Comment
Freedom of Speech affronted in Carleton Commission Report Tyler Levitan The Commission on Inter-cultural, Inter-religious and Inter-racial Relations on Campus report was released on Oct. 10, along with an e-mail from Carleton President Roseann Runte applauding its work. The commission was established in 2010, with the mandate to “contribute to a better context for dialogue and understanding on the Carleton campus and in the surrounding community.” The report focuses on two communities: Jewish students and Aboriginal students. While the report makes important recommendations surrounding issues of inclusion and respect towards Aboriginal students and Indigenous issues on campus, a section of the report that deals with issues surrounding Palestine
violent and brutal attack on the Gaza strip in December 2008 and January 2009. According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, as of Jan. 12, 2009, Israeli attacks in Gaza had killed at least 910 Palestinians, including more than 292 children. Targeted missiles paraded over the besieged Gaza strip for three weeks, resulting in the deaths of over 1,400 Palestinians, including over 300 children. The poster was banned because it was considered to be offensive to students on campus who support Israel. Carleton University defended their actions by claiming that the poster could incite hatred on campus. The definition of antiSemitism in the commission’s report equates criticism of the state of Israel with hatred of Jews. This definition is the definition used by the Canadian Parlia-
I was surveyed as part of this report as a Jewish student and staff member on campus, but this report does not represent me, nor my views regarding student issues related to this matter. solidarity work represents a dangerous threat to freedom of expression. It is yet another instance of the Carleton administration showing its complete disrespect for Palestinian human rights, and its attempts to intimidate and ultimately silence those who want to speak out against Israel’s crimes in support of Palestinian human rights. I was surveyed as part of this report as a Jewish student and staff member on campus, but this report does not represent me, nor my views regarding student issues related to this matter. It needs to be recognized that the report was commissioned in the aftermath of the banning of Students Against Israeli Apartheid’s (SAIA) poster, which was used for the internationally organized Israeli Apartheid Week in 2009. The poster displayed an Apache helicopter firing a targeted missile towards a Palestinian child in Gaza, which accurately portrayed Israel’s
mentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), which has been widely condemned in the Canadian public—including by the Jewish group Independent Jewish Voices— for its obvious political and unabashedly pro-Israel agenda. The problem with its definition is that it is too broad and vague to allow for an acceptable criticism of Israeli government policy to ever be defined. It also can be seen as anti-Semitic in itself, since it sees Judaism and the state of Israel as one and the same, which therefore assumes that all Jews are Zionists, and that the actions of the state of Israel are therefore pinned on the backs of all Jews internationally. Of course it is important for Jewish faculty members to have the religious freedom to observe the holiest days of the Jewish calendar, and for Jewish students to have adequate access to kosher food on campus. But these issues should not be conflated with issues sur-
rounding feelings of discomfort felt by some Jewish students towards Palestine solidarity on campus. The fact that some Jewish students feel uncomfortable is largely a consequence of the mainstream Jewish community lying about the history and reality of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. I myself was raised in the mainstream Jewish community, and I did not even know that Palestine existed until grade 9, after I left my Jewish elementary school. Jewish students’ feelings of discomfort over Israel’s systematic crimes against the Palestinian people should not result in making accommodations for such students that restrict the rights of others students and faculty. Palestinian students and Palestinian human rights activists have been threatened with a knife for postering on campus, and have had their posters banned by the administration. Furthermore, the administration sponsored a Jewish National Fund (JNF) gala last year. The JNF is an organization that is notoriously racist towards Palestinians, and has played a continued role in ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their lands. President Runte was the honourable co-chair of the gala, and her excuse for participating in such an insulting event to Palestinians was that she routinely participates in religious events in the community. The JNF does not represent the Jewish faith, since the Jewish faith does not promote racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing. These are tangible examples, and only a few amongst many, of a climate of intimidation and fear for both Palestinians and Palestinian human rights activists on campus. Why weren’t these students interviewed in this inter-cultural and inter-racial commission too? As a Jewish member of the Carleton community, I strongly condemn the section of this report that attempts to intimidate Palestine solidarity activists, and hence all students on campus who care about freedom of expression. We need to question why only two groups were selected for this report, and what motivated the report to be commissioned in the first place.
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