BCAA wholeheartedly welcomes the new student-led organization, the Canadian Union of Jewish Students, officially launched last Friday. They are planning to have chapters at universities across Canada, and we are hoping there will be one at Brock University. We certainly need one!
While Canadian campus protests have not turned violent, there are anti-Israel encampments at a number of major Canadian universities, including McGill University in Montreal, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.
“We hope to really just be the voice of all Jewish students in this country and be able to get Jewish students engaged in a lot of things, but also something that is really important for us is to create a safe space, where a lot of us feel isolated on our campuses,” said founder Nati Pressman in an interview.
So far, the new organization has 300 members, and aims to represent Jewish students while “engaging in global Jewish matters.”
“With the help of social media, the CUJS is dedicated to being a platform where Jewish students can voice their opinions and concerns to university administrations and other organizations,” a press release says.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/canadian-jewish-student-organization-launched
Brock University Professor of Sociology, Tamari Kitossa, wrote a paper for the Journal of State Crime, which was rejected by the journal through peer review. The paper argued that that “Zionism is a colonial project that intended from the start on lebensraum, a project of ethnic cleansing that preceded the coalition of German industrialists, US bankers and Hitler’s gang of thugs that formed the Third Reich”. Kitossa holds BA and MA degrees from York University and a PhD from OISE, and his “research and instruction interests include Blackness, anti-Blackness, Black masculinities, African Canadian leadership, anti-criminology and counter-colonial criminology and interracial unions.” Undeterred, Kitossa then posted the rejected paper on his personal blog, The Professor’s Corner, in four parts. The latest one, Zionism-as-Nazism, Still: Genocide was always the plan, from April 9, 2024, caught the eye of a National Post reporter, and its blatantly antisemitic tone was deemed important enough to deserve a front-page story. Within the story, Gil Troy, a well-known Professor of History from McGill University, is quoted as describing the series of posts that he reviewed at the request of the reporter as “unhinged, wildly inaccurate, sloppy, and offensive”.
I hate to give this so-called “social scientist” any air time, but here’s a sample of the good professor’s reflections on the “Zionist sociogenic propaganda”, as he puts it. I think Professor Troy’s characterization is pretty accurate:
[N]either Jew nor Palestinian is free, though the burden of that slavery is immediately manifest in the breaking of the bones, the starvation, degradation, cultural destruction, land theft and dispossession and indiscriminate bombing of Palestinians, while Jews, because of Zionism and their commitment to their ‘Golden Calf’, the State of Israel, suffer an ongoing moral and spiritual decay that makes them insensible to love and their own humanity. As a discursive formation that is deeply neurotic, Zionism is a moral philosophy of hate which is inherently genocidal.
When contacted for the story, Brock University provided the following response:
Maryanne St. Denis, manager of content and communications at Brock University, said the school was unaware of Kitossa’s blog posts until National Post brought them to the school’s attention. “We are currently reviewing this matter,” the school said.
St. Denis added that Brock has a “range of policies in place to ensure a safe and welcoming campus environment. There is absolutely no place on our campus for hate of any kind.”
https://nationalpost.com/news/brock-university-launches-review-after-professor-compares-israel-to-nazi-germany
I eagerly await the results of the University’s “review”.
Edit: St.Catharines Standard on May 15, 2024, has published a follow-up story.
US university campuses are the new battlegrounds. Claiming free speech privileges, the pro-Hamas protesters use the language that can only be described as virulently antisemitic. The Voltairean principle implies that even this speech must be tolerated, but have these protesters crossed over into the unlawful territory? Dr. Nir Hoftman, an anesthesiologist at UCLA, went to visit the pro-Hamas encampment on campus. This is a summary of what he encountered there.
Here’s an example of political activism on campus succeeding.
On Wednesday morning, Eytan Israel ’26 and other co-authors sent a letter to University President Peter Salovey in opposition to the calls for divestment from military weapons manufacturing — hours before the University publicly announced its decision to maintain such investments.
In the first 24 hours of its circulation, the letter gained 133 signatures — including students, parents, alumni and professors across Yale College and Yale’s graduate schools.
[… “W]ithout the military jets of Lockheed Martin, the Iron Dome (Raytheon Manufacturing) and Arrow (Boeing Manufacturing) interceptor missiles, and the patriot defense systems (Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing), democratic countries around the world would have no means to defend themselves against the powers that seek to destroy them,” Israel wrote.
[…] “We hope that this is the end of the campaign against the companies that allow Israel and the western world to defend itself, but we are aware that this is likely not the case,” wrote Israel to the News of the University’s decision on investment policies. “We will stand strong by our beliefs, growing our coalition every day, to continue showing the administration that hundreds of their students, faculty, alumni, and parent body support them and their decision.”
https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2024/04/18/yalies-send-letter-to-salovey-opposing-divestment/
What would it take for all other University Presidents, maybe even Brock’s President Rigg, to issue a statement like that?
Occupy for Palestine (O4P) has called on the University to “terminate all partnerships with Israeli academic institutions that operate in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, or sustain the apartheid policies, occupation and illegal settlement of these territories.” This demand is at odds with the University’s longstanding opposition to academic boycotts, dating back at least to the 1980s.[1] Such demands are antithetical to the University’s firm conviction that the best way to protect human rights is by staunchly defending and promoting academic freedom, freedom of expression, and the unfettered circulation of ideas within the global scholarly community. We have consistently emphasized that it is both inappropriate and, ultimately, counterproductive to single out academics working or studying in a particular country, and to hold them accountable for the actions or policies of their country’s government. Faculty and students are often among the most trenchant critics of their own government’s policies or actions. Events over the past year confirm that Israeli academics – as well as university leaders – have been amongst the most vociferous critics of the current government and its policies.
