By Michael Regenstreif
It was a shocking act of terrorism, almost three decades ago in Paris, when a powerful bomb, hidden in motorcycle saddlebags, was detonated, allegedly by the Special Operations cell of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in front of the Rue Copernic Synagogue.
Four people – three French men and one Israeli woman – were killed and about 40 others were injured. It was Erev Simchat Torah and the toll would almost surely have been much worse had the explosion come a few minutes later as congregants exited the shul after services.
Ottawans were shocked last November, when Hassan Diab, a part-time sociology professor at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and a dual Lebanese and Canadian citizen, was arrested by the RCMP, accused by French authorities of perpetrating the heinous act.
Diab – who proclaims his innocence – was jailed until bail was granted under strict conditions in late-March. In January, he will face an extradition hearing to determine if he’ll have to return to France to face trial.
No one expected to hear much about Diab until the extradition hearing. But, then, late last month, news broke that Carleton’s department of sociology and anthropology had hired Diab to teach introductory sociology to summer students beginning July 28.
The university should have anticipated the controversy that would result from hiring an alleged terrorist. As the Ottawa Citizen said in an editorial published July 31, “If he stood accused of sexual harassment you can bet no sociology department would ever have anything to do with him, but trying to kill Jews? Hey, it was a long time ago.”
Diab spent one day in the classroom before Carleton cancelled his contract and replaced him with another professor.
Just as predictable as the controversy of hiring Diab was the reaction of some of his colleagues to his firing. Thirty members of Carleton’s department of sociology and anthropology signed an op-ed piece in the Citizen demanding his reinstatement, painting his dismissal as post-9/11 injustice and discrimination.
The French case is strong enough that Canadian authorities arrested Diab, jailed him for several months pending a bail hearing, then released him under the very strict bail conditions until the extradition hearing, which was determined to be justified.
Diab has not been convicted of the crimes to which he stands accused and must be regarded as innocent until proven guilty. And, if he’s cleared of the charges, they should not be held against him. But that doesn’t mean he should be teaching first year undergrads – or PhD students for that matter – while standing accused of terrorism and multiple murders.
Intro to sociology is a course that can be taught by any sociology faculty member, and probably by most grad students in the department. Carleton did not owe this course to Diab. This entire episode, so predictable from start to finish, should not have happened.
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Twice since I’ve been at the Bulletin, I’ve done interviews with highly placed Israelis who spoke about the openness of Israeli society to its gay and lesbian community, of how Israel was unique among all Middle Eastern countries in this regard.
When I interviewed then-ambassador Alan Baker in April last year for our special Israel @ 60 supplement, he talked about that Israeli openness and pointed out that there were even Palestinian gays and lesbians who have sought asylum in Israel from the discrimination they faced in their own society.
Earlier this summer, retired-Admiral Abraham Ben-Shoshan, who now heads the Tel Aviv Foundation, visited the Bulletin office to talk about the city of Tel Aviv and the foundation. Ben-Shoshan mentioned the city’s live-and-let-live attitude, its openness to gay culture and such events as its very popular gay pride parade.
Sadly, that live-and-let-live attitude was put to the test early this month when a disguised gunman in Tel Aviv entered a community centre support group meeting for gay teenagers and sprayed the room with machine gun fire murdering two people and wounding five others.
Israelis were shocked by what is widely believed to be a hate-crime. To his credit, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unequivocal in his statement that it was a “terrorist act,” that he rejected such “gratuitous hatred” and that the gay community in Israel had special needs that should be met with openness and sensitivity.