March 30th, 2009
Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel www.bdsmovement.net
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In commemoration of Palestinian Land Day, and in support of the Global Day of Action for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) re-affirms its commitment to the BDS movement. We call upon all sectors of Canadian society to join us in Boycotting, Divesting and Sanctioning Israeli Apartheid.
Over the past year, the Canadian BDS movement has made tremendous gains across a variety of sectors. We would like to once again congratulate the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees – Ontario Division for their leadership in the labour movement and commitment to researching and implementing BDS.
Canadian campuses continue to be central to BDS – in March, Israeli Apartheid Week was held in 14 cities across Canada and over 45 cities internationally. Canadian student unions have commited firm support for the Palestinian Right to Education campaign, the Federation Autonome du Collegial in Quebec (FAC) have adopted a resolution joining the BDS campaign, and Faculty for Palestine issued a statement condemning the Israeli massacres in Gaza and calling on the Canadian government to issue sanctions on Israel.
The Israeli assault on Gaza has once again exposed the brutal violence and atrocities committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people. The Canadian government has shamefully played a key role in supporting Israel and championing the Israeli apartheid cause at home, at the U.N and around the world. Canada was the only country to vote against condemnation of Israeli war crimes in Gaza in the U.N Human rights council.
This year we have seen unprecedented attacks on Palestine solidarity organizing from Zionist groups, University administrations and the Canadian government itself. Despite the backlash and attempts at repression, the BDS movement in Canada which is working to put an end to the Israeli military aggression and occupation, for full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel and for the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees – is growing and stronger than ever.
From the blockade of South African dockworkers against Israeli goods, to the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela that have cut official ties with Israeli Apartheid, we are inspired, gain strength and are proud to be part of the growing International BDS movement
Given the unrelenting and unapologetic Canadian political and economic support for Israel, and given the escalating violence of the Israeli state especially in Gaza – we see that now more than ever we must stand up and hold the Israeli state accountable and challenge Canadian complicity with apartheid. Now, more than ever, we must join and build the Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions movement against Israeli apartheid!
JOIN US:
Monday, March 30th: The four-city speaking tour GEORGE GALLOWAY: RESISTING WAR
FROM GAZA TO KANDAHAR is going ahead as planned. The ban on Galloway's trip to Canada is being challenged. If, in the end, Galloway is not permitted into the country, all events will go on as planned. A live broadcast of Galloway's banned speech will be shown. For more information about the campaign to get Galloway into Canada, visit www.defendfreespeech.ca.
Saturday, April 4th: Anti-War Demonstration:
JOIN THE BOYCOTT ISRAELI APARTHEID CONTINGENT
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid supports the Global Week against War and the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War demonstration: 1 PM @ Younge and Dundas Square
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GET INVOLVED!
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid
endapartheid@riseup.net / www.caiaweb.org
More on the Global Day of Action for BDS:
bdsmovement.net
Monday, March 30, 2009
April 2nd and 3rd: Symposium on Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responsesto the War on Gaza
A Women and Gender Studies Institute event at the University of Toronto
Co-sponsored by Faculty4Palestine
Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responses to the War on Gaza, April 2 & 3, 2009.
Program for Symposium:
Thursday April 2, 2009
5 -7pm Reception featuring artist talks and video installations
by b.h. Yael and Vicky Moufawad-Paul.
7-8:30. Keynote: The Political Absurd: The War on Terror in 'Post-Racial' America, Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger's University.
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Friday April 3rd, 2009
1-2:30 pm Local Panel: Reflections on Violent Contradictions
Abbie Bakan (Queen's University)
Shahrzad Mojab (OISE, University of Toronto)
Dana Olwan (Queen's University)
b.h. Yael (OCAD)
2:30 - 3pm Poetry reading by Trish Salah
3 - 3:30pm Coffee break
3:30 - 5pm Closing Plenary. Gaza as a Metaphor: Victims and Perpetrators, Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, University of East London.
For full details, please visit the symposium website
http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/vcwg
Co-sponsored by Faculty4Palestine
Violent Contradictions and Feminist Responses to the War on Gaza, April 2 & 3, 2009.
Program for Symposium:
Thursday April 2, 2009
5 -7pm Reception featuring artist talks and video installations
by b.h. Yael and Vicky Moufawad-Paul.
7-8:30. Keynote: The Political Absurd: The War on Terror in 'Post-Racial' America, Jasbir Puar, Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutger's University.
******************
Friday April 3rd, 2009
1-2:30 pm Local Panel: Reflections on Violent Contradictions
Abbie Bakan (Queen's University)
Shahrzad Mojab (OISE, University of Toronto)
Dana Olwan (Queen's University)
b.h. Yael (OCAD)
2:30 - 3pm Poetry reading by Trish Salah
3 - 3:30pm Coffee break
3:30 - 5pm Closing Plenary. Gaza as a Metaphor: Victims and Perpetrators, Yosefa Loshitzky, Professor of Film, Media, and Cultural Studies, University of East London.
For full details, please visit the symposium website
http://www.utoronto.ca/wgsi/vcwg
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Action Alert: British MP George Galloway Banned from Entering Canada
ITEMS IN THIS POST:
1) Call to action to defend free speech
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) Call to action to defend free speech
Defend free speech. Let George Galloway into Canada. Stop Jason Kenney¹s attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for
each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this
adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops - British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard one way or another.
George Galloway MP
1) Call to action to defend free speech
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) Call to action to defend free speech
Defend free speech. Let George Galloway into Canada. Stop Jason Kenney¹s attack on civil liberties.
Dear friends:
By now you will have heard that Jason Kenney, Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, has banned British MP George Galloway from entering Canada. Galloway is scheduled to speak in four cities during a pan-Canadian speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.
Kenney's decision to ban Galloway is an unprecedented attack on free speech and on the right to criticize our own government's foreign policy. Kenney's office has publicly stated that Galloway will be banned because of his views on the war in Afghanistan and because he represents a "threat to national security".
The ban follows Kenney's recent attacks on Canadian Arab and Muslim organizations and on Palestine solidarity campaigners for their criticism of Israel's war on Gaza and its treatment of Palestinians. In the last few days, Kenney unilaterally cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation for its immigrant settlement program. Kenney also recently attacked students organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on campuses across Canada.
Kenney has attempted to silence their voices by accusing them of anti-Semitism, despite the wide range of support and participation of Jewish organizations and individuals in these Palestine solidarity events.
The organizers of Galloway's speaking tour the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, the Ottawa Peace Assembly, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights - condemn in the strongest terms Kenney's attack on free speech and our right to criticize our government's foreign policy. We call on all supporters of civil liberties to join us in challenging these attacks and in reversing Kenney's ban.
In the next few days, we will launch a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech in Canada and to reverse Kenney's ban. We call on you to join in this campaign to ensure Galloway's entry into Canada. We must organize now to ensure that all events where Galloway is scheduled to speak will proceed as planned.
Supporters should continue to buy tickets for these events and to promote them widely.
To that end, we urge you to take the following steps:
1) Contact Jason Kenney's office to condemn the ban and to demand its immediate reversal:
E-mail: minister@cic.gc.ca; kennej@parl.gc.ca
Phone: 613-992-2235 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3480 (Calgary office)
Fax: 613-992-1920 (Ottawa office); 403-225-3504 (Calgary office)
2) Join an emergency city-wide organizing meeting in Toronto to defend free speech and to reverse the ban:
Sunday, March 22
3:00pm to 5:00pm
Ryerson Student Centre
55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
This organizing meeting will take place during the closing session of the Student Assembly against War and Racism, scheduled to take place from Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22 in the same location (www.unitedagainstwar.ca). Anti-war delegates from across the country will be present to participate in developing a pan-Canadian campaign to defend free speech and to reverse the ban on Galloway.
3) Are you on facebook? Join the facebook group: Let Him Speak: Allow George Galloway to Speak in Canada:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809
4) Buy tickets for the Galloway events in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa.
Help us promote these events. Spread the word widely. Ticket information for
each city is available at www.nowar.ca and www.acp-cpa.ca.
5) Forward this e-mail across all your lists to build the biggest response possible.
If Kenney does not reverse his ban, a delegation of Canadian MPs, lawyers, peace campaigners, and civil liberties advocates will travel to the US to escort Galloway across the border on the day of his scheduled arrival to Canada.
We will join with Galloway in publicly defying Kenney's attack on free speech, civil liberties and the peace movement.
Please spread the word about Sunday's meeting. If you are outside Toronto and would like to get involved, please contact us:
Email: stopthewar@sympatico.ca
Web: www.nowar.ca or www.acp-cpa.ca
Campaign materials will be ready following Sunday's organizing meeting in Toronto for local organizers to distribute across the country.
Together, we will defend free speech and civil liberties.
And one way or another, we will bring George Galloway to Canada!
Thank you for your ongoing support.
In peace,
Toronto Coalition to Stop the War
Ottawa Peace Coalition
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
2) Statement by George Galloway MP on Jason Kenney's ban
March 20, 2009
The Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney gazetted in Rupert Murdoch's Sun yesterday morning that I was to be excluded from his country because of my views on Afghanistan. That's the way the right-wing last-ditch dead-enders of Bushism in Ottawa conduct their business. At least for now. The upcoming elections in the country look set to follow the trend set by their neighbour to the south.
Kenney is quite a card almost a joker in fact. A quick trawl establishes he's a gay-baiter, gung-ho armchair warrior, with an odd habit of exceeding his immigration brief. Three years ago he attacked the pro-Western prime minister of Lebanon Fuad Saniora for being ungrateful to Canada for its support of Israeli bombardment of his country. Most curiously of all in 2006 he addressed a rally of the so called People's Mujahideen of Iran, a Waco-style cult, banned in the European Union as a terrorist organization with a penchant for encouraging impressionable young members to self-immolate in public places.
While on one level being banned by such a man is like being told to sit up straight by the hunchback of Notre Dame or being lectured on due diligence by Lord Conrad Black a Kenney ally, now breaking stones in the hot sun. On another, and personal, note for a Scotsman to be excluded from Canada is like being turned away from the family home.
But what are my views on Afghanistan which the Canadian government (for we must assume cabinet responsibility) does not want its people to hear?
I've never been to Afghanistan, nor have I ever met a Taliban, but my first impression into the parliamentary vellum on the subject was more than two decades ago. At the time the fathers of the Taliban were "freedom fighters" paraded at US Republican and British Tory party conferences. Who knows, maybe even the Canadian right extolled these god-fearing opponents of Communism. I did not however.
On the eve of their storming of Kabul I told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that she "had opened the gates to the barbarians" and that "a long, dark night would now descend upon the people of Afghanistan". How long and how dark, as George Bush might have put it, I misunderestimated.
