Tension flared in the Concordia Student Union last week after Hillel-Concordia was reprimanded for the distribution of allegedly discriminatory materials pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict.
A motion in CSU council was passed 12 votes to four outlining that Hillel owes a formal apology for the distribution of literature that was racially, ethnically, and religiously discriminatory to the Concordia student body.
“Hillel was passing hateful and ethnically discriminatory material. It was material stating that Palastenians did not exist, their culture does not exist, and that they had no Holy Sites in Israel. As a precursor to rationalizing the conflict in the Middle East, the statement that ‘You [Palastenians] don’t have a right to exist’ was made,” said Tom Keefer CSU VP communications. “So that is why these extreme measures exist.”
Avi Finegold, co-president of Hillel expressed displeasure at actions he felt to be out of line and unfair.
“We don’t have a response. Hillel is in the process of separating from the CSU; that will be our response. We find that we cannot exist within a student society that clearly prefers one club over another.”
Keefer however, maintained that such a reaction would be elicited by discriminatiory actions by any Concordia club, and is not merely an isolated attack on Hillel.
“Had any group passed around material against the Jewish people or Jewish culture, then we would have passed the same motion. The thing that boggles my mind is that Hillel would be crying bloody murder if this was directed against the Jewish community.”
Finegold further further criticized the CSU for acting in a way that took a political stand that oversteps its role as a student organization.
“Student unions exist to make decisions on campus sudent life. It’s not for them to decide a global political issue.”
Students’ Society of McGill Univeristy president Wojtek Baraniak expressed similar sentiments on the role of students’ societies.
“No student society executive is elected on a mandate of taking a stand on the Arab-Israeli conflct. It is not the students’ society’s role to take sides, but to promote a dialogue.”
Keefer however , maintained that the motion was not a political statement.
“The CSU has taken no position whatsoever [on the Arab-Israeli conflict]. These are just two separate and distinct issues that happen to occur close to each other.”
Roger Koetay, acting Dean of Concordia said that although it is not Concordia’s role to intervene in internal CSU matters, attempts were made to maintain a discourse.
“Our issue was to encourage the parties involved by doing so in open discourse… Certainly a continued dialogue is a good thing. The CSU decided to take it a step further and demand an apology, and whether it is appropriate or not is really up to the CSU.”
