A hundred or so students gathered around a display in the Unicentre Atrium at Carleton University recently. Some were angry and some were curious. All of them were engaged.
What drew them to this spot was a 15- foot by five-foot fence with pictures of terrorists on one side and pictures of terrorism victims on the other. It was an aggressive argument in favour of Israel’s security barrier, which has drawn international condemnation since it was first erected.
The event held on April 3 was organized by the Jewish fraternity on campus, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and represented the most aggressive form of pro-Israel activism on an Ottawa campus in years. It was about time.
I am a member of the fraternity and supported the event, and I think it is clear the initiative achieved its desired goal: attention to the issue.
This year in Ottawa there have been no shortage of anti-Israel events, including a speech by Norman Finkelstein, someone who says that the Holocaust has been exaggerated and the Hamas record is actually quite good. The year also included the annual Israel hatefest known as Israel Apartheid Week.
The fence presentation was a powerful message but by knows means over the line. You wouldn’t know this by reading the Carleton campus newspaper, the Charlatan. Like most student rags, it takes a left-of-centre editorial approach, and like most other student papers, its views on the Middle East are uninformed.
The newspaper said the fence event should not be allowed on any university campus because it promotes “segregation and hate between people of different origins.”
Usually newspapers are on the side of freedom of expression but, not so, it appears when it comes to advocating for the Jewish state.
The editorial actually proves why more aggressive Israel activism is needed at Carleton and other campuses where the Jewish population is not as large as it is in Toronto. For so long, students have only gotten one side of the story. They have not been exposed to aggressive pro-Israel activism and, as such, like with anything new, it startled them.
What they fail to realize is Israel doesn’t want to have a fence but has made the decision to have it in order to protect their people from harm. Without the security fence exhibit, this argument would not have been heard at Carleton this year.
If events such as the security fence presentation become more common, they will become not just expected but accepted as part of the discourse. Look at how Israel Apartheid Week has caught on. It is based on rhetoric and manipulation, and yet it is slowly becoming a staple on the university calendar for Israel’s detractors.
In its poorly written and poorly argued editorial, the Charlatan refused to label suicide bombers as terrorists, instead choosing to put quotations around the word, and basically labelled fraternity members as racists.
I urge readers to e-mail letters in response to [email protected] to express their views on the matters.
But also of note from the security-fence event is how it was perceived in the Jewish community.
While Alpha Epsilon Pi organized and sponsored the event, every other Jewish group on campus did everything possible to publicly distance themselves from it. Privately they expressed support, but many feared the possible backlash from such aggressive activism.
I understand their position. Student leaders at Carleton have punished student groups for taking views they don’t agree with before, and the Jewish Students’ Association does not want to risk jeopardizing its relationship with the students union or other groups on campus.
Still, fear is no reason to compromise ones principles. Our community is at its best when we are united, and there is no better issue to unite on than advocating for Israel, the Jewish state.
I hope more aggressive pro-Israel activism will take place again next year on campus, and next time I hope a coalition of all Jewish groups and other supporters of Israel on campus sponsor it. Then, as a united group, we can start chipping away at the ignorance and misrepresentation of Israel on campus, symbolized in the Charlatan editorial.
Alpha Epsilon Pi has shown such events can happen in Ottawa without the sky falling. The precedent has been set; now its time to take the next step.