But with the same conviction I say to the Canadian and other NATO governments today that your current policy is equally a profound mistake. From time to time and with increased regularity it is a crime. Like the bombardment of wedding parties and even funerals or the presiding over a record opium crop which under our noses finds its way coursing through the veins of young people from Nova Scotia to Newcastle upon Tyne. But it is worse than a crime, as Tallyrand said, it's a blunder.
The Afghans have never succumbed to foreign occupation, heaven knows the British Empire tried, tried and failed again. Not even Alexander the Great succeeded, and whoever else he is, minister Kenney is no Alexander the Great. Young Canadian soldiers are dying in significant numbers on Afghanistan's plains. Their families are entitled to know how many of us believe this
adventure to be similarly doomed and that genuine support for the troops - British, Canadian and other means bringing them home, changing course and that an alternative policy exists, the debate around which they above all deserve to hear and judge for themselves.
For a G7 government to ban a five times elected British parliamentarian from addressing public events or keeping my appointment with some of their flagship television and radio programmes is quite a serious matter. Few would have guessed that the kinder, gentler Canada of Jonie Mitchell's lyricism would have been the villain of such a piece. Canada's conservatives have certainly paved free speech and put up a parody of liberty.
Minister Kenney's "spokesman" says in his gazette, otherwise known as the Sun, "Galloway's not coming in - end of story."
Alas for him, it's not. Canada remains a free country governed by law and my friends are even now seeking a judicial review of his decision. The Canadian people will speak soon about the whole conduct of the war and the economy by the neo-con administration he graces. And above all there are other ways I can address those Canadians who wish to hear me greater in number now and including those who positively disagree with what I have to say.
More than half a century ago Paul Robeson, one of the greatest men who ever lived, was forbidden to enter Canada not by Ottawa but by Washington, which had taken away his passport. But he was still able to transfix a vast crowd of Vancouver's mill hands and miners with a 17 minute telephone concert culminating in a rendition of the Ballad of Joe Hill.
Technology has moved on since then. And so from coast to coast, minister Kenney notwithstanding, I will be heard one way or another.
George Galloway MP
Action Alert: Harper Government Cuts CAF Funding
Canadian Arab Federation / La Fédération Canado-Arabe
ACTION ALERT
March 20, 2009
Harper Government Cuts Funding to CAF
The Harper government has cut funding to the Settlement Service of the Canadian Arab Federation alleging CAF promotes terror. In doing so, immigrants and newcomers will lose the opportunity to gain the necessary skills to successfully integrate into Canadian society. This arbitrary decision made by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, under the Harper leadership is an attempt to silence any dissenting voice and is being used as disciplinary action for CAF’s political stand which is contrary to their own. Furthermore, this is a warning to other non-profit, anti-racist organizations not to criticize members of the Canadian government or they may face a similar fate. This decision sets a dangerous precedence for a minister’s political posturing and attacks on a community, and its organizations, already subjected to Islamophobia and other negative stereotypes.
CAF urges you to call, fax and e-mail Minister Kenney in addition to e-mailing your local MP to express outrage of this unprecedented decision to cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation.
Contact Jason Kenney:
Constituency Office:
1168 137 Ave SE
Calgary , AB
T2J 6T6
P. 403-225-3480
F. 403-225-3504
Ottawa Office:
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa , ON K1A 0A6
P. 613-992-2235
F. 613-992-1920
Email:
kennej@parl.gc.ca
Contact your MP:
You can find your local MP and their contact information by entering your Postal Code in the link provided below: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
www.caf.ca
Established in 1967, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national, non-partisan, non profit and membership-based organization. CAF represents Canadian Arabs on issues relating to public policy.
ACTION ALERT
March 20, 2009
Harper Government Cuts Funding to CAF
The Harper government has cut funding to the Settlement Service of the Canadian Arab Federation alleging CAF promotes terror. In doing so, immigrants and newcomers will lose the opportunity to gain the necessary skills to successfully integrate into Canadian society. This arbitrary decision made by the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, under the Harper leadership is an attempt to silence any dissenting voice and is being used as disciplinary action for CAF’s political stand which is contrary to their own. Furthermore, this is a warning to other non-profit, anti-racist organizations not to criticize members of the Canadian government or they may face a similar fate. This decision sets a dangerous precedence for a minister’s political posturing and attacks on a community, and its organizations, already subjected to Islamophobia and other negative stereotypes.
CAF urges you to call, fax and e-mail Minister Kenney in addition to e-mailing your local MP to express outrage of this unprecedented decision to cut funding to the Canadian Arab Federation.
Contact Jason Kenney:
Constituency Office:
1168 137 Ave SE
Calgary , AB
T2J 6T6
P. 403-225-3480
F. 403-225-3504
Ottawa Office:
325 East Block
House of Commons
Ottawa , ON K1A 0A6
P. 613-992-2235
F. 613-992-1920
Email:
kennej@parl.gc.ca
Contact your MP:
You can find your local MP and their contact information by entering your Postal Code in the link provided below: http://www2.parl.gc.ca/Parlinfo/Compilations/HouseOfCommons/MemberByPostalCode.aspx?Menu=HOC
www.caf.ca
Established in 1967, the Canadian Arab Federation is a national, non-partisan, non profit and membership-based organization. CAF represents Canadian Arabs on issues relating to public policy.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
An Open Letter from Trent Faculty Regarding the Removal of Israeli Apartheid Posters
http://www.trentarthur.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1334&Itemid=1
Robert F. Clarke, Head Librarian
Dr. Robin Lathangue, Head of Colleges
Meri Kim Oliver, Sr. Director of Community Affairs and Senior Partnerships
Don Cumming, Sr. Director of Public Affairs
Dear Mr. Clarke, Dr. Lathangue, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Cumming,
We are writing to raise concerns and questions about your decision to have the Israeli Apartheid Week poster removed (or its Latuff image replaced) from the Bata library showcase by the end of the day on March 4. Mr. Clarke’s e-mail to the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity states that your decision was made on the grounds that the Latuff image “communicates an inflammatory message”. Yet you provided no explanation to accompany this highly charged accusation.
We are also deeply troubled about the level of intimidation implicit in your “request” that the students of PCPS “voluntarily remove or replace the other copies of the poster containing the Latuff image”. We find it extremely irresponsible, and possibly actionable as harassment, for the university Administration to deliver such a “request” without a) citing the policy grounds for it, and b) informing the students about the penalties they face for non-compliance.
As faculty members of the Trent University community, we take freedom of expression on campus very seriously and are demanding that you provide the university community with the following information about your decision:
1) What do you mean by “inflammatory message”? What message, in particular, do you consider “inflammatory”? How is it “inflammatory”? Why was this explanation not provided to the students, in writing, at the time your decision was issued to them?
2) What university policy was used as the basis for your decision? What specific policy identifies “inflammatory message” as a violation, and what is the penalty for not conforming to it?
3) Your letter states that “the University is committed to working with all parties involved in this issue to promote a dialogue”. Which “parties”, specifically, are you referring to as being “involved in this issue”? We consider faculty to be a signifcant party in our university administration’s decision to ban a poster from campus, and yet we have not been consulted or invited into the dialogue. Who, then, is in this “dialogue”? What requests are other “parties” making, and what demands are you imposing on “parties” other than the PCPS? We are asking that you provide a full account of the actions, parties and processes that led up to this decision.
Finally, we want you to bring to your attention an Open Letter to defend freedom of speech, particularly as it regards Palestinian rights at Canadian universities. This letter has been signed by over 370 faculty from over 40 Canadian universities. Many of us are members of Faculty 4 Palestine network, and we can assure you that Trent Administration’s actions will be given due attention as we move ahead with this national campaign.
You can view the Letter and the signatures at the following link:
http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1148
Sincerely,
A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, International Development Studies
Feyzi Baban, Politics Department
Chris Beyers, International Development Studies
Davina Bhandar, Canadian Studies
Marion Boulby, Department of History
Paula Butler, Women’s Studies
Nadine Changfoot, Politics Department
Sally Chivers, Canadian Studies
Gavin Fridell, Department of Politics
Margaret Hobbs, Women’s Studies
Chris Huxley, International Development Studies/Sociology
Paul Kellogg, International Development Studies
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies
Paul Manning, Anthropology
Barbara Marshall, Department of Sociology
Anne Meneley, Anthropology
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology
Michael Neumann, Department of Philosophy
Colleen O’Manique, Women’s Studies
Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies
James Penney, Cultural Studies
Paul Shaffer, International Development Studies
Jacqueline Solway, International Development Studies/Anthropology
Carol Williams, Women’s Studies
Robert F. Clarke, Head Librarian
Dr. Robin Lathangue, Head of Colleges
Meri Kim Oliver, Sr. Director of Community Affairs and Senior Partnerships
Don Cumming, Sr. Director of Public Affairs
Dear Mr. Clarke, Dr. Lathangue, Ms. Oliver and Mr. Cumming,
We are writing to raise concerns and questions about your decision to have the Israeli Apartheid Week poster removed (or its Latuff image replaced) from the Bata library showcase by the end of the day on March 4. Mr. Clarke’s e-mail to the Peterborough Coalition for Palestinian Solidarity states that your decision was made on the grounds that the Latuff image “communicates an inflammatory message”. Yet you provided no explanation to accompany this highly charged accusation.
We are also deeply troubled about the level of intimidation implicit in your “request” that the students of PCPS “voluntarily remove or replace the other copies of the poster containing the Latuff image”. We find it extremely irresponsible, and possibly actionable as harassment, for the university Administration to deliver such a “request” without a) citing the policy grounds for it, and b) informing the students about the penalties they face for non-compliance.
As faculty members of the Trent University community, we take freedom of expression on campus very seriously and are demanding that you provide the university community with the following information about your decision:
1) What do you mean by “inflammatory message”? What message, in particular, do you consider “inflammatory”? How is it “inflammatory”? Why was this explanation not provided to the students, in writing, at the time your decision was issued to them?
2) What university policy was used as the basis for your decision? What specific policy identifies “inflammatory message” as a violation, and what is the penalty for not conforming to it?
3) Your letter states that “the University is committed to working with all parties involved in this issue to promote a dialogue”. Which “parties”, specifically, are you referring to as being “involved in this issue”? We consider faculty to be a signifcant party in our university administration’s decision to ban a poster from campus, and yet we have not been consulted or invited into the dialogue. Who, then, is in this “dialogue”? What requests are other “parties” making, and what demands are you imposing on “parties” other than the PCPS? We are asking that you provide a full account of the actions, parties and processes that led up to this decision.
Finally, we want you to bring to your attention an Open Letter to defend freedom of speech, particularly as it regards Palestinian rights at Canadian universities. This letter has been signed by over 370 faculty from over 40 Canadian universities. Many of us are members of Faculty 4 Palestine network, and we can assure you that Trent Administration’s actions will be given due attention as we move ahead with this national campaign.
