When Antisemitism No Longer Shocks
When Antisemitism No Longer Shocks
Those that believe not only in the Jewish community but in Canadian ideals of equality and non-discrimination simply cannot accept antisemitism as acceptable or a by-product of troubled times.
Last week, Green College, an interdisciplinary graduate college on the campus of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, hosted a medieval workshop titled The Writing of Ancient Christianity in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. As the title would suggest, the workshop was highly specialized and of limited interest to anyone outside of the scholarly field. Yet, as my Hub opinion piece notes, the presence of a professor of Jewish Law and Ethics alongside academics from the University of Haifa and Hebrew University in Jerusalem placed a target on the workshop that sparked online harassment of participants as well as vandalism and graffiti that called for the removal of Zionists on the walls of the college.
Few Canadians heard about the incident at UBC. They similarly were likely unaware that last week the University of Windsor’s Board of Governors refused to consider a motion to examine a controversial agreement arising from last summer’s encampment protests on the spurious grounds that the deal falls outside of its purview.
There was also little attention paid to two Quebec court injunctions that responded to safety fears of Jewish students and faculty at Concordia and McGill University. Those injunctions prohibited protesters from blocking entrances, protesting within five metres of school buildings, and harassing, intimidating or threatening anyone from the university communities.
As events like these attract diminishing attention, it has become increasingly clear that discrimination, safety fears, and failed leadership on university campuses no longer has the capacity to surprise. The summer encampments may be gone, but the fears of the Jewish community remains with some students concealing their identity, faculty facing security risks on campus, and events held in secret or virtually to avoid harassment. Indeed, a University of Toronto anthropology syllabus this fall stated that the class was a space free of Zionism without anyone seemingly batting an eye.
University leaders know this runs counter not only to their campus codes but to the principled foundation of institutions that have for decades emphasized inclusivity and a safe space for learning. However, on too many campuses and in too many communities, antisemitism that was once taboo is now defended as “merely anti-Zionist” or somehow justified in light on the ongoing war in the Middle East. Neither claim holds up. As University of Toronto President Meric Gertler recently noted, “discrimination based on creed or place of origin does not cease to be prohibited simply because the word ‘Jewish’ or ‘Israeli’ is replaced with the word ‘Zionist’.”
It is not as if leaders have remained entirely absent. Disturbing incidents of hate and violence have led to the listing of organizations such as Samidoun as a terrorist entity. School shootings, which still feel like the stuff of science fiction, have led to intense police investigations culminating in arrests. And last week the Carleton University Senate stood up to pressure and rejected a divestment motion. But the reality is that everyday antisemitism that ostracizes or casually toys with age-old tropes is now so unremarkable that it frequently goes unremarked.
There have been repeated pleas for leaders to take unequivocal stands against antisemitism by enforcing the law and campus codes, upholding the principles found in global definitions that have been adopted by governments, and showing up to stand with students, faculty and the community in their moment of need.
Some do, some don’t.
But those that believe not only in the Jewish community but in Canadian ideals of equality and non-discrimination simply cannot accept antisemitism as acceptable or an unsurprising by-product of troubled times. And so, when universities are home to discriminatory violence, boards shirk their responsibility to safeguard fundamental freedoms, or campus safety is so fraught that court orders are needed, we must call it out again and again and again with a commitment that civil rights apply to all. Antisemitism is no longer hidden and neither must be those that oppose it.
Post originally appeared at the Hub at https://thehub.ca/2024/10/25/michael-geist-when-antisemitism-no-longer-shocks/
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Canadians are good at sticking their heads in the sand and ignoring issues. 50 billion taxpayer dollars a year into the pockets of indigenous activists and their allies, no improvement or change in living conditions on reserves, and continued support for the hoax that is the Kamloops site of an alleged murder (that has not and apparently will not ever be investigated), plus rampant antisemitism are proof of this. The frog in the pot of water allegory comes to mind...