October 15, 2012: Students should be exposed to a full range of opinion in the Zionist conversation

By Michael Regenstreif

Mira Sucharov, a Carleton University professor who writes the Values, Ethics, Community column in the Bulletin, also has a blog called The Fifth Question on the website of the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. Sucharov posted a column there on September 22 in which she alleges that “someone like me” would be banned from speaking at events sponsored by Hillel Ottawa, the organization representing and serving Jewish students at our local university and college campuses.

According to Sucharov, the ban is on instruction from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). CIJA, the successor organization to several advocacy agencies, including the Canadian Jewish Congress and the Canada Israel Committee, acts on behalf of Jewish Federations of Canada-UIA and in partnership with the various local federations, including the Jewish Federation of Ottawa.

Sucharov made the charge after Hillel Ottawa apparently declined to sponsor an event for students with Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism, who will be visiting Ottawa on October 23 as part of a three-city Canadian tour, which will also bring him to Montreal and Toronto. She said Hillel Ottawa consulted CIJA on whether to host Beinart and was instructed not to because Beinart advocates an economic boycott of Jewish settlements on the West Bank, what he calls a “Zionist BDS,” targeting the settlements but encouraging the economic support of Israel within the Green Line.

According to Sucharov, when she contacted CIJA to question the directive, Steve McDonald, CIJA’s Toronto-based associate director of communications, told her it was because of Beinart’s advocacy of “economic coercion” against the settlements.

Sucharov, herself, has endorsed Beinart’s call for a settlement boycott in her Haaretz blog and speculates, therefore, that she too would be unwelcome at Hillel events – or at events of other organizations influenced by CIJA.

As I point out in my review of Beinart’s book on page 20, I think his call for an economic boycott of the settlements is counterproductive. That point aside, I have absolutely no doubt he is a sincere and wholly committed Zionist dedicated to the pursuit of a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, which will ensure Israel’s future as both a Jewish and democratic state. And, while I would argue with Beinart about the efficacy of one tactic he advocates, I think he has valuable things to say. I’m looking forward to hearing him speak at Temple Israel.

I think Hillel Ottawa, like any organization, has the right to engage or to decline to engage any speaker for whatever reason it chooses. For example, I wouldn’t expect a decidedly right-wing organization to present a speaker like Beinart or a decidedly left-wing organization to present a speaker like Daniel Pipes. However, despite any personal opinions I have about what such speakers have to say, I want to able to listen to both of them. I think it’s important that we – students and those of us well beyond student-age – be exposed to a full range of opinion. While I want to applaud speakers with whom I agree, I also want to be challenged in my thinking by those with whom I may disagree.

While I understand and share CIJA’s concern with the tactic Beinart advocates, I would have advised Hillel Ottawa, as the Jewish umbrella group for university students, to hold an event with Beinart – who has many valuable things to say, much of which CIJA would have little if any argument with – on the condition there be opportunity for questions and dialogue. Then, challenge Beinart on his call for a “Zionist BDS” and let him compete in the marketplace of ideas.

December 15, 2008: OPIRG reinforces perception leftist anti-Zionism is antisemitic

By Michael Regenstreif

Reporter Liana Shlien has a story on page 13 of this issue of the Bulletin about a visit to Ottawa on November 20 by Israel Siriri, the chair of the small Abayudaya Jewish community in Uganda, and a talk that he gave about his community at the Soloway Jewish Community Centre. The primary sponsor of Siriri’s visit here was Hillel Ottawa – the Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.

In advance of Siriri’s visit, Hillel approached the Ontario Public Interest Research Group at the University of Ottawa (OPIRG-Ottawa), a group funded by a $3.38 annual levy on every uOttawa student, and asked for assistance in promoting the event with the African Jewish leader.

OPIRG-Ottawa states that its “mission is to bring together and build upon a broad-based community dedicated to social, economic and environmental justice. OPIRG is concerned with the contribution that students, the university and the community can make towards social change.”

Given OPIRG-Ottawa’s mandate, it is quite logical to assume they would be anxious to lend their support to a presentation by the leader of a small community in Africa about the history of his community, and about the kinds of projects it undertakes to sustain the community, its infrastructure, its schools and its outreach to other communities in the region.

Hillel didn’t hear back from OPIRG-Ottawa in advance of Siriri’s visit. Later, though, Hillel received an e-mail from the OPIRG-Ottawa board of directors explaining they had decided not to offer their endorsement of the event or to promote it.

The OPIRG-Ottawa email went on to say they rejected the event because of Hillel’s “relationship to apartheid Israel” adding that “Zionist Ideology [sic] does not fit within OPIRG’s mandate of human right’s [sic], social justice.”

Leaving aside the nonsense about “Israeli apartheid” – for that, see the article by Dan Schloss, Hillel Ottawa’s Israel advocacy coordinator on page 26 – OPIRG-Ottawa’s flapping about Zionist ideology wouldn’t have been a surprise had Hillel been asking for their support for an appearance by Benjamin Netanyahu. But other than the fact that Siriri’s first name is ‘Israel,’ his talk had absolutely nothing to do with Israel or Zionism. One of Hillel’s co-sponsors of the event was the Kurdish Youth Association of Canada, hardly a Zionist organization.

By promoting a Jewish-oriented event perfectly in tune with its proclaimed mandate, the evening with Siriri would have provided OPIRG-Ottawa with the perfect opportunity to show that the perception that leftist campus anti-Zionism is not tinged with the antisemitism many people perceive. Instead of seizing the opportunity, OPIRG-Ottawa reinforced that perception.