Aletho News

Israel lobby’s war on students won’t end pro-Palestine activism

By Yves Engler | November 24, 2023

The Israel lobby’s contempt for student democracy is striking. In their bid to defend apartheid and genocide they are willing to sue, fabricate, blackmail and more.

Recently, McGill students voted for the Policy Against Genocide in Palestine. In the largest referendum turnout in Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) history, 78.7% of undergraduates called on the university administration to denounce Israel’s “genocidal bombing campaign” against Gaza. The resolution also called on McGill to sever ties with “any corporations, institutions or individuals complicit in genocide, settler-colonialism, apartheid, or ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.”

Before the election was completed the genocide lobby had already demanded the student’s vote be ignored. Simultaneously, they pressed McGill’s administration to condemn the resolution and demand SSMU jettison the results. If the student society ratified the results, the administration announced that it would terminate its Memorandum of Agreement with SSMU, which regulates fees, use of name and other matters between the university and student union.

The day after the voting results were announced, but before SSMU had a chance to ratify the resolution, B’nai B’rith brought a legal case to the Quebec Superior Court against it. An unnamed student claimed the resolution was discriminatory and the judge agreed to consider the case. As such, SSMU is restricted from ratifying or implementing the policy until after March 24 when the court will adjudicate the matter. Backed by a well-resourced outside organization, a single individual has been allowed to suppress the overwhelming will of students.

The Israel lobby followed a similar playbook 18 months ago when 71% of McGill undergraduates supported a Palestine Solidarity Policy, which called for boycotting “corporations and institutions complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians.”

Before students voted on the Palestine Solidarity Policy Israel activists sought an injunction from SSMU’s Judicial Board to block the vote. After the policy was supported the administration, under Zionist lobby group pressure, threatened to terminate its Memorandum of Agreement with SSMU. This led SSMU’s unelected judicial board to reject the constitutionality of the Palestine Solidarity Policy.

Not satisfied with their undemocratic victory, B’nai Brith backed a lawsuit against SSMU, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) and McGill’s administration. The Jewish advocacy organization sponsored Jonathan Fried’s bid to have the provincial court block McGill students from being able to collectively take action in support of Palestinian rights. A New York transplant, Fried sought to have Québec’s Superior Court prevent McGill students from exercising their democratic rights in the hopes it would protect a violent, colonial, system in the Middle East.

When the Palestine Solidarity policy passed in March 2022 its opponents highlighted the fact that only 17% of eligible voters cast ballots. But participation more than doubled in the recent referendum — with the proportion of students supporting Palestine increasing — yet the suppression continues.

What’s taking place at McGill’s is egregious but Israel lobby groups have pursued similar policies at other universities. They’ve recently launched lawsuits against Concordia, Queen’s, Toronto Metropolitan, University of British Columbia and York for purported “antisemitism”. They’ve also pushed university administrators to condemn student groups and succeeded in having them reprimand or dismiss medical and nursing students as well as university chaplains and sexual assault centre staff for opposing genocide. At the University of British Columbia, the Jewish Zionist group Hillel was recently caught creating falsely attributed stickers in a bid to discredit the Social Justice Centre opposition to genocide.

An important part of the apartheid lobby’s power within universities is that administrations are obsessed with fundraising and Jewish Zionists donate large sums. Israel lobby activists constantly raise the specter of withdrawing funds from universities that don’t clampdown on students. On November 10 Liberal MP Anthony Hausefather “encouraged donors to contact” Concordia’s administration to pressure them to suppress Palestine solidarity. Ten days earlier he “demanded that university administrators crack down on antisemitism on campus or lose funding.”

Suing, seeking to intimidate students and labeling opposition to genocide “antisemitism” is a tacit admission that you can’t make the case for Israel. Unable to win the argument, the apartheid lobby increasingly relies on smears and legal action. But anti-democratic maneuvers can only stunt Palestine solidarity for so long. It can’t hide the fact that Israel has lost control of the narrative with the younger generation.

November 24, 2023 - Posted by aletho | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | Canada, Human rights, Zionism