One of the more sinister aspects of the academic boycott campaign against Israel in the UK was its demand that Israeli academics take a disloyalty oath: that in order to engage in international collaboration with other academics, they had to first disavow their government. That tactic has now been imported to Canada.
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports:
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario, the largest labor union representing staff members at the province’s universities, plans to introduce a resolution at its conference next month to ban Israeli academics from teaching, speaking, or doing research at Ontario universities if they do not first condemn Israeli actions in Gaza.
The union, which represents teaching and research assistants and other members of the support staff at many universities, says the proposal is a response to the bombing on December 29 that damaged the Islamic University of Gaza. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the bombed buildings had been used as “a research and development center for Hamas weapons,” referring to the terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip.
The Islamic University has also functioned as a hideout for terrorists and a prison for captives:
Kidnapped soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit spent most of his time in captivity imprisoned on the campus of the Islamic University in Gaza, said senior Palestinian sources on Monday.
Shalit was kidnapped on June 25th 2006 and up until three months ago had been held at the university — a prominent Hamas stronghold — but arguments amongst his captors led to his relocation.
The Islamic University is under complete Hamas control, with faculty members and students alike all loyal to the organization. Within its walls there are not only regular academic studies but also military training and religious preaching.
Palestinian officials have labeled the university a “sanctuary for wanted men” and they note that Hamas mastermind Yahya Ayyash fled from the West Bank to Gaza in 1995 and hid in the Islamic University for several months during the time he was being pursued by Israeli forces for his role in numerous suicide bombings in the 90’s.
Obviously, such “dual use” places of higher education don’t give CUPE’s Ontario branch, which voted in favor of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in 2006, pause for thought. Instead, Sid Ryan (pictured), the union’s President, is content to scream the Nazi analogy:
“Attacking an institution of learning is just beyond the pale,” CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan said last night. “They deliberately targeted an institution of learning. That’s what the Nazis did.”
Let’s give the last word to Bernie Farber of the Canadian Jewish Congress, quoted in the same piece:
“What happened at the university still is in question. Was it a place where arms are being stored?” Mr. Farber said. “Anyone who compares Jews and Nazis really enters into the dark realm of anti-Semitism. Mr. Ryan should be absolutely ashamed of himself.”
Boycotts are fine. However one thing Israel should do is increase all the royalties that those boycotting institutions pay for any and all inventions and intellectual capital developed in Israel that those institutions derive any benefit from. Increase the royalties by a factor of 20. If they are that beholden to their ideologies they won’t pay. If they are just craven hypocrites then they will and Israeli institutions directly benefit. It’s not as if they didn’t force us to practice usury and then condemn us for doing it a long time ago.
Can a jew ever do anything right to you guys??????????
Dear friends and family,
I’m writing a general news letter about what has been going on here and what is happening at the moment.
The southern half of the country has been shelled sporadically for the last 8 years. The shelling is random and used solely as a terror weapon, since the rockets have no navigation systems. During the first few years, the various governments tried various solutions to the problem, none of them effective. Finally, the government decided to remove all the Jewish settlements in Gaza. The settlers, most of whom had been encouraged to settle in those towns, were forcibly removed. It was hoped that since this was the excuse that the Arabs were using for firing on our towns, the rocket fire would cease.
Instead, it only intensified. Up until recently, the rockets were small and “home-made” in local workshops. Since their range was limited, they mostly fell on the small town of Sderot, which has been subjected to rocket fire for the last 8 years. In the past few years, the shelling has intensified until more than 8,000 rockets and innumerable mortars have fallen on the settlements close to the Gaza strip. As you can imagine, commerce and industry have been destroyed. The government has tried to prepare shelters for everyone and to shield classrooms so that they would be protected in case a rocket fell on the school. It’s hard to say that this was a reasonable solution, since the shelling usually started at the hour when school children were on their way to school. The siren system warning of incoming missiles gave 15 seconds warning to find shelter. In the meantime, the government continued to try to find a way thru negotiations, economic incentives, political concessions, etc. to bring a stop to the shelling; all to no avail.