Moreover, academic collaboration and the free circulation of ideas and people on a global scale are essential to universities’ collective mission of producing new knowledge and advancing understanding. Especially in troubled times such as these, universities have a special responsibility to further enlightenment, and to enable and accommodate dialogue. Today’s pressing issues will be best addressed by scholars – protected by academic freedom – working together to deepen our understanding of these challenging issues and contribute to finding solutions.
For these reasons, the University of Toronto has engaged in longstanding partnerships with institutions globally, including some Israeli universities. Current collaborations between faculty at the University of Toronto and Israeli universities include a joint project to address hate speech in the region and to foster supportive engagement with Palestinian students.
Because academic boycotts of any kind are antithetical to the University’s fundamental mission and values, we firmly reject O4P’s demand to terminate such partnerships.
https://live-presidents-office.pantheonsite.io/president-meric-gertlers-response-to-members-of-occupy-for-palestine/
Kudos to Lily Wolkoff, a graduating student in the History program, who has just published an essay titled Israel’s Counterterrorism to the Palestinian Liberation Organization During the First Intifada in The General: Brock University Undergraduate Journal of History. At the Celebration of Student Excellence event Lily gave a brief presentation of her essay to the audience of about 60 people. In the true spirit of Surgite!, Lily conveyed how it felt to talk about it in the current situation and about experiencing antisemitism at Brock. She spoke with courage, and received applause from the audience.
Congratulations to Lily!
Israel’s Counterterrorism to the Palestinian Liberation Organization During the First Intifada
Lily Wolkoff
Abstract
This paper delves into the multifaceted Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically the First Intifada, where the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) orchestrated terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and the government. The Intifada, characterized by civil disobedience, boycotts, and stone-throwing, prompted Israel to implement a strict military response. This essay scrutinizes Israel’s counterterrorism strategies during the First Intifada, evaluating their effectiveness in addressing the challenges posed by Palestinian nationalist groups. Despite the temporary containment of the First Intifada, Israel’s tactics proved inadequate in addressing long-term threats, exemplified by the emergence of the terrorist militant group Hamas. The study assesses the historical dynamics of the First Intifada and focuses on its lasting impact, notably the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993. These accords marked a shift in the conflict’s trajectory, establishing the Palestinian Authority and initiating official peace talks. The essay concludes by examining the contemporary challenges posed by groups like Hamas, highlighting the imperative for Israel to adapt its counterterrorism measures to navigate the intricate landscape of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict effectively.
https://journals.library.brocku.ca/index.php/bujh/article/view/4570
Two excellent bits of news from today’s email.
Yale university’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies department is co-sponsoring a seminar on the failure of the human rights movement to address the sexual violence against the Jewish women on October 7. Right along the lines of what BCAA did last week, thanks to our two wonderful panellists. Except… the WGSS site, or their Facebook page, have no mention of their own event, apparently the electronic poster was distributed through targeted email list only.
The Brock News this morning (April 11) advertised a visit to Brock by the Ontario’s Minister of Agriculture, and used this cover photograph:
This Brock News’ article, proudly announced in an email sent out yesterday morning temporarily disappeared from the Brock website, which had us worried, but it has now been restored. The cover image has changed, but the above photo depicting a BCAA member wearing her yellow ribbon to raise awareness of the hostages still held in Gaza, is included in the expanded version of the article.
Perhaps, BCAA advocacy is making a small bit of difference?
We wish our friends at the other co-sponsoring organizations at Yale University: the Yale Friends of Israel and the Yale’s Law Students for Israel (an unofficial unapproved student group, so no link) the best in their efforts to turn around their University.
[Edit: an earlier version of this post was called Missing Links, but happily, the Brock News link has been restored, hence a change in the title and tone of the post.]
This article by Letty Cottin Pogrebin was published in 1982. Plus ça change…
No wonder that not a single member of Women’s and Gender Studies programs came to our Rising from SIlence event on April 4: it’s challenging to face one’s own prejudice.
A heartfelt Thank You! to both panellists. For those unable to attend, a video recording (slightly edited for brevity) of this excellent program is here.
The above is a title of a powerful commentary just published in the journal Social Work (April, 2024) by Naomi B. Farber and Maryah Stella Fram from the University of South Carolina. As a J’Accuse of sorts, it left me hopeful: eradication of failure begins with its recognition, in ourselves as in others. Maybe, not all is lost.
As this evidence grows each day, our profession’s continued refusal to condemn Hamas becomes ever more shameful—particularly since we also see each day the growing anti-Semitic movement on our campuses, with students (and some faculty), mired in ignorance and filled with ideological fervor, spewing tropes of blood libel, praising Hamas, and calling for the annihilation of Israel.
[…] decades after the Holocaust, in a time when many thought that “never again” meant something real and substantive, we are troublingly aware that our academic institutions, including schools of social work, have created new spaces rife with indoctrination. Across the social work academy, we see the ebbing of the culture of learning, truth-seeking, intellectual humility, and dialog, and its replacement with a culture of ideological purity, the valorizing of victimhood, and the rewarding of rage. That this indoctrination has now galvanized around hatred of Jews and Israel is shameful, but, given history, it is not surprising.
[…] The replacement of inquiry with ideology is not unique to social work—we see this happening across the academy, and it is in the space of this ideological fervor that anti-Semitism has been nurtured, justified, and so reframed that the torture of children and babies is somehow excusable if they are Jewish children and babies. Because this ideology designates Jews as White, and Israel as an “oppressor” nation, the murder of Jews by terrorists has been imagined as legitimate if not laudatory in the pursuit of “social justice.” This is a terrifying turn away from the humanistic roots of our profession.
https://academic.oup.com/sw/article/69/2/204/7513520
Let’s see how the “social work academy” responds.
Brock Coalition Against Antisemitism 