As the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week, hosted for the first time in Regina this past March, we were both shocked and saddened to see Martin Weaver’s mischaracterization of these events as anti-Semitic in last week’s issue of The Carillon (http://www.carillonregina.com/?p=4035).
The global movement against Israeli Apartheid, of which we are a part, is categorically opposed to all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. It makes no place for those who believe that some are more human than others based on ethnic, religious, or gender differences. As members of a movement firmly rooted in the principle of universal rights, we take seriously all forms of discrimination. We find it deeply disheartening to see charges of anti-Semitism unfairly exploited to shield Israel from censure for its ongoing violations of international law and fundamental human rights – crimes that have been recognized by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations, among a host of Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups.
As of yet, there has not been a single documented case of Jewish students being targeted or intimidated during Israeli Apartheid Week events in Canada since it was first launched in Toronto in 2005. Were such an instance to arise, it is something that we would oppose vehemently. The spurious characterization of Israeli Apartheid Week as a “hate week” is not only baseless, but part of a deliberate campaign to silence the legitimate and necessary criticism of Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing, illegal military occupation, and apartheid policies against the Palestinian people.
While students, faculty, and others are without question entitled to disagree with the applicability of the term “apartheid” to Israel, the university is precisely the place for these issues to be rigorously debated. We would like to note that we have chosen this term carefully and purposefully, based on the UN definition of apartheid as “inhumane acts committed for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” In choosing to describe Israel in these terms, we are joined by foremost leaders of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in addition to renowned South African jurist John Dugard, former Supreme Court justice and Attorney General of Israel Michael Ben-Yair, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, acclaimed author Naomi Klein, and a legion of prominent artists, scholars, activists and intellectuals across the globe.
We regret that Israeli Apartheid Week events may have made certain students at the U of R uncomfortable, but we reiterate the rightful distinction made by Ian MacAusland-Berg, the university’s coordinator for harassment, discrimination prevention, and conflict resolution, between discomfort and genuine acts of discrimination.
The objective of Israeli Apartheid Week is to speak openly and honestly about the daily crimes committed against Palestinians by the State of Israel, from home demolitions, arbitrary detentions, and targeted assassinations to the continued annexation of Palestinian lands for Jewish-only settlements, roads, and infrastructure. It is incumbent on us as people of conscience – including students and faculty alike – to take a position and firmly support the struggle of Palestinians for freedom, justice, dignity and self-determination.
We commend Dr. George Maslany for upholding the right to free expression on campus, and encourage all members of the University of Regina community to join us for next year’s Israeli Apartheid Week and experience these events for themselves. We are confident that what they will find is far from a “hate week”, but rather a reasoned and principled effort to educate ourselves and others on what is, in the words of Nelson Mandela, “the greatest moral issue of our time.”
Regina Solidarity Group
