Anti-Israel BDS Resolutions Seize Campuses in Ontario, Canada by Christine Williams
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4263/israel-bds-ontario-canada
Hamas — the terrorist group and offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood — has fueled and directed the BDS and Israel Apartheid Week campaigns on campuses across North America.
“Islam is my life… Jihad is my spirit… I will die to establish Islam.” — from the Muslim Student Association pledge of allegiance.
Under the guise of promoting peace and human rights, resolutions to join Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] drives are being foisted on Canadian university campuses to push the agenda of the Muslim terrorist group, Hamas, to destroy Israel.
It is Hamas—an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood—that has fueled and directed the BDS and Israel Apartheid Week campaigns on university campuses across North America through chapters of the Muslim Student Association and the Palestine Solidarity Network.
Despite drawing a negligible fraction of the student population, the votes are gaining traction. According to the website of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, BDS is a global campaign designed to pressure Israel to end its so-called “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands.” Hidden is the real BDS agenda: to delegitimize and ultimately obliterate Israel by destroying its economy.
Also concealed in these drives are Israel’s reason for so-called “occupation,” and the fact that Palestinians are treated better in Israel than by their own vicious leadership who sometimes even use their own people as human shields.
Toronto’s Ryerson University students reportedly became the 11th student union to vote in support of the anti-Israel BDS campaign, giving “student politicians” the mandate to pressure the university administration to cut ties with all companies that support what the BDS campaign asserts is “Israeli apartheid.” Not only do they invariably fail to provide any evidence to support that allegation, they fail to mention the very real apartheid that still exists against Palestinians in Lebanon and Kuwait, where they are forbidden to hold a whole array of jobs and privileges enjoyed by other residents. They also fail to mention the very real apartheid against non-Muslims that exists in countries such as Saudi Arabia — where there are roads they may not travel on, cities they may not enter and books they may not bring in; or Pakistan, where non-Muslims effectively receive no protection from the law-enforcement agencies.
Anti-Israel students at Ryerson University in Toronto jeer Jewish students who spoke out against a student council motion to support BDS. |
In addition to York University students voting for BDS a year ago, the McMaster University student union in Hamilton voted in favor of a BDS resolution this past March.
After the vote, Raphael Szajnfarber, McMaster Hillel’s Director of Jewish Student Life, commented, “I can tell you it was a toxic environment in the room tonight. … “I know that some students did indeed feel targeted.”
Students at the University of Windsor have also supported BDS by a narrow vote. Apparent “discrepancies”, however, prompted an investigation by the university administration, and may yet see the vote thrown out.
The Ontario Public Interest Research Group [OPIRG], through its website “The ShakeUp,” accused Windsor University president Alan Wildeman of being undemocratic by threatening to have the referendum “quashed.” Before the referendum, Wildeman expressed in a letter the “well documented and detailed complaints” about the student referendum, and stated that “the University cannot allow student organizations to compromise the University’s commitment to provide a welcoming learning and living environment for each and every student on our campus.”
The ShakeUp report, however, blamed Wildeman for “a heavy-handed attack leveled directly at the Palestinian Solidarity Group,” and also launched a tirade not only against Wildeman, but also “the ignorant colonial mentality that tore apart First Nations in what is now Canada.”
All the while, however, the “The ShakeUp” report concealed the real goals of the Muslim Student Association and Palestinian Solidarity Group.
After the Windsor referendum, Member of Parliament Jeff Watson called the BDS movement “hateful and deceitful” and denounced “this new anti-Semitism poisoning our Canadian campuses.”
Howard English, the Toronto-area President of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs [CIJA], stated that such campus resolutions and boycotts are not really intended to promote peace and human rights but are “ultimately opposed to Israel’s existence as a state.”
Meanwhile, a Muslim woman, Mais Ali-Saleh, who grew up in an Arab village outside of Nazareth, Israel, was lauded in, “Guess Who’s Valedictorian at Israel’s Top Medical School?” On trips to Europe, Ali-Selah said that people are surprised to learn that in Israel, Israeli Arabs can study medicine and engineering. Ali-Saleh opposes BDS and the notion of Israel as an “apartheid state.” She said that movements such as BDS deny a fundamental truth: “Arabs,” she said, “and in particular Arab women, have more freedom, liberties and academic opportunities in Israel than in any Arab country.”
One well-known company targeted by BDS is SodaStream, where Israelis and Palestinians have been working together, embodying real “peace and human rights” for decades. It is also where, as referenced in the not particularly pro-Israel publication, Haaretz, “truth be told, the SodaStream workers and local Palestinians were downright peeved when asked about the efforts of solidarity activists and their own government to boycott SodaStream.”
The propaganda and lies of the BDS movement on our campuses, combined with Western naivety, is a potent brew that needs to be challenged by university administrations and at every level of society. Far too many are unaware that the Muslim Student Association’s pledge of allegiance is: “Allah is my Lord. Islam is my life. The Koran is my guide. The Sunna is my practice. Jihad is my Spirit. Righteousness is my character and paradise is my goal. I enjoin what is right. I forbid what is wrong. I will fight against oppression and I will die to establish Islam.” The MSA pledge of allegiance is virtually one and the same as the Muslim Brotherhood’s motto, which states: “Allah is our objective. The prophet is our leader. Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
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