Six prominent Canadian universities are facing a series of proposed class-action lawsuits with claims that Jewish students are unsafe on campus.
The list includes Queen’s University, York University, Concordia University, Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of British Columbia. The prominent Toronto-based personal injury law firm, Diamond and Diamond, has also listed many of their student unions.
Hamilton, Ont.'s McMaster University and its student union are the latest to face legal action. A statement of claim, dated Jan. 3, alleges that “McMaster University has become, for over a decade, home to systemic discrimination, harassment, hatred, antisemitism, violent discourse, and actual or threatened physical harm amongst the student body.”
The conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism is intentional.
Shulamit Aloni was an Israeli national hero; she spent 30 years in Israeli politics and won the nation’s top civilian honor, the Israel Prize.
She was also strongly passionate about human rights and pursuing peace with Palestinians. And she fiercely criticized the Israel supporters who conflate criticism and antisemitism. She called it a “trick” that Israeli hardliners use to justify their treatment of Palestinians and deflect criticism of Israel government policy.
And it is a trick. When you criticize Russia, nobody says you must be racist against Slavs. When you criticize China, no one accused you of a deep-seated hatred of Han Chinese. But Israel supporters use accusations of antisemitism to stifle any criticism of their government - which over the past 20 years has been completely taken over by ultranationalists and zealots.
No government should be immune to criticism, including Israel’s.
Which is myopic, because it only reinforces negative stereotypes of Jews.