mobiustrip44 writes
When Jews cry wolf
Students at York University in Toronto are claiming victimhood and calling their recent suspension "the new Concordia." The truth is they're crying wolf, and they're not alone.

by Daniel Sieradski March 26, 2004

Toronto's York University has suspended their campus Hillel and a pro-Palestinian activist group after an altercation last week in which more than 100 Jewish students verbally and physically confronted a group of 25 activists who were partaking in an act of guerilla theatre depicting an Israeli military checkpoint.
On March 16th, a campus activist organization, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), organized a "theatrical display" in York University's main academic building, Vari Hall, in commemoration of the one-year anniversary of International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie's death. The unpermitted event, which recreated the scene of an Israeli military checkpoint, depicted Israeli soldiers bearing the phrase "Born To Kill" on the backs of their uniforms, taunting and beating Palestinians -- a thoroughly inappropriate and unfair, though sadly accurate, portrayal of the scene's real-life counterpart.

Outrage from York's Jewish community came before the event even took place. Hillel, having learned of SPHR's intentions from a forwarded e-mail calling for volunteers to play a "mean, dirty inhumane Israeli soldier," immediately sought permission for a counterdemonstration -- a vigil for the victims of suicide bombers, to show why checkpoints are necessary -- and was granted a rally permit for the area across the street from Vari Hall on the day of SPHR's planned action.

What resulted was a childish display of intolerance and disregard for free expression on behalf of Hillel's members, which resulted in both Hillel and SPHR's suspensions, and which has subsequently placed York University at the center of the campus culture wars.

Code of conduct
On Friday, March 19th, York University officials sent letters of reprimand to Hillel and SPHR, suspending both groups for one week, claiming they knowingly violated the school's Code of Conduct, which prohibits political demonstrations inside Vari Hall, as well as such undisciplined scenes as the one you'll read about soon. During the suspension, the groups are prohibited from holding any events or hosting any speakers. It's not for a semester; no funding has been cut; no one's getting expelled -- these kids are just getting a time out for scrapping in the yard.

"Student groups aren't allowed to use an academic building for demonstrations," says York spokeswoman Nancy White. "We have to support free speech but we're really disappointed by the groups involved. They have to know that if you break the rules, there will be consequences."

The policy seems pretty reasonable and straightforward enough. But while university officials may be clear on such things, for students, the situation's a bit murkier. Whereas White insists that demonstrations and activities of the like are not permitted to take place in Vari Hall, SPHR's Liisa Schofield says "We've used the hall in the past," and that groups hold events inside the building regularly. SPHR would have requested a permit, she says, but firstly, it wasn't a demonstration but rather "a silent theatrical event" that turned rowdy "only when the counterdemonstration came and bombarded us," and further, that "booking the hall has never been an option to us. They close the door in our face every time." Schofield would not go so far as to call staging the event without a permit an act of civil disobedience, however. "I don't call using a facility we pay $15,000 a year in tuition to use civil disobedience."

In turn, responding to their suspension, Hillel at York's Karen Szlamkowicz says, "We think that it was pretty harsh for the simple reason that protests of this nature have never been sanctioned before." And by that, she means the counterdemonstration. Szlamkowicz suggests they had no idea how the school would react.

While the conflict appears to have been raging for some time now, understanding how to deal with the polemics of the Israel-Palestine debate on campus is still relatively new turf for campus officials who only seem to grapple with it as a policy issue when it blows up in their faces. Worsening matters is that on both ends of the debate, you have reactionaries who scream 'bloody murder' no matter what the circumstances, and thus impede a school's ability to act objectively in a situation such as this.

For example, rather than ceding any culpability for the exchange, both Hillel and SPHR are spinning the story to make themselves out to be the victims of fabricated institutionalized discrimination, dragging York University into the crossfire.

A March 22nd press release from Hillel at York states, "This statement from the University [...] has left Jewish students on campus feeling betrayed, silenced and vulnerable. [...] Students are furious that such disproportionate, harsh action has been leveled against them for the simple act of verbally and non-violently opposing a highly insensitive and unauthorized demonstration." [Emphasis added.]

Likewise, a March 23rd press release from SPHR states, "Mirroring a trend all over campuses in North America, the York Administration has silenced local Palestine solidarity activists." [Emphasis added.]

