How to Silence Pro-Palestinian Voices >

http://www.counterpunch.org/cummings0919.html
>
>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 [at] yahoo.ca
>