You can view the Letter and the signatures at the following link:
http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1148
Sincerely,
A. Haroon Akram-Lodhi, International Development Studies
Feyzi Baban, Politics Department
Chris Beyers, International Development Studies
Davina Bhandar, Canadian Studies
Marion Boulby, Department of History
Paula Butler, Women’s Studies
Nadine Changfoot, Politics Department
Sally Chivers, Canadian Studies
Gavin Fridell, Department of Politics
Margaret Hobbs, Women’s Studies
Chris Huxley, International Development Studies/Sociology
Paul Kellogg, International Development Studies
Winnie Lem, International Development Studies
Paul Manning, Anthropology
Barbara Marshall, Department of Sociology
Anne Meneley, Anthropology
Mary-Jo Nadeau, Department of Sociology
Michael Neumann, Department of Philosophy
Colleen O’Manique, Women’s Studies
Bryan Palmer, Canadian Studies
James Penney, Cultural Studies
Paul Shaffer, International Development Studies
Jacqueline Solway, International Development Studies/Anthropology
Carol Williams, Women’s Studies
Toronto Universities must reject false claims that IAW is "hate" and condemn disruption and harassment at IAW events
Wednesday March 11, 2009
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) - York
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) -University of Toronto
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) - Ryerson
Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 is a series of lectures and film screenings on various campuses and communities (now 40 cities) across the world whose intent is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system. In its fifth year, Toronto's Israeli Apartheid Week has seen an alarming increase in harassment, intimidation and physical violence against its organizers and guests. While people who seem to be affiliated with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) are the primary organizers of the attacks, unfortunately, the student groups Hasbara and Hillel have also joined in, using cameras, physical proximity, and threatening language to intimidate activists, especially women students, calling them "terrorists" and repeating the accusations of "incitement" and "hate speech". When these incidents of harassment and intimidation are reported to campus police, the police have taken no action.
Prior to the start of IAW, several pro-Israel organizations, including B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) made false allegations that IAW was a "hate-fest" and, in the name of the safety of Jewish students, they encouraged community members and students to take action to prevent the week from happening. Several Federal Members of Parliament, Peter Kent (Conservative), Jason Kenney (Conservative), and Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) have joined in this campaign of false accusation and innuendo, implying falsely that IAW educational events are threatening to the safety of Jewish students on campuses. While Kent, Kenney, and Ignatieff have not attended any IAW events, several high profile university administrators, including Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer at the University of Toronto, have attended this year. At a meeting with Ashraf, called by organizers to express their concerns over the violence at IAW, they asked him if he had witnessed any hate speech at the events. When he confirmed that he had not, organizers asked him to make a public statement to that effect. Ashraf refused and to date, no members of the senior administration have done so.
We demand the freedom to hold public debates and events on campuses without fear or intimidation. We do not want our events to be militarized, or for lecture series and film screenings to take place behind lines of police. Nor do we want the hiring of security to become a requirement for future Palestinian solidarity events. Imposing prohibitive security fees on volunteer-based activist organizations, would be a de facto shutting down of the right to free expression on campuses, and would be a reward to those organizations who come to our events to disrupt them.
Instead, we believe the freedom to hold IAW events could relatively easily be guaranteed by a public statement from University administrations stating that free expression on campuses will be protected and that the University rejects the false claim that IAW events constitute "hate speech". We therefore demand:
1. That York University, the University of Toronto, and Ryerson University all make official statements distancing themselves from the false allegation that IAW is incitement and hate speech.
2. That these Universities make a public statement that IAW events are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment at these events.
If Universities refuse to do this, their claims to protect free expression cannot be taken seriously. They will be engaging in a very dangerous game, entertaining false claims and tolerating physical disruptions of university events. It is within their power to de-escalate the situation, and it is their responsibility to do so immediately, rather than encouraging fear and engaging in campaigns of smear, false accusation, and innuendo against their own students. It is past time that Universities stopped looking for ways to prevent discussion from happening and look for ways to make such discussion productive and educational.
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) - York
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) -University of Toronto
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) - Ryerson
Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 is a series of lectures and film screenings on various campuses and communities (now 40 cities) across the world whose intent is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system. In its fifth year, Toronto's Israeli Apartheid Week has seen an alarming increase in harassment, intimidation and physical violence against its organizers and guests. While people who seem to be affiliated with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) are the primary organizers of the attacks, unfortunately, the student groups Hasbara and Hillel have also joined in, using cameras, physical proximity, and threatening language to intimidate activists, especially women students, calling them "terrorists" and repeating the accusations of "incitement" and "hate speech". When these incidents of harassment and intimidation are reported to campus police, the police have taken no action.
Prior to the start of IAW, several pro-Israel organizations, including B’nai Brith, the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC) and the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC) made false allegations that IAW was a "hate-fest" and, in the name of the safety of Jewish students, they encouraged community members and students to take action to prevent the week from happening. Several Federal Members of Parliament, Peter Kent (Conservative), Jason Kenney (Conservative), and Michael Ignatieff (Liberal) have joined in this campaign of false accusation and innuendo, implying falsely that IAW educational events are threatening to the safety of Jewish students on campuses. While Kent, Kenney, and Ignatieff have not attended any IAW events, several high profile university administrators, including Nouman Ashraf, the Anti-Racism and Cultural Diversity Officer at the University of Toronto, have attended this year. At a meeting with Ashraf, called by organizers to express their concerns over the violence at IAW, they asked him if he had witnessed any hate speech at the events. When he confirmed that he had not, organizers asked him to make a public statement to that effect. Ashraf refused and to date, no members of the senior administration have done so.
We demand the freedom to hold public debates and events on campuses without fear or intimidation. We do not want our events to be militarized, or for lecture series and film screenings to take place behind lines of police. Nor do we want the hiring of security to become a requirement for future Palestinian solidarity events. Imposing prohibitive security fees on volunteer-based activist organizations, would be a de facto shutting down of the right to free expression on campuses, and would be a reward to those organizations who come to our events to disrupt them.
Instead, we believe the freedom to hold IAW events could relatively easily be guaranteed by a public statement from University administrations stating that free expression on campuses will be protected and that the University rejects the false claim that IAW events constitute "hate speech". We therefore demand:
1. That York University, the University of Toronto, and Ryerson University all make official statements distancing themselves from the false allegation that IAW is incitement and hate speech.
2. That these Universities make a public statement that IAW events are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment at these events.
If Universities refuse to do this, their claims to protect free expression cannot be taken seriously. They will be engaging in a very dangerous game, entertaining false claims and tolerating physical disruptions of university events. It is within their power to de-escalate the situation, and it is their responsibility to do so immediately, rather than encouraging fear and engaging in campaigns of smear, false accusation, and innuendo against their own students. It is past time that Universities stopped looking for ways to prevent discussion from happening and look for ways to make such discussion productive and educational.
Suppression of Palestine Solidarity Activism in Ontario Universities
Israeli Apartheid Week Beats Back Attacks on Free Speech By John Riddell
http://www.rabble.ca/news/israeli-apartheid-week-beats-back-attacks-free-speech
'Academic Freedom Threatened in Ontario Universities' By Margaret Aziza Pappano
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet187.html
Faculty 4 Palestine Open Letter defending free speech
http://www.caiaweb.org/faculty (and CLICK on the red "Open Letter" icon)
'Why We Should All Support Israeli Apartheid Week' By Shourideh Molavi
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet190.html
'Israeli apartheid week no 'hate-fest'' By Judy Rebick and Alan Sears
http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/3249
Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel
http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/344
'Exposed: University of Toronto suppresses pro-Palestinian activism' By Liisa Schofield
http://www.rabble.ca/news/exposed-university-toronto-suppressed-pro-palestinian-activism
The Israel Advocacy Push to 'Reclaim' York University: Putting Current Events in Context By Dan Freeman-Maloy
http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet191.html
SAIA York condemns smears, harassment and administrative repression: York admin should reverse course, distance itself from intimidation tactics
March 13, 2009
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University condemns the intensifying efforts to shut down Palestine solidarity activism on campus. In recent weeks, SAIA and its allies have organized numerous successful events, many coordinated with the international Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 (March 1-8), which took place in over forty cities across the world. In the process, we have faced defamation, physical intimidation and harassment. The decision by the York University administration (finalized on March 5) to fine and suspend our organization is disgraceful, part of a pattern of administrative repression faced by Palestine solidarity groups on university campuses.
SAIA Condemns Violations of Human Rights
In its recent attack on the population of Gaza Israel killed 1300 people, including some 430 children. Israel continues to besiege and starve the population of Gaza, to imprison thousands of Palestinians without trial, to subject Palestinians to torture, and to commit a host of other violations of international law, all with the support of all too many Canadian politicians and institutions.
SAIA agrees with the majority of world opinion, expressed through repeated United Nations resolutions, in opposition to these atrocities. We endorse with the call from 2005 by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society groups and more recently by UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, for a campaign of boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force it to comply with international law. We join many from academic institutions around the world, including the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), in condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinian educational institutions in Gaza.
The February 12, 2009 Rally
On February 12, 2009, we organized a rally and march at York University to demand that York University president Mamdouh Shoukri issue a statement condemning targeted Israeli attacks on Palestinian schools. Since York University, like many other Canadian universities, condemned the call for an academic boycott as a violation of academic freedom, we felt that the outright blowing up of universities and schools with students still in them would constitute a greater violation of academic freedom, worthy of perhaps even stronger condemnation. Rather than respond thoughtfully to this reasonable demand, the Shoukri administration chose to suspend our organization for a month and fine us $1,250. Note: this is approximately $1,250 more than our volunteer organization presently has.
At our February 12 demonstration, we were confronted with an aggressive counter demonstration organized by York-based “Israel advocacy” groups and off-campus political figures and groups who have been harassing us at our tables and circulating defamatory lies about us in the media. The counter-demonstration explicitly sought to drown out our speeches with chants, megaphones and drums. We tried to have our speeches heard, and as this became difficult, we terminated the stand-off by proceeding on our march. It was not until after they began drowning our speeches out that we used “sound amplification” equipment. The fact that we are now being punished for this is a preposterous insult.
A coordinated Sabotage of our Activities
Our membership, in trying to distribute critical political literature on our campus, has faced persistent harassment, slurs and abuse. At our tables, campus clubs including Hillel and the Hasbara Fellowships, backed by their parent organizations, have harassed us in direct conjunction with middle-aged thugs from such off-campus hate groups as the Jewish Defense League (JDL).
On Wednesday, March 4th, One female organizer was physically attacked (pushed by a JDL member). Another member was called ‘a filthy Arab’ and told: ‘Your womb is only good for producing suicide bombers.’ Another participant was told: ‘If I were one of your parents, I would
f**cking kill you.’ Many have been called ‘terrorists’ and told ‘to go blow yourself up.’ Members have been persistently harassed on campus day-to-day even when not participating in any political activity. Though it is not our strategy to file complaints with security and police services, when police were notified of these incidents, no action was taken.
Israel advocates and the York administration are working hand-in-glove to try to sabotage our rallies and activities, making them disruptive through aggressive counter-demonstrations and then using the disruption as a justification to shut us down.