On the contrary. The Hamas staged a bloody coup against the democratically elected government who had become interested in making some accomodation with Israel and giving themselves a chance to live without constant war. Hamas took control of more than half of the Gaza strip and promptly set about intensifying the fire and upgrading their weapons. With the help on their patron in Iran and friends in many of the Arab states, they have received a constant stream of supplies of money, weapons and ammunition. They agreed to a 6 month cease fire on condition that Israel release hundreds of terrorists who had been captured, tried and sentenced to prison terms. (If they had committed the same crimes in any of the Arab countries, they would have been beheaded, or at least had their hands cut off). They also demanded that Israel maintain an open door policy allowing goods and services to flow between Israel and the Gaza strip.
Israel agreed, and the number of rockets fired at S’derot and the farming communities in the area was drastically reduced but never stopped entirely. They even shelled the places that were designated BORDER CROSSINGS for the passage of goods into the strip, and attacked them with suicide bombers and with vehicles loaded with explosives. Then, when Israel closed the crossings to protect her people, Hamas claimed that Israel wasn’t acting according to the agreement and fired more missiles. Israel was reluctant to immediately bomb the area from which the missiles were fired (and in so doing stop that particular group from doing it again) because Hamas , knowing that Israel would do everything in its power to avoid civilian casualties; fired from the middle of heavily populated area. As far as they were concerned, it was a win-win situation. Either they would be protected by the human shield of civilians, knowing Israel’s reluctance to cause civilian casualties; or Israel would bomb them, they’d go to paradise and Israel would be condemned by everyone for causing a “massacre”. Actually, they were hoping to tempt Israel into killing a large number of civilians so that they could claim that “bloodthirsty, warmongering, aggressor Israel” was committing genocide on the “peace seeking Palestinians”.
Some of the rockets were fired for economic reasons as well. The people who had formerly made their living by digging tunnels to circumvent the border guards in order to smuggle drugs, were now making a much more lucrative living by smuggling arms, etc. They weren’t interested in peaceful solutions. Then no-one would need what they were bringing in through the tunnels. So they fired as many missiles as they could, in order to force Israel to retaliate by closing the borders. For your information: one of the border crossing points is controlled by the Egyptians, who haven’t allowed humanitarian aid to cross into the Gaza strip, although they have closed their eyes (until recently) to the smuggling of arms, ammunition, explosives and terrorists . All humanitarian aid is transferred by Israel! Even now, during the war, Israel transfers tons of food and medical supplies to the Palestinian authority through the northern border crossing.
When the 6 months were up, Hamas unilaterally declared an end to the “period of calm” and began intensive shelling with rockets and mortars. In addition, thanks to their patrons, they now had much more powerful missiles that flew farther and carried bigger war heads. There were days when more than 100 missiles fell on Israeli settlements. Since the missiles were more powerful, most of the attempts to shield the schools, not to mention homes and businesses, were now inadaquate. And the missiles now reach much farther. Cities as much as 30 miles away are now being shelled and 1,000,000 people (15 % of the population) are forced to live no more than a step away from their shelters.
Now here is where the situation really gets weird! Throughout this whole period, Israel continued to supply the Gaza strip with electricity, fuel, food, medical supplies, and surgical and medical services for those who needed care beyond that provided by their own hospital. In return, the Hamas confiscated most of the supplies so that they could continue to claim that Israel was causing a humanitarian crisis. Even Egypt and the Palestinian authority finally said “enough is enough!” but that’s not the sort of message that terrorist organizations understand.
