The Recent Challenges of Israel Advocacy on Campuses

Canadian Federation of Students (Ontario)

In Ontario, students fought against BDS even before the school year began, when four Jewish organizations launched a campaign encouraging them to opt-out of paying fees to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) due to its pro-BDS stance. 

The CFS, which ostensibly supports half a million students across Canada, again exposed its bias when it echoed the sentiments of fringe anti-Israel group Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), and rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which is supported by a plurality of Jewish communal organizations. The CFS was quickly called out for its “bogus” claim that the definition would somehow stifle free speech.

University of Toronto: Issam Al-Yamani

Like McGill, it didn’t take long for controversy to ensue at the University of Toronto, when the Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) club invited Issam Al-Yamani, a self-admitted former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group, to speak on campus. Al-Yamani, who Canada has tried to deport for years, was listed as a danger to national security in 2015. After several students complained about the event, Hasbara Canada urged University of Toronto to intervene, leading to national news coverage and the event being moved off-campus.

University of Toronto made headlines again when a representative of its pro-BDS graduate student union (UTGSU) “refused” to support Hillel’s Kosher Forward campaign, because doing so would be “pro-Israel” and against “the will of the membership.” The UTSGU eventually apologized and kosher food was made available on campus.

York University Rally

On November 20, 2019, an event took place that would affect Jewish students from across Canada: the York University rally, where an anti-Israel protest organized by Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York attempted to shut down a Herut Canada event, a presentation with Israeli NGO Reservists on Duty. Please see this piece by TheJ.ca contributor Aboud Dandachi for additional details.

The aftermath of this rally was telling. For Jewish Canadians, we were treated to statements of solidarity from leaders across the political spectrum. But for Jewish students at York and other universities, their leaders were nowhere near as impartial.

At York, its Federation of Students (YFS) quickly passed a (purely symbolic) motion calling on students to protest when “representatives of the Israeli state” speak on campus. At the University of Manitoba, a student lamented in The Manitoban that only Herut should have been suspended (both clubs were suspended and later reinstated by the York administration). Fortunately, a University of Manitoba student wrote an excellent rebuttal explaining the violent hate speech behind the word intifada.

University of Toronto: Scholars for Peace in the Middle East

At the University of Toronto, Scarborough, a different event was held on the night of the York rally, with Scholars for Peace in the Middle East director Dr. Asaf Romirowsky, who engaged in respectful debate with many of the more than 50 students in attendance. However, because it was hosted by pro-Israel organizations Hasbara Canada, and Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation (CAEF), with support from a member of the university’s student union, the union quickly introduced a motion in solidarity with the York Federation of Students, calling on members to “refrain from engaging with organizations that further normalize Israeli apartheid.”

In my view, it was an assault on the freedom of speech of University of Toronto students.