False Smears Against our Activists
The York administration and Israel advocacy push to shut us down includes attempts to smear us with baseless, unsubstantiated charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ through a campaign of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.
We oppose Israel’s policies of occupation, denial of the right of return, and denial of equality to its Palestinian citizens. To suggest that this is ‘anti-Semitic’ is false and reprehensible. To fabricate false statements and attribute them to our organization without evidence, as has been done by some of our political opponents, is still worse. Some of those responsible, especially those who have published the most extreme smears (e.g., the Calgary Herald), have opened themselves to litigation and we are considering our legal options.
We continue to demand:
1. That President Shoukri uphold basic principles of academic freedom and political decency by condemning the Israeli bombing of Palestinian educational facilities.
2. That York University publicly distance itself from claims that SAIA and IAW activities constitute ‘hate’ or ‘incitement’
3. That York University make a public statement that SAIA’s activities are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment of SAIA activists.
Students have the right to political assembly on campus. We also have the right to speak freely at rallies, and where our voices are being drowned out, to try our best to allow participants in our rally to hear our speakers. We will continue to assert our rights to organize, distribute political literature and demonstrate on campus as our work requires.
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University condemns the intensifying efforts to shut down Palestine solidarity activism on campus. In recent weeks, SAIA and its allies have organized numerous successful events, many coordinated with the international Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 (March 1-8), which took place in over forty cities across the world. In the process, we have faced defamation, physical intimidation and harassment. The decision by the York University administration (finalized on March 5) to fine and suspend our organization is disgraceful, part of a pattern of administrative repression faced by Palestine solidarity groups on university campuses.
SAIA Condemns Violations of Human Rights
In its recent attack on the population of Gaza Israel killed 1300 people, including some 430 children. Israel continues to besiege and starve the population of Gaza, to imprison thousands of Palestinians without trial, to subject Palestinians to torture, and to commit a host of other violations of international law, all with the support of all too many Canadian politicians and institutions.
SAIA agrees with the majority of world opinion, expressed through repeated United Nations resolutions, in opposition to these atrocities. We endorse with the call from 2005 by a broad coalition of Palestinian civil society groups and more recently by UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, for a campaign of boycott, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against Israel to force it to comply with international law. We join many from academic institutions around the world, including the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), in condemning Israeli attacks on Palestinian educational institutions in Gaza.
The February 12, 2009 Rally
On February 12, 2009, we organized a rally and march at York University to demand that York University president Mamdouh Shoukri issue a statement condemning targeted Israeli attacks on Palestinian schools. Since York University, like many other Canadian universities, condemned the call for an academic boycott as a violation of academic freedom, we felt that the outright blowing up of universities and schools with students still in them would constitute a greater violation of academic freedom, worthy of perhaps even stronger condemnation. Rather than respond thoughtfully to this reasonable demand, the Shoukri administration chose to suspend our organization for a month and fine us $1,250. Note: this is approximately $1,250 more than our volunteer organization presently has.
At our February 12 demonstration, we were confronted with an aggressive counter demonstration organized by York-based “Israel advocacy” groups and off-campus political figures and groups who have been harassing us at our tables and circulating defamatory lies about us in the media. The counter-demonstration explicitly sought to drown out our speeches with chants, megaphones and drums. We tried to have our speeches heard, and as this became difficult, we terminated the stand-off by proceeding on our march. It was not until after they began drowning our speeches out that we used “sound amplification” equipment. The fact that we are now being punished for this is a preposterous insult.
A coordinated Sabotage of our Activities
Our membership, in trying to distribute critical political literature on our campus, has faced persistent harassment, slurs and abuse. At our tables, campus clubs including Hillel and the Hasbara Fellowships, backed by their parent organizations, have harassed us in direct conjunction with middle-aged thugs from such off-campus hate groups as the Jewish Defense League (JDL).
On Wednesday, March 4th, One female organizer was physically attacked (pushed by a JDL member). Another member was called ‘a filthy Arab’ and told: ‘Your womb is only good for producing suicide bombers.’ Another participant was told: ‘If I were one of your parents, I would
f**cking kill you.’ Many have been called ‘terrorists’ and told ‘to go blow yourself up.’ Members have been persistently harassed on campus day-to-day even when not participating in any political activity. Though it is not our strategy to file complaints with security and police services, when police were notified of these incidents, no action was taken.
Israel advocates and the York administration are working hand-in-glove to try to sabotage our rallies and activities, making them disruptive through aggressive counter-demonstrations and then using the disruption as a justification to shut us down.
False Smears Against our Activists
The York administration and Israel advocacy push to shut us down includes attempts to smear us with baseless, unsubstantiated charges of ‘anti-Semitism’ through a campaign of distortion, innuendo and outright lies.
We oppose Israel’s policies of occupation, denial of the right of return, and denial of equality to its Palestinian citizens. To suggest that this is ‘anti-Semitic’ is false and reprehensible. To fabricate false statements and attribute them to our organization without evidence, as has been done by some of our political opponents, is still worse. Some of those responsible, especially those who have published the most extreme smears (e.g., the Calgary Herald), have opened themselves to litigation and we are considering our legal options.
We continue to demand:
1. That President Shoukri uphold basic principles of academic freedom and political decency by condemning the Israeli bombing of Palestinian educational facilities.
2. That York University publicly distance itself from claims that SAIA and IAW activities constitute ‘hate’ or ‘incitement’
3. That York University make a public statement that SAIA’s activities are protected on grounds of free expression and condemning disruptions and harassment of SAIA activists.
Students have the right to political assembly on campus. We also have the right to speak freely at rallies, and where our voices are being drowned out, to try our best to allow participants in our rally to hear our speakers. We will continue to assert our rights to organize, distribute political literature and demonstrate on campus as our work requires.
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (York) Suspended and Fined
February 26, 2009
On 24 February, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York) received notice of a 30-day suspension, a $1000 fine and an individual fine of $250 for the student signatory for the group. In explaining these measures, York University administration cites a demonstration organized in solidarity with students in Gaza, stating that “your club actively
participated in a rally in Vari Hall on February 12, using various sound amplification devices and other noise making instruments.”
The University alleges that 'sound amplification' disrupted classes but fails to note that SAIA York quickly moved the rally away from Vari Hall in order to deliver a letter to the University administration. It should also be noted that the maximum monetary penalty has been imposed by the administration without following the verification process outlined in the university’s “Student Code of Conduct”. In doing so, the administration has violated its own procedures. Furthermore, the university has repeatedly failed to respond numerous complaints filed by SAIA members and their community allies over racist and sexist commentary directed at them by members of pro-Israel advocacy organizations present on that day
These discriminatory and punitive measures come a week prior to the scheduled launch of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) at York University on March 3-8 (www.apartheidweek.org). Pro-Israel organizations have applied immense, coordinated and nation-wide pressure to shut down IAW, including placing full-page advertisements in national newspapers calling on universities to prevent IAW from occurring. The repressive activities of the York
administration must be clearly seen in this light.
It is shocking to see university administrations respond to these racist calls to stifle free speech and student organizing around Israeli Apartheid. At Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, university administrations have banned the IAW poster. At the University of Toronto, University President David Naylor has recently been exposed through a Freedom of Information Request to have personally been involved in shutting down a Palestine solidarity event on campus.
The attempt by the pro Israel organizations to prevent IAW from occurring is full confirmation that the debate against Israeli Apartheid has been won. In the wake of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, student and public opinion is clearly on the side of justice. Israel is now understood as an apartheid state and the only response of pro-Israel organizations is to harass and repress student organizing. They will fail.
** Please email and phone the following individuals in protest against these repressive measures.
Robert J. Tiffin (Vice President Students)
rjtiffin@yorku.ca
416 736 5955
Mamdouh Shoukri (University President)
mshoukri@yorku.ca
416 736 5200
*********
Sample letter to send to York University administration (mshoukri@yorku.ca,
rjtiffin@yorku.ca):
President Mamdouh Shoukri,
Vice President Robert Tiffin,
I was shocked and appalled to learn that the student group, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) was penalized for holding a demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students in Gaza. One would expect that an academic institution like York University would condemn the destruction of Palestinian academic institutions by the Israeli army. Instead, York University is banning protest, and penalizing students for demonstrating against such crimes.
It is a shame that an institution which is built on the principle of freedom of expression, and that the senior administration which is entrusted with upholding freedom of speech, are restricting speech and penalizing students engaged in legitimate protest. This reflects badly on York University’s reputation.
It seems that York University is bowing under the pressure by external pro-Israel advocacy groups who are working hard to silence any voice that supports the Palestinian cause. It is sad to see that the administration is not providing protection to the students expressing their views and feelings against Israel’s crimes.
I strongly urge you to reconsider your problematic position and cancel the fines. I also strongly urge you to uphold the principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom, and to allow students to express themselves freely without the influence of external pro-Israel lobbying groups. This is your duty even if you do not agree with views expressed.
Sincerely yours,
On 24 February, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at York University (SAIA York) received notice of a 30-day suspension, a $1000 fine and an individual fine of $250 for the student signatory for the group. In explaining these measures, York University administration cites a demonstration organized in solidarity with students in Gaza, stating that “your club actively
participated in a rally in Vari Hall on February 12, using various sound amplification devices and other noise making instruments.”
The University alleges that 'sound amplification' disrupted classes but fails to note that SAIA York quickly moved the rally away from Vari Hall in order to deliver a letter to the University administration. It should also be noted that the maximum monetary penalty has been imposed by the administration without following the verification process outlined in the university’s “Student Code of Conduct”. In doing so, the administration has violated its own procedures. Furthermore, the university has repeatedly failed to respond numerous complaints filed by SAIA members and their community allies over racist and sexist commentary directed at them by members of pro-Israel advocacy organizations present on that day
These discriminatory and punitive measures come a week prior to the scheduled launch of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) at York University on March 3-8 (www.apartheidweek.org). Pro-Israel organizations have applied immense, coordinated and nation-wide pressure to shut down IAW, including placing full-page advertisements in national newspapers calling on universities to prevent IAW from occurring. The repressive activities of the York
administration must be clearly seen in this light.
It is shocking to see university administrations respond to these racist calls to stifle free speech and student organizing around Israeli Apartheid. At Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, university administrations have banned the IAW poster. At the University of Toronto, University President David Naylor has recently been exposed through a Freedom of Information Request to have personally been involved in shutting down a Palestine solidarity event on campus.
The attempt by the pro Israel organizations to prevent IAW from occurring is full confirmation that the debate against Israeli Apartheid has been won. In the wake of Israel’s massacres in Gaza, student and public opinion is clearly on the side of justice. Israel is now understood as an apartheid state and the only response of pro-Israel organizations is to harass and repress student organizing. They will fail.