Clearly, a one-week suspension for getting into a fight and breaking school rules is hardly being "silenced." Rather, the administration's response appears to be exceptionally proportionate and, further, appropriate.

Here's why...

What the hell really happened?
Out of the gate, members of Hillel and the accompanying Young Zionist Partnership demonstrated their contempt for university regulations by violating their counterdemonstration permit, assembling directly in front of Vari Hall -- a designated campus "quiet zone" -- rather than across the street, where they had been permitted. Though the group moved on order from campus security, the Jewish students' intentions of preventing SPHR from holding their event peacefully were already shining through. To school officials, the students were clearly waiting outside for the pro-Palestinian group to appear.

An hour into their demonstration, several Jewish students clad in t-shirts reading, "If I were a suicide bomber, you'd be dead by now," left the permitted rally area and entered Vari Hall, where, York's Nancy White says, "they laid in wait" for the members of SPHR, and upon their arrival (according to SPHR and other witnesses) began shouting a barrage of crude remarks and racial slurs at them, including such verbal atrocities as "You can only have terrorist children," and "You deserve to be raped." A confrontation ensued in which more than 100 Jewish students (the entirety of the Hillel vigil's attendees) surrounded the 25 pro-Palestinian activists inside the building -- during which time classes were taking place -- chanting pro-Israel slogans and, according to SPHR's Schofield, creating obstructions with signs and banners to prevent anyone from witnessing the altercation.

"We gave them signs to hold and flags to wave," Jonathan Moshevich, a member of Hillel at York, told The Candian Jewish News. "If we had done nothing at all, there probably would have been fist fights in Vari Hall that day."

But, "it wasn't a clash," says Schofield, "it was a very large group coming and squashing a group of 25 people. We were surrounded -- there was an aggressive tone to it and we were way outnumbered. It was intimidating and clearly meant to stop what we were doing from happening." As to Hillel's claims of non-violence, "There are documented cases of assault and injury and were quite a few death threats," Schofield says.

"They were having a demonstration," says Szlamkowicz, downplaying Hillel's role in the affair, "and we were having a counter-demonstration, to show the other side of the story -- why these checkpoints are necessary. It gives the university population a more balanced perspective."

"There was a confrontation," she adds, "and it lasted for a little while, at which point several Jewish students intervened to break it up." However, Zac Kaye, executive director of Hillel of Greater Toronto, told The Canadian Jewish News that this intervention was at the request of campus security. When asked if she felt the behavior of Hillel's members were repressive towards SPHR's members or in any way impeded their freedom of expression, Szlamkowicz flatly said "No."

As for "laying in wait," Szlamkowicz says, "It was a cold day. A lot of people were waiting inside the building. When they asked us to move outside we did."

Where were the police during all this? SPHR's press release notes, "Police and York security were present as all this happened," as they had been notified of the group's action in advance, "but [they] refused to get involved."

York's Nancy White explains: "Police and campus security were present, but the university did not want to use excessive force to separate them," as it would have likely escalted matters. "After 45 minutes we asked [the students] to leave."

Frustrating matters even more, on the Thursday following their altercation with SPHR, Hillel held a Jewish Unity Rally in response to recent spate of anti-Semitic vandalism in Toronto and had requested a permit for 50 students to attend two weeks in advance. But instead of 50 York students, 350 showed, many of which were Jewish high school students who had been bussed in from the local community. Szlamkowicz says they had not officially invited the high schoolers and were in touch with the office of Student Affairs about the situation, but White seemed anything but happy about the incident, saying that the group was, again, in direct contravention of university policy.

Silencing the opposition
At last Thursday's rally, Canadian MP Art Eggleton called "Hatred of Israel [...] the new and clever guise of anti-Jewish prejudice," perpetuating the very mistaken ideology that's at the core of this incident. Although anti-Semites may at times use the cover of anti-Zionism to attain their own ends, criticism of Israeli governmental policy itself is not anti-Semitism, regardless of what Abe Foxman, Alan Dershowitz and Phyllis Chesler would like us to believe. In fact, several members of SPHR are themselves Jews who are simply concerned with the devastating effects of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza -- which is not to say they're unconcerned with Israeli lives as well, but rather they feel that people need to made more aware of Palestinian suffering, which they feel often goes overlooked in the mainstream media.