When all else failed, Israel was forced “to take up arms against a sea of troubles” and use armed force against a terrorist organization that understands nothing else. Israel started by bombing Hamas headquarters, training camps, fuel and ammunition dumps, and the officer’s-training graduation ceremony. Then they bombed the area of the tunnels (with Egyptian consent) to prevent resupply. Then they began bombing the homes of the most fanatical leaders of the movement. But in order to make sure that innocent women and children wouldn’t be hurt, they telephoned every house on the list and the neighboring houses, warning them that they were about to be bombed and to get out! Virtually all of the houses on the list had large supplies of ammunition, explosives, and/or rockets and mortars stored in or beneath the houses. Cameras show clearly the initial explosion caused by the bomb, and then the immense secondary explosions caused by the stored materiel. In addition, they bombed mosques where they had certain information that rockets and explosives were stored underneath them. Hamas, secure in the knowlege that Israel wouldn’t bomb mosques. had dug bunkers under them and stored tons of war supplies there. But again, Israel waited until prayers had ended and the people had left. Then they called the local Immam on his telephone and warned him and everyone else still inside to get out. Only then did the bombs fall. In every case, the secondary explosions proved that Hamas had been using the mosques to store rockets and explosives. We also know that under the hospital is a Hamas headquarters, and that arms, ammunition and other “goodies” are stored in bunkers under the hospital. But it is the only hospital treating the Hamas-Palestinian wounded, and so it has been left untouched.
There has never been a war in which the victims of constant aggression, when finally provoked into war, have virtually gone house to house; warning the residents (and in large part the perpetrators and their families) to leave because they are in danger. I’m sure that won’t keep a lot of people from blaming Israel for everything, but we’re doing the best we can.
I’m sure that no country in the world would allow the shelling of it’s civilian population by a terrorist organization without taking steps to protect its citizens. I’m certain that no other country in the world would try for 8 years to come to some kind of accomodation with that organization ; when the only answer to the question, “How can we live together in peace?” is, “We can’t! We only want to wipe you out”. I’m equally certain that no country in the world, including the USA, has ever gone to such extremes to minimize casualties to the enemy’s civilian population when she was finally forced to take up arms.
Unfortunately, I’m also sure that no other country in the world, finding itself in the same situation and taking such extraordinary steps to protect non-combatants; would be so excoriated by the other countries of the world. Why should the UN even agree to hear the complaint of a terrorist organization, let alone call an emergency session? Should the UN hear the complaint of Al Kaidah against the USA? Should it hear the complaint of the terrorists who attacked in Bombay against the Indian government? Instead of condemning outright the constant aggression of Hamas. France calls on both sides to end the violence; as if both are equally guilty, like a pair of squabbling children. Others call on Israel to show restraint. I’d like to know how much restraint you would want your government to show if your community were being bombed everyday by a terrorist organization?
We are not happy about being forced into this situation. We know that our soldiers will be wounded and some will be killed. Virtually everone in the country has a relative in the standing army or in the reserves. My son, Alon, has been called up together with many of his friends. We know that we could safely conduct this war from the air and avoid the casualties to our boys. But if we did, there would be too many civilian casualties among the Palestinian population. We aren’t fighting the Palestinians! We are fighting a murderous, fanatical, terrorist organization that has a choke hold on millions of Palestinians and whose declared goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth! In pursuit of that aim they have kept the population of the Gaza strip living in poverty and fear. We hope that this step will be ultimately beneficial to both peoples.
If you find this interesting and informative, you might want to pass it along to the others on your mailing list.
Love,
Dina
So much for the free exchange of ideas! Have these folks been informed that Hamas has just instituted Sharia law in Gaza? How many of them would find themselves with their own throats slit open in Hamasistan? The left gets more reactionary every day.
I’m not a fan of Sid Ryan’s or CUPE and I think they’re completely misinformed and biased about the Israeli-Arab situation, but to his credit, Mr Ryan did publicly apologize for the “Nazi” analogy.
I am sure that the native indians in Canada will
be excited to learn of Canada Labor Leader ideas on stolen land..