justin Trudeau's Canada

"He uses his professorship as a way to influence by promoting hate speech and disinformation about Israel. He calls Israel an 'apartheid state committing genocide'."

"I strongly urge you to stop this professor before his words turn into a dreadful act that is completely in your hands to stop today."

Unnamed complainant fearful of personal repercussions

 

"Hatred is predicated on destruction. Hatred against identifiable groups therefore thrives on insensitivity, bigotry and destruction of both the target group and the values of our society."

"Hatred in this sense is the most extreme emotion that belies reason, an emotion that if exercised against members of an identifiable group, implies that those individuals are to be despised, scorned, denied respect and subject to ill-treatment on the basis of a group affiliation." 

Canada's Chief Justice Brian Dickson's ruling in R v Keegstra, 1990

Pro-Palestine protesters march through the streets of Windsor, Ont. Photo by TAYLOR CAMPBELL/WINDSOR STAR

Canadians have seen no end of Palestinian-Canadian and 'pro-Palestinian' supporters coming out in full force since October 7, both celebrating the terrorist group Hamas's butchery of Israelis, rapine and abductions of children and the elderly, and calling for the world community to stop Israel's military response in Gaza. It is well enough known that it was not only Hamas operatives that raided Israeli border towns and villages wreaking sadistic savagery on a surprised and unprepared citizenry, but that Palestinian civilians, some of whom had been engaged as temporary farm workers who also took part in the carnage.

For months the demonstrations have continued, blocking streets, appearing before foreign embassies, universities, government offices, government representative regional offices, and anywhere else the crowds shouting 'gas the Jews' and 'intefada' among other violent threats feel they are entitled to intrude upon. School board meetings have not been immune to these mobs, and nor have shopping malls and Christmas markets. Yet no arm of government has made a move to stop these actions. And when, in police presence, masked men threaten people, there has been no response.

Since the most authoritative response must always emanate from the federal government itself, giving clearance to other levels of government and ultimately police, the complete lack of response from the Liberal government of prime minister Justin Trudeau has set the stage for the protests and their violent messaging to continue. Antisemitism has become a viral menace within Canadian society. Unchecked it will lead to violence in excess of the firebombing of a synagogue and Jewish community centre and parochial school.

 

 

There are some instances where those with the moral courage to deny the slanders thrown about that threaten Jews, are left to their own devices when they are penalized. As in the instance of a lecturer in marketing at University of Guelph-Humber. An investigation was launched for a social media post by Paul Finlayson who responded to a Palestinian supporter he labelled a "pro-Nazi zealot. You stand with Palestine means you stand with Hitler. You don't want peace, you want dead Jews". He finds himself suspended from his position with the university.

And then there is the individual who wrote to the administration of Sheridan College in Brampton, Ontario to report online posts produced by Dr. Wael Ramadan, professor of project management at the Pilon School of Business at Sheridan College. The complainant wrote that Ramadan posted "hateful rhetoric about Israel", recognized as antisemitic, making the individual feel 'unsafe'. At Canadian universities and colleges the new rule is anything that makes anyone associated with academia feel 'unsafe' cannot be countenanced. An exception is made for Jews feeling 'unsafe'.

Professor Ramadan is an ardent supporter of the Palestinian 'cause', a harsh critic of Israel, which he names an "apartheid state" that commits genocide, urging a boycott of companies that conduct business with Israel. He helped to publicize a worldwide strike in support of Gaza, following the October 7 atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel. "The dehumanization of Palestinians using fake news and atrocity propaganda is weaponized by apartheid Israel and the U.S. government to incite emotion against Palestinians", he writes.

 

 

So, evidently the carnage wrought by Hamas on Israel during the October 7 atrocities are a mere figment of an evil mind's imagination, attributing such inhumane acts to Palestinians. These Palestinian supporters claim there is no evidence, that these are events entirely contrived or carried out by Israel in an effort to paint Palestinians as monsters when clearly they are freedom fighters. That the 'freedom fighters' took pride in their atrocities to the extent that they recorded them and posted the videos on social media platforms is evidently negligibly immaterial.