** Please email and phone the following individuals in protest against these repressive measures.
Robert J. Tiffin (Vice President Students)
rjtiffin@yorku.ca
416 736 5955
Mamdouh Shoukri (University President)
mshoukri@yorku.ca
416 736 5200
*********
Sample letter to send to York University administration (mshoukri@yorku.ca,
rjtiffin@yorku.ca):
President Mamdouh Shoukri,
Vice President Robert Tiffin,
I was shocked and appalled to learn that the student group, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) was penalized for holding a demonstration on campus in solidarity with the students in Gaza. One would expect that an academic institution like York University would condemn the destruction of Palestinian academic institutions by the Israeli army. Instead, York University is banning protest, and penalizing students for demonstrating against such crimes.
It is a shame that an institution which is built on the principle of freedom of expression, and that the senior administration which is entrusted with upholding freedom of speech, are restricting speech and penalizing students engaged in legitimate protest. This reflects badly on York University’s reputation.
It seems that York University is bowing under the pressure by external pro-Israel advocacy groups who are working hard to silence any voice that supports the Palestinian cause. It is sad to see that the administration is not providing protection to the students expressing their views and feelings against Israel’s crimes.
I strongly urge you to reconsider your problematic position and cancel the fines. I also strongly urge you to uphold the principles of freedom of expression and academic freedom, and to allow students to express themselves freely without the influence of external pro-Israel lobbying groups. This is your duty even if you do not agree with views expressed.
Sincerely yours,
University of Ottawa Bans Israeli Apartheid Week Poster - Call to Action
February 21, 2009
On February 20, 2009, the University of Ottawa became the second Ottawa administration to ban the posters of Israeli Apartheid Week 2009, following the lead of Carleton University in a blatant violation of free expression for students speaking out on human rights. Like Carleton
University's administration, the University of Ottawa's Communications Office used spurious "human rights" claims to ban the poster. The Communications Office's short communique to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights reads:
"A poster from the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights has recently come to the attention of the Communications Office. All posters approved by the Communications Office must promote a campus culture where all members of the community can play a part in a
declaration of human rights recognizing the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students. Consequently, we will not place this particular poster on our campus billboards."
Please view the poster here:
http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg
This curt note notably fails to explain how the poster by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff, depicting an Israeli attack helicopter (labeled "Israel") firing a missile at a Palestinian child (labeled
"Gaza"), does not "recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students". In fact, the banning of the poster is a failure to recognize the dignity and equal rights of Palestinian students and those who seek to expose the violations of human rights of Palestinians.
The poster is symbolic but it also depicts a factual situation. 430 children were killed by the Israeli military in its latest attack on Gaza. It seems that according to a growing number of campus administrations, depicting these killings on a poster is some kind of human rights violation, while the killings themselves, or the bombing of a University in Gaza, are not (neither campus administration condemned the killings of civilians or the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza).
In contrast to these campus administrations, the movement for Palestinian human rights is at the forefront of the struggle to recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students, and indeed, all people. As the students at Carleton wrote when the poster was banned on their campus, "the campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global
campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle."
We present the same demands to the University of Ottawa as the students at Carleton University demanded of their administration:
1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.
2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.
3. Sponsor a full public debate--ensuring generous access to the entire university community--on the University of Ottawa's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.
We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at the University of Ottawa and the broader fight for freedom of expression.
Please take the following actions:
* Email/Fax/Call the President of the University of Ottawa, Allan Rock, demanding that he immediately restore the Charter rights of students and send a copy of your message of support to the Director of the Communications Office, Andree Dumulon. Please send a copy of your letter to sphr.uofo@gmail.com
Allan Rock: email president@uOttawa.ca, fax (613)562-5103, phone (613)562-5809
Director of communications: email adumulon@uOttawa.ca, phone
(613)562-5800 ext. 3150
On February 20, 2009, the University of Ottawa became the second Ottawa administration to ban the posters of Israeli Apartheid Week 2009, following the lead of Carleton University in a blatant violation of free expression for students speaking out on human rights. Like Carleton
University's administration, the University of Ottawa's Communications Office used spurious "human rights" claims to ban the poster. The Communications Office's short communique to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights reads:
"A poster from the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights has recently come to the attention of the Communications Office. All posters approved by the Communications Office must promote a campus culture where all members of the community can play a part in a
declaration of human rights recognizing the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students. Consequently, we will not place this particular poster on our campus billboards."
Please view the poster here:
http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg
This curt note notably fails to explain how the poster by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff, depicting an Israeli attack helicopter (labeled "Israel") firing a missile at a Palestinian child (labeled
"Gaza"), does not "recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students". In fact, the banning of the poster is a failure to recognize the dignity and equal rights of Palestinian students and those who seek to expose the violations of human rights of Palestinians.
The poster is symbolic but it also depicts a factual situation. 430 children were killed by the Israeli military in its latest attack on Gaza. It seems that according to a growing number of campus administrations, depicting these killings on a poster is some kind of human rights violation, while the killings themselves, or the bombing of a University in Gaza, are not (neither campus administration condemned the killings of civilians or the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza).
In contrast to these campus administrations, the movement for Palestinian human rights is at the forefront of the struggle to recognize the inherent dignity and equal rights of all students, and indeed, all people. As the students at Carleton wrote when the poster was banned on their campus, "the campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global
campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle."
We present the same demands to the University of Ottawa as the students at Carleton University demanded of their administration:
1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.
2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.
3. Sponsor a full public debate--ensuring generous access to the entire university community--on the University of Ottawa's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.
We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at the University of Ottawa and the broader fight for freedom of expression.
Please take the following actions:
* Email/Fax/Call the President of the University of Ottawa, Allan Rock, demanding that he immediately restore the Charter rights of students and send a copy of your message of support to the Director of the Communications Office, Andree Dumulon. Please send a copy of your letter to sphr.uofo@gmail.com
Allan Rock: email president@uOttawa.ca, fax (613)562-5103, phone (613)562-5809
Director of communications: email adumulon@uOttawa.ca, phone
(613)562-5800 ext. 3150
Carleton U Administration Bans IAW Posters
* Carleton University Administration violates free expression - bans and confiscates posters
* Write to Carleton University president to demand the restoration of student rights
February 18, 2009
On February 8, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University put up 100 posters for "Israeli Apartheid Week", a series of lectures and public events that will occur on campuses in over 40 cities around the world. On February 9, these posters were taken down at the request of Carleton's Equity Services, under the rationale that the posters "could be seen to incite others
to infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights code" and are "insensitive to the norms of civil discourse in a free and democratic society"
The poster was created by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff and depicts a situation - a child being killed by aerial bombardment – that occurred over 430 times in Israel's latest attack on Gaza according to United Nations reports. We encourage everyone to view the poster: http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg.
Since it depicts a situation that has a factual basis and its intention is clearly to invite people to a lecture series, the notion that it is an incitement or a violation to norms of civil discourse is preposterous.
This is part of a wider pattern of repression of academic freedom and rights to free expression, especially on Israel/Palestine, on Canadian campuses, including Carleton University. It is accompanied by double standards. When 56 Carleton professors asked President Roseanne Runte to condemn Israel's bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza, the President refused. Neither the direct killing of hundreds of children nor the direct bombing of a campus
are enough to elicit condemnation, but her administration has decided that a poster inviting people to discuss the conflict ought to be banned. Instead of being lauded by their university, students affirming the humanity of all peoples and the universality of international law have been threatened by Carleton University's Provost with expulsion.
The Carleton administration had already taken a biased political stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and is now violating free expression to prevent alternative views. Both the current and former Carleton Presidents have taken very clear positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict by condemning the academic boycott of Israel out of hand, offering no alternative to this justice-oriented civil-society initiative. Students and faculty at Carleton have requested that the administration hold a public debate on the issue, to allow the Carleton community to determine the most responsible course of action, yet have been repeatedly rebuffed.
Far from defending human rights, the Carleton administration is treating them with contempt. In a memo to students on February 12, the Provost wrote that "all reported incidents of racial or religious intolerance will be investigated vigorously and addressed regardless of the persons or groups involved." The administration should begin a vigorous investigation of its own behaviour,
including its discrimination against students who seek an open debate on a political issue but are being silenced because they happen to disagree with the president's stand.
That Carleton's administration is using human rights grounds to violate free expression on its campus is a double insult. Internationally, the movement against Israeli apartheid has been endorsed by hundreds of universities, unions, religious groups and social justice organizations. This campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms
of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle. By contrast, the administration that banned the poster could not summon enough concern for human rights or the right to education to speak against the bombing of a Gazan university.
SAIA Carleton demands that the Carleton University administration:
1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.
2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.
3. Sponsor a full public debate-- ensuring generous access to the entire university community-- on Carleton's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.
This attempt to repress free expression will ultimately fail. The Carleton University administration should understand that debates on campuses on some of the most important human rights questions of our times cannot be silenced by administrative rulings.
We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at Carleton and the broader fight for freedom of expression.
Please take the following actions:
* Immediately email the Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at presidents_office@carleton.ca demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students and send a copy of your message of support to Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA Carleton) at saia.carleton@gmail.com
* Call or fax Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at 613 520-3801(phone) or 613 520-4474 (fax) demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students.
* Write to Carleton University president to demand the restoration of student rights
February 18, 2009
On February 8, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at Carleton University put up 100 posters for "Israeli Apartheid Week", a series of lectures and public events that will occur on campuses in over 40 cities around the world. On February 9, these posters were taken down at the request of Carleton's Equity Services, under the rationale that the posters "could be seen to incite others
to infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights code" and are "insensitive to the norms of civil discourse in a free and democratic society"
The poster was created by noted cartoonist Carlos Latuff and depicts a situation - a child being killed by aerial bombardment – that occurred over 430 times in Israel's latest attack on Gaza according to United Nations reports. We encourage everyone to view the poster: http://www.apartheidweek.org/sites/apartheidweek.org/files/Israeli%20Apartheid%20Week%202009%20poster.jpg.
Since it depicts a situation that has a factual basis and its intention is clearly to invite people to a lecture series, the notion that it is an incitement or a violation to norms of civil discourse is preposterous.
This is part of a wider pattern of repression of academic freedom and rights to free expression, especially on Israel/Palestine, on Canadian campuses, including Carleton University. It is accompanied by double standards. When 56 Carleton professors asked President Roseanne Runte to condemn Israel's bombardment of the Islamic University of Gaza, the President refused. Neither the direct killing of hundreds of children nor the direct bombing of a campus
are enough to elicit condemnation, but her administration has decided that a poster inviting people to discuss the conflict ought to be banned. Instead of being lauded by their university, students affirming the humanity of all peoples and the universality of international law have been threatened by Carleton University's Provost with expulsion.
The Carleton administration had already taken a biased political stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and is now violating free expression to prevent alternative views. Both the current and former Carleton Presidents have taken very clear positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict by condemning the academic boycott of Israel out of hand, offering no alternative to this justice-oriented civil-society initiative. Students and faculty at Carleton have requested that the administration hold a public debate on the issue, to allow the Carleton community to determine the most responsible course of action, yet have been repeatedly rebuffed.