"We were just trying to point out that checkpoints are a form of collective punishment and what happens in the daily life of Palestinians," says Schofield. "Some people want to portray this as Muslims versus Jews things and it's just not."

Unfortunately, with all the rhetoric flying such as that offered by Eggleton, it's no wonder Jewish students get all riled up when confronting criticism of Israel on campus. Thanks to the efforts of pro-Israel campus outreach programs like those sponsored by AIPAC and Hillel, students have been pumped up on the misguided assertion that all people who want a free Palestine want Jews dead. Worse yet, with anti-Semitic crimes being at record levels in Canada (themselves acts of poorly channeled anger on the part of Muslim youth angered by Israeli policy and Jewish complacence), SPHR's event was incredibly ill-timed. To pro-Israel activists, it's merely interpreted as an act of incitement. Thus it's wholly understandable why the Hillel students reacted as they did, but their reaction should still not be tolerated, and so it wasn't. Granted, SPHR's action was incredibly insensitive and portrayed a very one-dimensional view of an infinitely more complex situation, but 'Jews don't burn books,' as the adage goes, and likewise shouldn't be attempting to suppress even the most unwelcome speech.

Hillel makes a point of noting the fact that pro-Palestinian and anti-war demonstrators at York have held unpermitted events such as this regularly, to which the university has turned a blind eye, likely with the hope of encouraging a crackdown on such activity. But despite their valid concerns about one-sided presentations of current events, that a Jewish organization should ever be calling for the official suppression of free speech on campus ought to scare anyone who knows how many times such a decree has been levied against Jews.

Even of greater concern, at the behest of several American-Jewish organizations, the U.S. Senate is now reviewing a Congress-approved bill which would create an agency to monitor the activities of Middle East studies programs throughout the country for anti-Israel bias. H.R. 3077, the International Studies in Higher Education Act, would establish a seven-member committee of federal appointees that would have the power to cut federal funding from colleges whose Middle East studies programs they deem to be anti-Israel.

Suggesting that the bill would give rise to a witch-hunt of McCarthyistic proportions, an anonymous official with a major Jewish organization told The Forward, "This bill is bad both on its merits and because of the way it makes us look."

The current behavioral mentality of Jews on North American campuses echoes the early days of the Betar, Zev Jabotinsky's Jewish militant youth league of the 1930's, the same time at which virulent anti-Semitism was last at its peak. Often called "The Jewish SS," the group used brute force and intimidation tactics, none too dissimilar from those used by Hillel at York (or the Republicans at the Palm Beach courthouse in 2000), to advance Jabotinsky's protofascist Zionist agenda. And is it any wonder why, with Jabotinsky's ideological heirs -- Likudniks like Natan Sharansky and Benjamin Netanyahu -- weaving about the campus circuit, seeding their rhetoric and fury, and riling these kids up?

Not Concordia
In an act of disingenuous damage control, members of the Jewish community, as well as the Jewish press, are now trying to cast the events at York as "The New Concordia," drawing comparisons to wholly dissimilar events which took place at Montreal's Concordia University in 2002, where the campus Hillel was suspended for leafleting on behalf of a program inviting college-aged Canadian Jews to volunteer for the Israel Defense Forces. (See Bradford R. Pilcher's story in this issue.) Whereas recruiting for a foreign military is prohibited by Canadian law, the group was suspended pending an investigation that it had committed a federal offense. The situation was complicated by the fact that Concordia's student government, which handed down the suspension order, was heavily stocked with leading members of the campus' pro-Palestinian movement which had incited a riot a few months prior, during a scheduled on-campus visit from Benjamin Netanyahu. Clearly, the two situations have little in common, whereas the pro-Palestinian student body didn't suspend the pro-Israel group, but rather the administration suspended them both -- and for acting like a bunch of babies and fighting in the school yard, no less.

"It seems as if York has turned into Concordia," says Hillel at York's director Talia Klein in the organization's press release.

Perhaps to Hillel's students it seems that way, but to most observers, they definitely had it coming.

Daniel Sieradski specializes in developing Web sites for Jewish non-profits and is the editor of Jewschool.com. He is currently authoring a book on Jews and drugs."