RE: Deputation to House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights
Dear Editors,
Two Queen’s University professors, representing the Queen’s Coalition Against Antisemitism (QCAA), have jeopardized their academic integrity and the future of Queen’s students by writing a report which, when inferred, lays out the serious charge that the real reason Queen’s students are criticizing Israel is that the students are antisemites. The QCAA authors were referring to campus encampments as well as other incidents. However, Queen’s students were maintaining an encampment in order to pressure Queen’s to divest from companies which are helping Israel launch bombs and airstrikes in Gaza.
Students formed an encampment because of their concern for their friends and relatives in Gaza, not because of antisemitism. This is a blatant and deliberate attempt by the professors to deflect attention away from Israel’s well known and documented history of abusing the human rights of the Palestinians under their control in Israel, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. This history has been documented in reports by the United Nations, Oxfam, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israeli human rights NGO’s such as B’Tselem and Yesh Din. The professors are willing to sacrifice the future of students at Queen’s by deliberately misinterpreting the graffiti at the Queen’s encampment. For example, they claim the Star of David is a religious symbol even though they’re aware it’s also used as a symbol of Israel. Also, red handprints are interpreted as “a call to violence against Jews” while the students at the encampment made it abundantly clear that the red handprints are an accusation that Queen’s has blood on its hands because it invests in companies which help Israel in its colonial rule over the Palestinians. In fact, most, if not all, of the examples used by the professors to accuse the students of antisemitism relate to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and not antisemitism.
It’s surprising that professors at Queen’s would jeopardize students’ careers by falsely claiming they’re antisemites. Freedom of speech is important but with it comes responsibility. Maybe they think defending Israel’s treatment of people under its control is more important than the future of their students. If that’s true, then maybe they should be paid by the Israel lobby and not by Queen’s University.
Sincerely,
Wolfe Erlichman
Independent Jewish Voices, Kingston
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