Far from defending human rights, the Carleton administration is treating them with contempt. In a memo to students on February 12, the Provost wrote that "all reported incidents of racial or religious intolerance will be investigated vigorously and addressed regardless of the persons or groups involved." The administration should begin a vigorous investigation of its own behaviour,
including its discrimination against students who seek an open debate on a political issue but are being silenced because they happen to disagree with the president's stand.
That Carleton's administration is using human rights grounds to violate free expression on its campus is a double insult. Internationally, the movement against Israeli apartheid has been endorsed by hundreds of universities, unions, religious groups and social justice organizations. This campaign is proudly anti-racist, and founded on the principles of opposition to all forms
of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. It draws its inspiration from the global campaign to end South African apartheid and is led by many of the same individuals who were at the forefront of that earlier struggle. By contrast, the administration that banned the poster could not summon enough concern for human rights or the right to education to speak against the bombing of a Gazan university.
SAIA Carleton demands that the Carleton University administration:
1. Immediately lift the ban on the Israeli Apartheid Week poster and publicly apologize for the banning.
2. Explain, publicly and precisely, how the profound error of banning the poster was made and address how to prevent such violations from occurring in future.
3. Sponsor a full public debate-- ensuring generous access to the entire university community-- on Carleton's position on the proposed institutional boycott of Israeli academic institutions.
4. Appoint a university/community Commission to investigate the record of the University in relation to democratic discourse and equity around issues of Palestine solidarity.
This attempt to repress free expression will ultimately fail. The Carleton University administration should understand that debates on campuses on some of the most important human rights questions of our times cannot be silenced by administrative rulings.
We call on student organizations, social justice groups and concerned individuals around the world to support students at Carleton and the broader fight for freedom of expression.
Please take the following actions:
* Immediately email the Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at presidents_office@carleton.ca demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students and send a copy of your message of support to Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA Carleton) at saia.carleton@gmail.com
* Call or fax Carleton University President, Roseanne Runte, at 613 520-3801(phone) or 613 520-4474 (fax) demanding that she immediately restore the Charter rights of Carleton students.
Arab Canadians Call Upon Prime Minister Harper to Restrain Minister Jason Kenney
Delegates of Arab organizations from across Canada meeting in Toronto on Sunday March 8 2009 stand in solidarity with, and express their support for, the Canadian Arab Federation and its leadership. The delegates categorically reject the baseless accusations against the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) made by the Canadian Jewish Congress, B’nai Birth, the National Post and Jason Kenney; Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
Arab Canadians are Semites and hail from various faiths, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other faiths. We oppose all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and enjoy strong allies in both the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. We are apprehensive about the threats made by Minister Kenney to withhold funds from CAF’s settlement services. We are deeply concerned that the inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Jason Kenney, both in Canada and overseas, are creating a wedge in Canadian society and have inflamed a campaign to marginalize and demonize the already targeted Arab and Muslim Canadian communities. These stereotypes against the Arab and Muslim communities is being propagated on several websites and through countless media outlets on a daily basis.
These escalating campaigns cannot be simply in response to an unfortunate use of language by CAF’s President who quoted Jewish American author Dr. Norman Finkelstein and described the Minister as a “professional whore who supports war.” The campaign of intimidation launched by the Israeli lobby and their supporters is seeking to delegitimize Arab Canadian institutions, services, access to public funds and to silence all critics of Israel - following its war on Gaza that resulted in the death of 418 children and 108 women - by equating such criticism with anti-Semitism being anti-Semitic. Besides CAF, the campaign has targeted prominent Jewish Canadians such as Naomi Klein and Judy Rebick, and CUPE Ontario, CUPW, the Canadian Federation of Students of Ontario and student organizations on campuses across Canada. We are dismayed by:
• attacks against unions who have a history of democratic practice;
• threats to withhold private donor funds from those academic institutions that uphold the principles of open political debate and freedom of expression for all their students
• the rise in racist attacks against Arab and Muslim students and other racialized groups on campuses.
We call upon Prime Minister Harper to restrain his Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and to put an end to his dangerous campaign of attacking CAF with slanderous and damaging accusations for which he has provided no evidence. It is time that we put this incident behind us and unite in serving those in need, which CAF has done and continues to do, and safeguarding the rights of all communities to live in a safe and non-discriminatory environment.
• Ahlul Bayt Centre – Ottawa
• Al-Huda Lebanese Muslim Society
• Al-Nahda Social and Cultural Club
• Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians – Ottawa
• Canada Palestine Association – Vancouver
• Canadian Algerian Foundation of Quebec
• Canadian Arab Society of London
• Canadian Druze Society – Toronto
• Canadian Lebanese for Dialogue
• Canadian Muslim Forum – Montreal
• Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec
• Centre R D International Blossom
• Coalition of Canadian Arab Professional and Community Associations - Ottawa
• El-Hidaya Association – Montreal
• Hamilton Palestinian Association
• Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Toronto
• Niagara Palestinian Association
• Palestine House
• Palestinian Association of Brantford
• Palestinian Solidarity – Montreal
• Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance
For more information, please contact:
Mohamed Boudjenane at 416-889-6764
Click HERE for a CAF Backgrounder on Jason Kenney
Click HERE for 'Memo to Minister Kenney: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism'
By Judy Rebick and Alan Sears
Arab Canadians are Semites and hail from various faiths, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism and other faiths. We oppose all forms of racism, including Islamophobia and anti-Semitism and enjoy strong allies in both the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. We are apprehensive about the threats made by Minister Kenney to withhold funds from CAF’s settlement services. We are deeply concerned that the inflammatory remarks made by Mr. Jason Kenney, both in Canada and overseas, are creating a wedge in Canadian society and have inflamed a campaign to marginalize and demonize the already targeted Arab and Muslim Canadian communities. These stereotypes against the Arab and Muslim communities is being propagated on several websites and through countless media outlets on a daily basis.
These escalating campaigns cannot be simply in response to an unfortunate use of language by CAF’s President who quoted Jewish American author Dr. Norman Finkelstein and described the Minister as a “professional whore who supports war.” The campaign of intimidation launched by the Israeli lobby and their supporters is seeking to delegitimize Arab Canadian institutions, services, access to public funds and to silence all critics of Israel - following its war on Gaza that resulted in the death of 418 children and 108 women - by equating such criticism with anti-Semitism being anti-Semitic. Besides CAF, the campaign has targeted prominent Jewish Canadians such as Naomi Klein and Judy Rebick, and CUPE Ontario, CUPW, the Canadian Federation of Students of Ontario and student organizations on campuses across Canada. We are dismayed by:
• attacks against unions who have a history of democratic practice;
• threats to withhold private donor funds from those academic institutions that uphold the principles of open political debate and freedom of expression for all their students
• the rise in racist attacks against Arab and Muslim students and other racialized groups on campuses.
We call upon Prime Minister Harper to restrain his Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and to put an end to his dangerous campaign of attacking CAF with slanderous and damaging accusations for which he has provided no evidence. It is time that we put this incident behind us and unite in serving those in need, which CAF has done and continues to do, and safeguarding the rights of all communities to live in a safe and non-discriminatory environment.
• Ahlul Bayt Centre – Ottawa
• Al-Huda Lebanese Muslim Society
• Al-Nahda Social and Cultural Club
• Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians – Ottawa
• Canada Palestine Association – Vancouver
• Canadian Algerian Foundation of Quebec
• Canadian Arab Society of London
• Canadian Druze Society – Toronto
• Canadian Lebanese for Dialogue
• Canadian Muslim Forum – Montreal
• Canadian Palestinian Foundation of Quebec
• Centre R D International Blossom
• Coalition of Canadian Arab Professional and Community Associations - Ottawa
• El-Hidaya Association – Montreal
• Hamilton Palestinian Association
• Iraqi Canadian Society of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Ontario
• Moroccan Association of Toronto
• Niagara Palestinian Association
• Palestine House
• Palestinian Association of Brantford
• Palestinian Solidarity – Montreal
• Somali Canadian Diaspora Alliance
For more information, please contact:
Mohamed Boudjenane at 416-889-6764
Click HERE for a CAF Backgrounder on Jason Kenney
Click HERE for 'Memo to Minister Kenney: Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism'
By Judy Rebick and Alan Sears
CUPE Ontario Passes Historic Academic Boycott Resolution
Subject: *URGENT* CUPE ON needs your support!
CUPE Needs Your Solidarity for Bravely Standing in Support of Palestinian Academics
Find below:
* Text of the two historic resolutions;
* Concrete ways to show your support.
Toronto, February 23, 2009 - The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) congratulates CUPE-Ontario’s University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC) conference in Windsor for passing a historic resolution in support of the Palestinian civil society call for an academic institutional boycott of Israel. The resolution calls for education and research into institutional
links between Israeli and Canadian Universities that serve to perpetuate apartheid.
An additional emergency resolution was adopted by the OUWCC to protest the violation of free speech and forms of bureaucratic repression that are increasingly targeting Palestine-solidarity organizations and student advocates at several University campuses in Ontario.
Both motions are enormously important as they offer concrete support for academic freedom in Palestine and in Canada. As expected, supporters of Israeli apartheid and militarism are incensed by these resolutions.
Despite the mounting campaign of intimidation launched by pro-apartheid organizations and individuals against CUPE Ontario as a response to these resolutions - including death threats against CUPE Ontario members and their families - the union has stood firm in its commitment to freedom of expression and international solidarity.
Now it is time to show your support for CUPE! Here’s how:
(1) Please send letters of support to CUPE ON president Sid Ryan and the OUWCC committee Chair, Janice Folk-Dawson to cupeont@web.net or fax to 416 299 3480 thanking them for their strong stand in support of Palestinian Human rights (see form letter below for a template you can use to write these letters, though we always like to see people use their creativity and write
their own!).
(2) Write to your local paper in support of CUPE-Ontario’s position. You can use Google News to track the story: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=CUPE+boycott&btnG=Search+News. Also be sure to post online comments in support of CUPE-Ontario wherever the opportunity arises.
(3) Familiarize yourself with the resolutions pasted below and with CUPE-Ontario’s positions. Forward this message and the following link to co-workers, colleagues, friends, allies, partners, relatives, family, and community members: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=152&lang=en and urge them to write in support of CUPE-Ontario.
(4) Write to the administrations of Carleton University (contact information at bottom of
http://www2.carleton.ca/about/administrative/president.php), York University (http://vpacademic.yorku.ca/directory/findadm.php?id=1001) and the University of Toronto
(http://www.president.utoronto.ca/officeofthepresident.htm) to register your disagreement with their systematic silencing of pro-Palestinian, pro-human-rights and anti-apartheid voices in Ontario. For specific information on the Free Speech Campaign, visit: http://www.caiaweb.org/.
