Statement from Jewish Organizations at Student Encampment at McGill
We, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) at McGill and IJV Concordia Universities, write as Jews of conscience who condemn in the strongest possible terms McGill President Deep Saini's latest email. This encampment is an embodiment of the values which Saini pretends to share (but in reality, stands against) – acceptance, tolerance, and unambiguous rejection of any and all forms of discrimination and hatred. The encampment is a testament to the power of Montreal's diverse student community, as it is the product of the collaboration of Jewish, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Christian community members, community members of all races, creeds, nationalities, religions, sexual orientations, who stand together in solidarity with the mutual understanding that freedom for one people means freedom for all people.
Jewish students
have been part of this encampment from its
inception. As your Jewish campers, we wish to reiterate that
while
strong critiques of Zionism have been made by this camp, as is
our
legally protected right, this does not constitute anti-Semitism.
Accusations of anti-Semitism have been
consistently used by the McGill administration to
mischaracterize
pro-Palestine protests for years. We stand as living proof that
their
attempts to divide us will not succeed.
Saini's claim that by calling the police on his students he is "protecting the health and safety of all on site" is utterly hypocritical. We all have seen the physically violent ways that the police in the United States have used the power of the state to silence the voices of our fellow students, our peers, fighting for what is right at similar encampments across the past week, and Saini knows this. He is threatening to do the same to us. He is threatening to violently use state-sanctioned violence to silence our voices as Jews.
Saini's threat to call the police on us is inherently a threat of violence against his own students-- the exact opposite of "protecting health and safety." Saini's refusal in this email to concretely cite any evidence or proof of what he calls "obvious anti-Semitism" reveals that he knows he is wrong, that reality does not align with his email. His claims of anti-Semitism mean nothing when he is actively ignoring and suppressing our voices, the voices of a large part of the Jewish community. Right now, it is Pesach [Passover, the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt]. In fact, at the encampment we held a beautiful, harmonious seder on our second night of camping. The encampment was a welcoming religious space of community for us -- the exact opposite of an anti-Semitic space. In celebrating Pesach, we as Jews celebrate the resistance of the Hebrews. In standing for the liberation of Palestine, we are putting the values of Judaism to work. Deep Saini knows nothing of these values, and his unceasing attacks on us Jewish community members who are embracing our religion by standing up against oppression and for what is right is vastly more anti-Semitic than anything that has occurred at our encampment.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 32 - May 9, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54324.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca