Repression at Canadian Universities: Targeting Pro-Palestinian student groups

A pattern of intolerance for speech about Palestinian human rights appears to have established itself in Canadian universities. Supporters of Israel's military occupation often claim the opposite - that universities are havens for speech against Israel. Certainly, there is "speech against Israel" in terms of events like Israeli Apartheid Week, now in its fifth year at the University of Toronto, that seek to raise critical perspectives about the occupation. Such speech, we should acknowledge, is part of normal academic discourse that examines racism, colonialism, and militarism in their many forms and in general steers clear of promoting government propaganda. Such speech is now under threat in Ontario universities, even as there is a growing interest in having informed and critical discussions about Israel's military occupation. In five years, Israeli Apartheid Week has expanded to an event now encompassing about forty cities around the globe.

The recent slaughter of Gaza demonstrates that it is more important than ever for academics to speak out and use the resources of the university to make the world aware of the gross injustices perpetrated by Israel's military occupation. Academics have been slower to respond than their colleagues in labour unions, many of whom have passed resolutions supporting the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) campaign, a non-violent movement designed to pressure Israel into compliance with international law. Yet, recent weeks have seen momentous change in universities as student unions have signed on to the Palestinian Right to Education campaign and thousands of faculty have signed petitions to condemn the attack on Gaza and express solidarity with Palestinian colleagues. In Montreal, a group of faculty has endorsed the BDS campaign and in the U.S., Hampshire College has voted to divest from six companies with ties to Israel. As students and faculty raise their voices against the predation of the Israeli army on Palestinian civilians, universities must be made safe spaces for expressing dissent and telling the truth about who is suffering in Palestine.

At the same time, two Jewish right-wing organizations (Bnai Brith and Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre) have published ads and released statements stating that Israel Apartheid Week is anti-semitic and equating anti-zionism and anti-semitism. Within the last two days, Tory Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal MP Irwin Cotler have released statements that equate anti-zionism and anti-semitism. (Cotler is the most high-falutin, referring to Israel as the “collective Jew” and attacks on Israel as attacks on all Jews).

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We, the students of NYU, declare an occupation of this space. This occupation is the culmination of a two-year campaign by the Take Back NYU! coalition, and of campaigns from years past, in whose footsteps we follow.

In order to create a more accountable, democratic and socially responsible university, we demand the following: 
Full legal and disciplinary amnesty for all parties involved in the occupation.

1. Full compensation for all employees whose jobs were disrupted during the course of the occupation.

2. Public release of NYU's annual operating budget, including a full list of university expenditures, salaries for all employees compensated on a semester or annual basis, funds allocated for staff wages, contracts to non-university organizations for university construction and services, financial aid data for each college, and money allocated to each college, department, and administrative unit of the university. Furthermore, this should include a full disclosure of the amount and sources of the university's funding.

3. Disclosure of NYU's endowment holdings, investment strategy, projected endowment growth, and persons, corporations and firms involved in the investment of the university's endowment funds. Additionally, we demand an endowment oversight body of students, faculty and staff who exercise shareholder proxy voting power for the university's investments.

4. That the NYU Administration agrees to resume negotiations with GSOC/UAW Local 2110 - the union for NYU graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and research assistants. That NYU publically affirm its commitment to respect all its workers, including student employees, by recognizing their right to form unions and to bargain collectively. That NYU publically affirm that it will recognize workers' unions through majority card verification.

5. That NYU signs a contract guaranteeing fair labor practices for all NYU employees at home and abroad. This contract will extend to subcontracted workers, including bus drivers, food service employees and anyone involved in the construction, operation and maintenance at any of NYU's non-U.S. sites.

6. The establishment of a student elected Socially Responsible Finance Committee. This Committee will have full power to vote on proxies, draft shareholder resolutions, screen all university investments, establish new programs that encourage social and environmental responsibility and override all financial decisions the committee deems socially irresponsible, including investment decisions. The committee will be composed of two subcommittees: one to assess the operating budget and one to assess the endowment holdings. Each committee will be composed of ten students democratically elected from the graduate and under-graduate student bodies. All committee decisions will be made a strict majority vote, and will be upheld by the university. All members of the Socially Responsible Finance Committee will sit on the board of trustees, and will have equal voting rights. All Socially Responsible Finance Committee and Trustee meetings shall be open to the public, and their minutes made accessible electronically through NYU's website. Elections will be held the second Tuesday of every March beginning March 10th 2009, and meetings will be held biweekly beginning the week of March 30th 2009.

7. That the first two orders of business of the Socially Responsible Finance committee will be:
a) An in depth investigation of all investments in war and genocide profiteers, as well as companies profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories.
b) A reassessment of the recently lifted of the ban on Coca Cola products.

8. That annual scholarships be provided for thirteen Palestinian students, starting with the 2009/2010 academic year. These scholarships will include funding for books, housing, meals and travel expenses.

9. That the university donate all excess supplies and materials in an effort to rebuild the University of Gaza.

10. Tuition stabilization for all students, beginning with the class of 2012. All students will pay their initial tuition rate throughout the course of their education at New York University. Tuition rates for each successive year will not exceed the rate of inflation, nor shall they exceed one percent. The university shall meet 100% of government-calculated student financial need.

11. That student groups have priority when reserving space in the buildings owned or leased by New York University, including, and especially, the Kimmel Center.

12. That the general public have access to Bobst Library.

    * Print the following demands and distribute them far and wide!