SAMPLE LETTER TO CUPE-ONTARIO:
Dear Sid and Janice:
I am writing to express my gratitude to the both of you for the incredibly important position you’ve taken in support of human rights in the Middle East. I am especially thankful that you have done so in support of academic freedom for Palestinians and their supporters in both Israel/Palestine and here in Canada as well.
As you know, the Palestinian people are facing an unprecedented attack on their ability to learn and teach. In short, their fundamental rights to education are being violated on a daily basis by Israel’s racist apartheid regime. By affiliating to the Right to Education Campaign, CUPE-Ontario has taken an important step forward in ensuring that Palestinian children have hope for the future – that perhaps someday soon they will be able to go to school without
fear of checkpoints, arrests, beatings, or worse.
Furthermore, Israeli academic institutions are often complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. They are deeply integrated into Israel’s military-industrial complex and in the production of studies central to the perpetuation of apartheid over Palestinians. It is important to recognize that brave voices within Israel –both Jewish and Palestinian – have supported the call for a boycott. This is because these voices, those most committed to peace in the region, understand that war and occupation will not end until the institutions complicit in violations of international law are held to account.
Once again, I would like to applaud you for taking the lead in promoting a peaceful way forward in ensuring that justice in the region is achieved. CUPE-Ontario does not stand alone, as the recent global wave of actions in support of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid demonstrates. Keep up the amazing work. Millions are
standing with you.
Regards,
______________________
*** TEXT OF THE TWO RESOLUTIONS THAT PASSED ***
MOTION 1
The OUWCC will:
1. Affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign at Birzeit University to defend the right of Palestinian students to have access to education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and
teachers under Israeli military occupation, and further that it will encourage member locals to affiliate to the Right to Education campaign
2. Encourage its member locals to hold public forums to discuss an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and
3. Ask campus representatives to work with locals to investigate both research and investment links between Ontario Universities and the state of Israel's military, and
4. Mobilize campus allies to pressure universities from engaging in acts of cooperation that assist and aid military research at the institutional level with Israeli universities;
5. Work with campus and community allies to pressure Ontario universities to refuse collaborations, corporate partnerships and investments that would benefit, either directly or indirectly, military research or the Israeli state military;
6. Request funding and support from CUPE Ontario to conduct an education campaign on the academic boycott, coordinate education sessions and assist in the implementation of resolution 50 as passed in 2006
Because, in response to a call from Palestinian civil society and trade unions, CUPE Ontario's Resolution 50 (in 2006) calls upon the Union and its locals to support boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) of the state of Israel, so long as that state continues to occupy Palestinian
territory and refuses to respect and uphold international law and covenants, and
Because the latest Israeli attack on Gaza killed over 1300 people, wounded thousands, and destroyed hospitals, schools, roads, power plants, sewage and water infrastructure, and thousands of civilian homes, and as a direct consequence of the attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function, and
Because Israel's direct bombing of universities and schools and its years-long blockade forbidding educational supplies, fuel and other basic necessities, or movement of people including students and teachers, has brought about the collapse of the education system in Gaza, and Because all three major Palestinian trade union federations are signatories of the Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions call including: The General Union of Palestinian Workers, PGFTU, and the Federation of Independent Unions.
MOTION 2
Because campus administrators have taken actions that seek to limit free speech and repress public discussions and campus dialogue about the occupation of Palestine.
Because students, staff and faculty members have been threatened with punitive measures for speaking out or organizing events against the state of Israel and have placed obstacles that prevent/limit public debate on campus.
The OUWCC shall;
1. Issue a public statement about our support for free speech on campus and the right of students and campus workers to speak out and organize events that support Palestine and bring awareness to the occupation.
2. Locals of the OUWCC be encouraged to write letters to the administrations of Carleton, Ottawa, York and the University of Toronto to protest the silencing and repression of public debate on campus.
CUPE Needs Your Solidarity for Bravely Standing in Support of Palestinian Academics
Find below:
* Text of the two historic resolutions;
* Concrete ways to show your support.
Toronto, February 23, 2009 - The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) congratulates CUPE-Ontario’s University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC) conference in Windsor for passing a historic resolution in support of the Palestinian civil society call for an academic institutional boycott of Israel. The resolution calls for education and research into institutional
links between Israeli and Canadian Universities that serve to perpetuate apartheid.
An additional emergency resolution was adopted by the OUWCC to protest the violation of free speech and forms of bureaucratic repression that are increasingly targeting Palestine-solidarity organizations and student advocates at several University campuses in Ontario.
Both motions are enormously important as they offer concrete support for academic freedom in Palestine and in Canada. As expected, supporters of Israeli apartheid and militarism are incensed by these resolutions.
Despite the mounting campaign of intimidation launched by pro-apartheid organizations and individuals against CUPE Ontario as a response to these resolutions - including death threats against CUPE Ontario members and their families - the union has stood firm in its commitment to freedom of expression and international solidarity.
Now it is time to show your support for CUPE! Here’s how:
(1) Please send letters of support to CUPE ON president Sid Ryan and the OUWCC committee Chair, Janice Folk-Dawson to cupeont@web.net or fax to 416 299 3480 thanking them for their strong stand in support of Palestinian Human rights (see form letter below for a template you can use to write these letters, though we always like to see people use their creativity and write
their own!).
(2) Write to your local paper in support of CUPE-Ontario’s position. You can use Google News to track the story: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=CUPE+boycott&btnG=Search+News. Also be sure to post online comments in support of CUPE-Ontario wherever the opportunity arises.
(3) Familiarize yourself with the resolutions pasted below and with CUPE-Ontario’s positions. Forward this message and the following link to co-workers, colleagues, friends, allies, partners, relatives, family, and community members: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=152&lang=en and urge them to write in support of CUPE-Ontario.
(4) Write to the administrations of Carleton University (contact information at bottom of
http://www2.carleton.ca/about/administrative/president.php), York University (http://vpacademic.yorku.ca/directory/findadm.php?id=1001) and the University of Toronto
(http://www.president.utoronto.ca/officeofthepresident.htm) to register your disagreement with their systematic silencing of pro-Palestinian, pro-human-rights and anti-apartheid voices in Ontario. For specific information on the Free Speech Campaign, visit: http://www.caiaweb.org/.
SAMPLE LETTER TO CUPE-ONTARIO:
Dear Sid and Janice:
I am writing to express my gratitude to the both of you for the incredibly important position you’ve taken in support of human rights in the Middle East. I am especially thankful that you have done so in support of academic freedom for Palestinians and their supporters in both Israel/Palestine and here in Canada as well.
As you know, the Palestinian people are facing an unprecedented attack on their ability to learn and teach. In short, their fundamental rights to education are being violated on a daily basis by Israel’s racist apartheid regime. By affiliating to the Right to Education Campaign, CUPE-Ontario has taken an important step forward in ensuring that Palestinian children have hope for the future – that perhaps someday soon they will be able to go to school without
fear of checkpoints, arrests, beatings, or worse.
Furthermore, Israeli academic institutions are often complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. They are deeply integrated into Israel’s military-industrial complex and in the production of studies central to the perpetuation of apartheid over Palestinians. It is important to recognize that brave voices within Israel –both Jewish and Palestinian – have supported the call for a boycott. This is because these voices, those most committed to peace in the region, understand that war and occupation will not end until the institutions complicit in violations of international law are held to account.
Once again, I would like to applaud you for taking the lead in promoting a peaceful way forward in ensuring that justice in the region is achieved. CUPE-Ontario does not stand alone, as the recent global wave of actions in support of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid demonstrates. Keep up the amazing work. Millions are
standing with you.
Regards,
______________________
*** TEXT OF THE TWO RESOLUTIONS THAT PASSED ***
MOTION 1
The OUWCC will:
1. Affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign at Birzeit University to defend the right of Palestinian students to have access to education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and
teachers under Israeli military occupation, and further that it will encourage member locals to affiliate to the Right to Education campaign
2. Encourage its member locals to hold public forums to discuss an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and
3. Ask campus representatives to work with locals to investigate both research and investment links between Ontario Universities and the state of Israel's military, and
4. Mobilize campus allies to pressure universities from engaging in acts of cooperation that assist and aid military research at the institutional level with Israeli universities;
5. Work with campus and community allies to pressure Ontario universities to refuse collaborations, corporate partnerships and investments that would benefit, either directly or indirectly, military research or the Israeli state military;
6. Request funding and support from CUPE Ontario to conduct an education campaign on the academic boycott, coordinate education sessions and assist in the implementation of resolution 50 as passed in 2006
Because, in response to a call from Palestinian civil society and trade unions, CUPE Ontario's Resolution 50 (in 2006) calls upon the Union and its locals to support boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) of the state of Israel, so long as that state continues to occupy Palestinian
territory and refuses to respect and uphold international law and covenants, and
Because the latest Israeli attack on Gaza killed over 1300 people, wounded thousands, and destroyed hospitals, schools, roads, power plants, sewage and water infrastructure, and thousands of civilian homes, and as a direct consequence of the attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function, and
Because Israel's direct bombing of universities and schools and its years-long blockade forbidding educational supplies, fuel and other basic necessities, or movement of people including students and teachers, has brought about the collapse of the education system in Gaza, and Because all three major Palestinian trade union federations are signatories of the Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions call including: The General Union of Palestinian Workers, PGFTU, and the Federation of Independent Unions.
MOTION 2
Because campus administrators have taken actions that seek to limit free speech and repress public discussions and campus dialogue about the occupation of Palestine.
Because students, staff and faculty members have been threatened with punitive measures for speaking out or organizing events against the state of Israel and have placed obstacles that prevent/limit public debate on campus.
The OUWCC shall;
1. Issue a public statement about our support for free speech on campus and the right of students and campus workers to speak out and organize events that support Palestine and bring awareness to the occupation.
2. Locals of the OUWCC be encouraged to write letters to the administrations of Carleton, Ottawa, York and the University of Toronto to protest the silencing and repression of public debate on campus.
Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario Affiliates to Right to Education Campaign
January 2009
The Canadian Federation of Students (Ontario Division) passed the following motion, affiliating the CFS-Ontario to the Right to Education Campaign.
