Avi Benlolo: University of Toronto succumbs to anti-Israel propaganda

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So this week I was called a “Zionist lowlife” on Twitter because I dared condemn the false labelling of Israel as an “apartheid state” at our universities. It turns out that brainwashed “social-justice warriors” have been out in force on campuses, turning their anger on democratic Israel rather than the terrorist groups that are the true oppressors of Gaza and the West Bank — Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

None of these campus charlatans made a peep about Hamas resurrecting medieval times this week when it hung five of its own citizens in Gaza. It seems that students who peddle anti-Israel “Boycott” and “Apartheid” stickers are in serious need of an education. A “free Palestine” would only be free without the religious and militant radicalism imposed by Hamas and the corruption facilitated by the Palestinian Authority.

In the Palestinian territories, women’s rights are frowned upon, being gay can get you imprisoned or executed, and peacefully criticizing the authorities can get you arrested, tortured or murdered (as was the case with Fatah critic Nizar Banat a year ago). It’s hard to fathom why students or university faculty would want any association with this movement. The only rationale is that they do not subscribe to our western ideal of human rights, or that their antisemitism is so intense that they become blind to the truth about the terrorism they are shielding.

Why would anyone want to side with a movement that demeans and defames another group of people? The antisemitic remarks made by the “anti-racism” consultant hired by Heritage Canada, should make anyone with an ounce of decency run the other way: “You know all those loud mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists; when we liberate Palestine and they have to go back to where they come from, they will return to being low voiced bitches of thier (sic) Christian/Secular White Supremacist Masters.”

Unfortunately, we learned this week that on at least one Canadian campus, an education that even attempts to explore truth and justice is beyond the realm of pedagogy.

For years, the University of Toronto’s administration condemned antisemitism and even distanced itself from the so-called Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaigns, despite intense pressure. But the propaganda promoted for nearly 20 years at the infamous “Israeli Apartheid Weeks,” for which U of T is shamefully the birthplace, has now seeped into courses offered by the university. At least two courses effectively erase the State of Israel from their description, thus effectively institutionalizing the very same sentiments espoused by such groups as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Jewish community has been invested in the University of Toronto for nearly a century. Many of its buildings are named after Jewish philanthropists, while thousands of its Jewish alumna have funded programs and teach on its faculty. How then can the university stoop this low by offering a course that says it’s going to examine “a century of oppression, violence, resistance and solidarity within, across and beyond Palestine”?

How can the university stoop this low?

The outline for the “Rethinking Palestine” course says it will examine such concepts as “colonialism” and “occupation,” while completely omitting mention of Israel, despite the fact there is no Palestinian state and there never has been. The Palestinians have neatly woven this narrative into academia, pretending there once was a State of Palestine where Israel stands today.

And if this course wasn’t enough of an embarrassment to academia and the pursuit of knowledge, a second course, “Modern Palestine,” is even cruder. It pretends a Palestinian state exists and aims to give “an overview of the political struggles over Palestine between Zionist and Palestinian national movements.” Here is the truth: had the Palestinians accepted the UN partition plan in 1948 and at least three or four other offers thereafter, the Palestinians would be enjoying the benefits of their own state right now.

Instead, universities have been willingly co-opted to tell the lies being peddled by radical groups that have no shame in calling people names (eg. Zionist lowlife) and continue to push the agendas of terror groups here in Canada. Academic enablers of this unfolding tragedy on our campuses would never for a second be able to practice their professions in any of the Palestinian territories for lack of rights and freedom. Yet, they are perfectly OK with joining in this propaganda and with it, attempting to harm the only democracy in the Middle East.

Dismantling democracies is bad for democracies. If universities can write a new narrative this easily, based on a campaign originating from a foreign entity that does not share our freedom and democracy, can you imagine how fragile our own nation might be? Now they are attacking Israel, but who will they come for next? Whose values, beliefs and history will they attempt to re-write or distort? There is a battle of ideas raging on our campuses. It’s time for us all to fight back.

National Post