"A Clear Condemnation of Terrorism"

"They're literally scared to leave their dorm rooms, to leave their apartments, their houses, to come to events where the community is  coming together to mourn and to be together in solidarity [at vigils and Shabbat dinners]."

"They're [pro-Palestinian student groups] actually celebrating violence against Jews, against the family members of students in our university."

"Every Jew in the world has some sort of connection to people who are affected by this."

Avishai Infeld, advocacy co-ordinator, Jewish student organization Hillel Montreal

 

"McGill University denounces these communications; the celebration of acts of terror and violence is completely antithetical to McGill's fundamental values."

"[The group celebrating acts of terror, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill is under the umbrella of a student society] wholly independent from McGill."

Michel Proulx, spokesman, McGill University 

"[The university is ] shocked and disappointed [at the since-deleted post,"Palestine is rising, long live the resistance"].

"While free speech is a core value of the university, there is no room for hate of any kind at McMaster."

McMaster University statement, Hamilton, Ontario

"We reject the claims by the McGill administration that SPHR McGill's social media posts 'celebrate recent acts of terror and violence."

"We are not celebrating violence, we are looking at the prospect of liberation."

Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill

Two demonstrations, one pro-Palestinian and the other pro-Israeli, were held in Toronto on Monday. Both rallies were largely peaceful, though four people were arrested at the latter event and later released without charges. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

This statement of righteous self-defence by the McGill student group described by the university as issuing statements in defiance of the obvious, that hideous acts of barbaric hatred resulting in mass murder represent terror and violence, using the perverted logic that these atrocities must be analyzed as liberation tactics are as good an illustration of illogic and the twisting of the moral code as could be exemplified anywhere other than a university campus where students are taught to differentiate between reality and fantasy to identify the truth.

In the week that followed the obviously violent attacks launched by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in Gaza on the State of Israel and its civilian population, universities in Canada have been in the grips of addressing the deep divisions within their academic and student bodies in interpreting the horrific acts of human indecency perpetrated by a terrorist group that Canada has placed on a federally maintained list of proscribed terrorist groups.

Among one faction of the university student population, there is bewilderment, grief and fear, while another faction has openly celebrated a series of events that have transfixed the world's attention on a spectacle demonstrating how low humanity can fall in the mire of inhumanity to others. Public statements issued from among the faculty members of several universities have earned public backlash, while others have been forced by public opinion to respond to campus groups expressing support for the human life infractions the terrorist group Hamas has widely publicized.

Concordia University in Montreal, and Western University in London, Ontario are among those drawing online criticism for statements mentioning "violence in the Middle East" without addressing the issue of the Saturday attack on Israel's civilian population. Waterloo University used more unequivocal language in its condemnation of the "reprehensible terrorist attack on Israeli civilians".

On October 8, the University of Toronto's statement expressed concern for students in "the Middle East region" as an initial statement, followed up by another clarifying statement a full day afterward condemning terrorist violence and the "attack on Israel's civilian population". 

 

Campuses, in the opinion of Avishai Infeld, advocacy co-ordinator for Jewish student organization Hillel Montreal, are failing to exercise support for students mourning the cataclysmic event; who in many instances have become fearful of appearing in public, or attending class in the aftermath of pro-Palestinian protests. Vaguely worded statements from the universities are failing the test.

 

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered in downtown Montreal on Friday as violence continues between Hamas militants and Israel. (Danielle Kadjo/Radio-Canada)

 

A "clear condemnation of the terrorism", is required, distancing from those groups expressing their support for violence. An assurance of a safe academic environment is needed for Jewish students in attendance at the universities. McGill University in Montreal revealed it had requested the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights McGill to remove reference to the school's name when it posts on social media describing the attack in Israel as "heroic", inviting Montrealers at a rally to "celebrate the resistance's success".

A union representing teaching assistants and sessional faculty had posted a message at Hamilton's McMaster University that read: "Palestine is rising, long live the resistance", to X, hours after the attack. The union in question, CUPE 3906, defended its support of Palestine: "We reject any characterization of our message, replying to images of apartheid infrastructure coming down, as celebrating civilian death." Denying, of course, the obvious.

Four student pro-Palestinian groups pushed back against the backlash, posting a statement to social media where they claimed the Israeli regime is "fully responsible" for the violence they described as "a consequence of decades of oppression" of the Palestinian people. 

 

When the truth, obvious as it is, but hidden to those who hate Jews and Israel, happens to be that oppression of Palestinians stems from their leaders, Hamas in Gaza and Fatah/Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, where rigid authoritarianism and violent confrontations with Israel have taken the place of responsible government leading to security and prosperity for the Palestinians; occupied, not governed by their incompetent and corrupt leaders.

Vari Hall at York University in Toronto. York student groups recently posted a letter offering solidarity with the Palestinian people against "so-called Israel." Photo by Ernest Doroszuk /Postmedia