The R2E campaign raises awareness about the conditions that students and academic workers learn and teach under in Palestine. You can learn more about it at http://right2edu.birzeit.edu
MOTION
Local 68/Local 24
Whereas the Federation works to defend the basic human right to an accessible system of post secondary education for all, regardless of race, colour, creed, sexual orientation, ability, class status, nationality, place of origin , or personal or political beliefs
Whereas on the 27th of December, 2008, the Israeli state launched a massive military attack against Gaza, code-named "Operation Cast Lead," and as of January 19, 2009, over 1200 Palestinians had been killed and infrastructure including hospitals, schools and civilian homes had been destroyed; and
Whereas the state of Israel's military has attacked educational institutions in Gaza including:
- on December 27, 2008 an air missile hit the Gaza Training Centre in downtown Gaza City killing 8 students and wounding 19;
- on December 29, 2008 an F-16 fighter plane bombed the Science Laboratory and Library of the Islamic University in Gaza, just a few hours before some of its 20,000 students were to enter the campus to conduct exams;
- on January 3, 2009 a jet levelled the private 'progressive' American school in Gaza, killing its security guard and denying some 200 students their education for the foreseeable future;
- Later the same day, the Agricultural School in Beit Hanoun was damaged by 4 artillery shells; and
- 4 more schools were damaged throughout the Strip; and
Whereas as a direct consequence of the ongoing attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function for the last three weeks; and
Whereas 27 of UNRWA's installations - almost all of which are schools - are being used to shelter 45,000 desperate Gazans who have fled their homes in response to ultimatums by the Israeli army; and
Whereas this recent attack is the single largest massacre in Gaza since Israel illegally occupied the area in 1967, and despite the current cease fire, Israel's current occupation of Palestine and siege on Gaza has dramatic negative implications on how Palestinian youth and their families
access basic human rights including, but not limited to, clean water, food, health care and education; and
Whereas this humanitarian crisis requires an international call from students to demand that we work towards building an environment free of systemic societal oppression including one that is free of military occupation and war; therefore
Be it resolved that a public statement be issued by the Federation condemning the Israeli attacks on civilian and humanitarian targets in Gaza that have lead to the bombing and mass destruction of educational institutions and caused over 1,200 civilian deaths, over 4,000 casualties and the severe erosion of infrastructure; and
Be it further resolved that member locals be encouraged to do the same; and
Be it further resolved that the Canadian government be called upon to pressure the government of Israel to adhere to its international legal obligations to end attacks on civilian infrastructure and to allow unimpeded access for all Palestinians to their educational institutions; and
Be it further resolved that member locals be encouraged to do the same; and
Be it further resolved that Human Rights Watch's call for an unbiased, independent investigation of human rights violations and any violations of the Geneva conventions occurring during the conflict be supported; and
Be it further resolved that the Federation affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign to defend the right of Palestinian students to access education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and teachers under Israeli military occupation; and
Be it further resolved that undertake campaign efforts around the RIGHT TO EDUCATION which should include information on the need to protect and ensure access to education for all students in Palestine and such things as: a reprinting of the education not occupation button and /or a sticker design, fact sheets and/or information on the need to protect and ensure access to
education for all students in Palestine and any student living under war and/or occupation.
Hampshire College Divests from Israeli Apartheid
From: http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/301
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College's Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP's 'institutional statement' calling for the divestment.
The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.
Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire's Board of Trustees confirm that 'President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.' This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire's history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.
The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.
The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.
SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.
As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.
SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.
For More Information:
http://bdsmovement.net/files/PressKit-Hampshire_College_Divestment.pdf
http://www.hsjp.org/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26737
Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College's Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP's 'institutional statement' calling for the divestment.
The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.
Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire's Board of Trustees confirm that 'President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.' This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire's history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.
The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.
The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.
SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.
As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.
SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.
For More Information:
http://bdsmovement.net/files/PressKit-Hampshire_College_Divestment.pdf
http://www.hsjp.org/
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/641/t/2439/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26737
South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) Refuses to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa
CAIA Message of Support and Solidarity
To: South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)
For: Refusing to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa carrying Israeli Goods.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Canada commends the members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban for making history by being the first group of workers to refuse to offload a ship coming from Israel and carrying Israeli goods (statement from union and South African Solidarity Organizations below). This act is not surprising. As workers who have lived under apartheid in South Africa, they understand the miseries of apartheid and the importance of international solidarity work in the struggle against apartheid regimes. In doing so, the workers are taking a strong position, refusing to accept racism, oppression and apartheid as acceptable norms. Today, South Africa is leading the world in the struggle against Israeli apartheid, and giving a clear message, that unless Israel ends
the apartheid system it imposes on the Palestinian people, it will be boycotted by the rest of the world.
This act comes at a time when Israel has increased the level and intensity of its crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The brave South African workers are showing the world that Israel should, and could be held accountable for its crimes. At the time when the UN and the “international community” have repeatedly letdown the Palestinians, the South African workers have shown everyone that it is not only up to the governments, but also individuals, groups and unions and have the power to hold Israel to account.
This act is part of the growing Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel that was called for by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005. This campaign was inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and today, South Africans are inspiring the world again by making breakthroughs in the Palestinian BDS campaign. Members of SATAWU are not alone in this struggle. In the past month alone, a number of unions from different parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined the struggle against Israeli apartheid by adopting the BDS campaign. In Canada, two major labour unions have joined the BDS campaign. In 2006 the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario decided to adopt the campaign, and in 2008 the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) joined the campaign.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Palestine solidarity organization based in Toronto (Canada) and is part of a growing global movement against Israeli apartheid. CAIA was formed in January 2006 and is active in different levels including among students, faculty, labor unions and high schools. For more details, please visit the website www.caiaweb.org or send an
email to endapartheid@riseup.net.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Statement from South Africa
FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!
COSATU and PSC launch Week of Action for Palestine supported by YCL and other progressive organisations
Media Conference, COSATU House, 3 February 2009, 11am
In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This follows the decision by COSATU to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.
The pledge by SATAWU members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe. Last year, Durban dock workers had refused to offload a shipment of arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe to prop up the Mugabe regime and to intensify the repression against the Zimbabwean people. Now, says SATAWU’s General Secretary Randall Howard, the union’s members are committing themselves to not handling Israeli goods.
SATAWU’s action on Sunday will be part of a proud history of worker resistance against apartheid. In 1963, just four years after the Anti-Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden, Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later, in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African goods. South Africans, and the South African working class in particular, will remain forever grateful to those workers who determinedly opposed apartheid and decided that they would support the anti-apartheid struggle with their actions.
Last week, Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia resolved to support the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and have called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel.
This is the legacy and the tradition that South African dock workers have inherited, and it is a legacy they are determined to honour, by ensuring that South African ports of entry will not be used as transit points for goods bound for or emanating from certain dictatorial and oppressive states such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Israel.
COSATU, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and a range of other organisations salute the principled position taken by these workers. We also take this opportunity to salute the millions of workers all over the world who have openly condemned and taken decisive steps to isolate apartheid Israel, a step that should send shockwaves to its arrogant patrons in the United States who foot the bill for Israel’s killing machine. We call on
other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.
We also welcome statements by various South African Jews of conscience who have dissociated themselves from the genocide in Gaza. We call on all South Africans to ensure that none of our family members are allowed to join the Israeli Occupation Forces’ killing machine.
In celebration of the actions of SATAWU members with regard to the ship from Israel, and in pursuance of the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and our call on the South African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, this coalition of organisations has declared a week of action beginning on Friday, 6 February 2009. The actions will be organised under the theme:
FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!
To: South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU)
For: Refusing to offload a ship coming from Israel to South Africa carrying Israeli Goods.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) in Canada commends the members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in Durban for making history by being the first group of workers to refuse to offload a ship coming from Israel and carrying Israeli goods (statement from union and South African Solidarity Organizations below). This act is not surprising. As workers who have lived under apartheid in South Africa, they understand the miseries of apartheid and the importance of international solidarity work in the struggle against apartheid regimes. In doing so, the workers are taking a strong position, refusing to accept racism, oppression and apartheid as acceptable norms. Today, South Africa is leading the world in the struggle against Israeli apartheid, and giving a clear message, that unless Israel ends
the apartheid system it imposes on the Palestinian people, it will be boycotted by the rest of the world.
This act comes at a time when Israel has increased the level and intensity of its crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The brave South African workers are showing the world that Israel should, and could be held accountable for its crimes. At the time when the UN and the “international community” have repeatedly letdown the Palestinians, the South African workers have shown everyone that it is not only up to the governments, but also individuals, groups and unions and have the power to hold Israel to account.
This act is part of the growing Boycotts Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel that was called for by 171 Palestinian civil society organizations in 2005. This campaign was inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, and today, South Africans are inspiring the world again by making breakthroughs in the Palestinian BDS campaign. Members of SATAWU are not alone in this struggle. In the past month alone, a number of unions from different parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and Norway joined the struggle against Israeli apartheid by adopting the BDS campaign. In Canada, two major labour unions have joined the BDS campaign. In 2006 the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario decided to adopt the campaign, and in 2008 the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) joined the campaign.
The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) is a Palestine solidarity organization based in Toronto (Canada) and is part of a growing global movement against Israeli apartheid. CAIA was formed in January 2006 and is active in different levels including among students, faculty, labor unions and high schools. For more details, please visit the website www.caiaweb.org or send an
email to endapartheid@riseup.net.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Statement from South Africa
FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!
COSATU and PSC launch Week of Action for Palestine supported by YCL and other progressive organisations
Media Conference, COSATU House, 3 February 2009, 11am
In a historic development for South Africa, South African dock workers have announced their determination not to offload a ship from Israel that is scheduled to dock in Durban on Sunday, 8 February 2009. This follows the decision by COSATU to strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.
The pledge by SATAWU members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe. Last year, Durban dock workers had refused to offload a shipment of arms that had arrived from China and was destined for Zimbabwe to prop up the Mugabe regime and to intensify the repression against the Zimbabwean people. Now, says SATAWU’s General Secretary Randall Howard, the union’s members are committing themselves to not handling Israeli goods.
SATAWU’s action on Sunday will be part of a proud history of worker resistance against apartheid. In 1963, just four years after the Anti-Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden, Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later, in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African goods. South Africans, and the South African working class in particular, will remain forever grateful to those workers who determinedly opposed apartheid and decided that they would support the anti-apartheid struggle with their actions.
Last week, Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia resolved to support the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and have called for a boycott of all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel.
This is the legacy and the tradition that South African dock workers have inherited, and it is a legacy they are determined to honour, by ensuring that South African ports of entry will not be used as transit points for goods bound for or emanating from certain dictatorial and oppressive states such as Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Israel.
COSATU, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and a range of other organisations salute the principled position taken by these workers. We also take this opportunity to salute the millions of workers all over the world who have openly condemned and taken decisive steps to isolate apartheid Israel, a step that should send shockwaves to its arrogant patrons in the United States who foot the bill for Israel’s killing machine. We call on
other workers and unions to follow suit and to do all that is necessary to ensure that they boycott all goods to and from Israel until Palestine is free.
We also welcome statements by various South African Jews of conscience who have dissociated themselves from the genocide in Gaza. We call on all South Africans to ensure that none of our family members are allowed to join the Israeli Occupation Forces’ killing machine.
In celebration of the actions of SATAWU members with regard to the ship from Israel, and in pursuance of the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and our call on the South African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Israel, this coalition of organisations has declared a week of action beginning on Friday, 6 February 2009. The actions will be organised under the theme:
FREE PALESTINE! ISOLATE APARTHEID ISRAEL!
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