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CounterPunch
September
19, 2002
How to Silence
Pro-Palestinian Voices
by
Jordy Cummings
"This
isn't Gaza." So quotes the Concordian,
one of the weekly papers of my alma-mater, Montreal's great Concordia
University. The quote comes from an irate suppoprter of Benjamin
Netanyahu, angry that a glorious display of civil disobedience
(with what some call a "diversity of tactics") prevented
Bibi from demagoging at Concordia. To this person, I would say,
you're damned right it isn't Gaza. It isn't Haifa either. Concordia
is a fantastic progressive institution that--God Forbid--has
a strong political milieu in which Jews and Arabs not only collaborate,
but are friends, lovers and otherwise.
The official story is as follows, Netanyahu
was invited by Hillel to give a speech, and the Arabs rioted,
breaking windows, punching rabbis and, the kicker "intimidating
Jewish students." After university security and the Royal
Canadian Mounted Police called off the speech in the face of
a Civil Rights-movement style sit-in-demonstration (which attracted
far more students--in fact far more Jewish students than Netanyahu)
in the lobby of the urban university's main campus, a "visibly
shaken" Netanyahu berated the demonstrators as "supporters
of Hussein, Arafat and Bin Laden." He called on the Canadian
government to take "precautionary' measures towards Palestine
Solidarity activists.
It is indeed shameful that in the course
of the day's events, despite calls from protest organizers from
SPHR and Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation, that a few people--provacateurs
perhaps, chose to engage in violence against people, as opposed
to property. Any time a rabbi is violently attacked, it is something
to be condemned in no uncertain terms. Chances are, however,
that the person was not attackedb ecause he was a rabbi. Rather,
in a situation in which police, goaded by JDL-influenced counterdemonstrators
chanting anti-arab bigotry, attacked the thousands of peaceful
Pro-Palestine demonstrators with tear gas and pepper spray, a
few tempers flared and those who were identifying themselves
as supporters of a legendary hate-speaker hated in his own country
willingly allowed themselves to become targets, to make a point.
Indeed, the Concordia Student Union's Jewish lefty president
Sabine Friesinger has called on both the rector and head of security
to resign, placing firm responsibility.for the events on the
legendarily paranoid Concordia administration as well as Montreal's
biker-backed keystone kops. And another "self hating Jew,"
former Kibbutz dweller and now CSUcouncillor Aaron Mate , was
singled out and physically attacked by police as he attempted
to bring aid to some of the injured demonstrators. Meanwhile,
the rector, Frederick Lowy who has been proud to use his position
to harass leftist students, has announced a "moratorium"
on "Middle-East related events" at Concordia. In other
words, Pro-Palestinian organizations, which are a mainstream
part of this ethnically diverse urban university can no longer
"table" in the lobby. Chances are, it will go farther.
The "Jewish" student organization
Hilllel, which has declined in influence over the last year or
two due to its strident support of Ariel Sharon knew exactly
what it was doing when they invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak
at Concordia. Some, and indeed not all sectors of the Canadian
Zionist Establishment is none too pleased with Concordia, not
because it is "an intimidating atmosphere for Jewish students,"
but because Jewish students, raised with moral values, often
"join the other side" or more correctly, shed their
Zionism for a more cosmopolitan--and classically Jewish--identity.
Hillel, which openly allows itself to be used by Israel's intelligence
and Public Relations apparatus, according to the english language
Jerusalem Report of Feb. 2002, has been dispatched to set in
motion a series of events designed to silence Pro-Palestine voices
and scare new Jewish students into "fighting AntiSemitism."
Hillel spokespeople are acted like little
lambsy divey, claiming to be "in favor of the peace process."
If this was the case, and I don't doubt it is on a rank-and-file
level, then they would not have invited a man who is indeed to
the right of Ariel Sharon, a man who even the New Republic accuses
of demagogery, to speak at Concordia. There are plenty of mainstream
Israeli political figures, Yossi Sarid or Avram Mitzna who are
indeed tangibly pro-peace, and thus would not have attracted
"violent" demonstrations. Their claim that "Jewish
students" never demonstrated or attempted to stop Palestinian
guest speakers over the years at Concordia is both untrue--though
the greatest demonstration I saw was against another Jew, the
wonderful Norman Finkelstien--and disingeneuos.
If Pro-Palestinian students would have
invited clearly anti-semitic and murderous Hamas leader Shiek
Ahmed Yassin, for example, then Hillel would have a case for
their position. Yet Palestinian and Pro-Palestinian speakers
at Concordia, have never once engaged in Anti-Semitism. Netanyahu
is clearly anti-Palestinian and murderous, on the other hand,
he wears his bigotry on his sleeve, while orating in a style
not unreminiscent of Il Duce, Benito Mussolini. Over the last
few days, Bibi (whose wife recently had to apologize for making
threatening statements towards the state of Israel, claiming
that "only Bibi can save Israel--we will move abroad and
you will bleed") has trounced around Canada, lecturing our
Prime Minister over Iraq, while each of his speeches, in Winnipeg,
and here in Toronto, has been met with more demonstrators than
attendees.
However, I fear that the events at Concordia
are already being used to crack down on left-wing activism in
Canada. A polished demagogue like Bibi Netanyahu can convince
previously pro-peace Jews that they should think twice before
"joining the other side." However, it is not going
to be easy, when the Canadian Jewish community is polarized between
paranoid Likudniks and Post-Zionists and Anti-Zionists, such
as the many organizers of the demonstrations. A simple way of
explaining the case, as I did towards my old socialist grandmother,
is as follows--non-violent civil disobedience stopped a hate
speaker. Netanyahu is no different from a Klansman. He has a
lot of blood on his hands. He is an open supporter of ethnic
cleansing. It is actually very simple. You can fool some people
sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
Jordy Cummings
can be reached at: yorgos33ca@yahoo.ca
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September
18, 2002
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Goodbye
to All That
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Cancerous
Air
Born Under a Bad Sky
Ben Tripp
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Gun of a Hatchet Job
Peggy Thomson
20 Years
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Thomas Mountain
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William Cook
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Kathleen Christison
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