Bard has effectively crafted for itself an image as a bastion of progressive thought. Its efforts were crowned with being anointed in 2005 by the Princeton Review as the second-most progressive college in the United States, the journal adding that Bard "puts the 'liberal' in 'liberal arts.'" But "liberal" thought evidently has its limits; and my work against Zionism has encountered these.

A fundamental principle of mine is that the educator must criticize the injustices of the world, whether or not this involves him or her in conflict with the powers that be. The systematic failure of the academy to do so plays no small role in the perpetuation of injustice and state violence. In no sphere of political action does this principle apply more vigorously than with the question of Zionism; and in no country is this issue more strategically important than in the United States, given the fact that United States support is necessary for Israel's behavior. The worse this behavior, the more strenuous must be the suppression of criticism. I take the view, then, that Israeli human rights abuses are deeply engrained in a culture of impunity granted chiefly, though not exclusively, in the United States - which culture arises from suppression of debate and open inquiry within those institutions, such as colleges, whose social role it is to enlighten the public. Therefore, if the world stands outraged at Israeli aggression in Gaza, it should also be outraged at institutions in the United States that grant Israel impunity. In my view, Bard College is one such institution. It has suppressed critical engagement with Israel and Zionism, and therefore has enabled abuses such as have occurred and are occurring in Gaza. This notion is of course, not just descriptive of a place like Bard. It is also the context within which the critic of such a place and the Zionist ideology it enables becomes marginalized, and then removed.

As you may have heard, Take Back NYU (a student-run coalition united in demanding transparency, accountability, and democracy at NYU) has occupied the Kimmel Marketplace on the 3rd floor of Kimmel. There is still an urgent need for people to go to NYU and support the Occupation from the street!

Sign the petition to support Take Back NYU!
http://takebacknyu.com/ [17]

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/takebacknyu/ [18]

At 12:30pm today, about 25 students (including some members of GSOC) rushed Kimmel and are now barricaded in solidarity with Take Back NYU!

NYU's administration refuses any face-to-face contact with student occupation, drawing out Take Back NYU!'s occupation, currently making national news. Members of occupation call press conference to demands student participation in negotiations and university decisions.

Occupied Kimmel Center on Washington Square Park, New York City 

Students participating in Take Back NYU!'s occupation of NYU's Kimmel center called for NYU's Administration to finally offer acceptable conditions for face-to-face negotiations with the occupation. NYU refuses to look students in the eye about its policies towards the occupation and its demands.

Throughout the occupation Take Back NYU! made it clear that good-faith negotiations are a condition to the occupation's end. NYU has only made one empty offer of faux negotiations after the end of the occupation.

Members of Take Back NYU! called a press conference for 5pm ET outside the Kimmel Center to demand NYU enter negotiations. The policy of stonewalling students continues NYU's legacy of inaction and obstinacy regarding student democracy and human rights at NYU - the occupation offers the administration a chance to improve its public image and stance on these key issues.

During the press conference, students will propose expansion of pressure on the university to encourage the administration to come to the table over Take Back NYU! demands regarding student democracy and human rights at NYU.

The occupation, which began at 10pm on Feb. 18th with the seizure of the 3rd floor of the Kimmel Center has made news across the country and received declarations of support from universities across the world. NYU's Administration refuses to allow the students of the occupation a place at negotiations, instead relying on threats and intransigence to try to end Take Back NYU!'s campaign.

Over the course of the past few years, New York University has undertaken a series of radical changes that transformed our school into a global institution with a high-profile presence in our local community. In the course of these changes, community members and students have expressed their concerns about many of the university's policies, particularly NYU's reluctance to share information about its finances and decision-making processes. As students with a vision of NYU as a progressive, prestigious global university, Take Back NYU! calls on the NYU administration to undertake 13 specific steps to affirm NYU's commitment to accountability and institutional democracy. 

in solidarity with the University of Gaza, and with the people of Palestine.

And at Bard College in upstate New York, Joel Kovel,  author of Overcoming Zionism, has been fired.   Apparently being an eco-socialist is acceptable, but being anti-Zionist is off limits.  Read about Kovel's case here.

Kovel has taught at Bard since 1988, first holding the Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies, and later moving to a part-time professorship. He never had tenure, only renewable contracts, the last one of which will not be renewed. (He will receive emeritus status, however.)

While Bard officials did not respond to inquiries, President Botstein did send Kovel a letter that included in it permission to release it, which Kovel did at this reporter’s request. In the letter Botstein notes that Bard is eliminating a number of part-time positions to try to preserve full-time professorships, and that — had finances remained “flush” — Kovel’s contract probably would have been renewed.

“To take what is self-evidently a result of economic constraint and turn it into a trumped-up case of prejudice and political victimization insults not only your intelligence but the intelligence of your readers,” Botstein writes. He goes on to thank Kovel for teaching at Bard and to say that he was never offended by having someone with his views on the faculty. “I am delighted that you hold views that many consider wrong or dangerous. You are not as controversial as you would like to believe.”

And Botstein notes that he is proud that Bard is working with help improve Palestinian education through the Al Quds University effort, writing: “I’m sure that over the years ahead Bard will do much good on behalf of education and justice in the Middle East. Parenthetically, may I express my disappointment that you never inquired about this new program, which was announced to the faculty last spring.”

Continuous updates on Twitter: http://twitter.com/takebacknyu [24]

Today New York University has shown its true face more than ever. Claiming to be a "private university in the public service," it is clearly not even in the service of those students whose tuitions allow it to exist.

Earlier today, NYU cut power to all outlets in the occupied space and turned off the wireless internet. Obviously this was an attempt to silence and intimidate the occupiers who have broad-based support.

Then, NYU said it would negotiate and instead detained and suspended the student negotiators when they showed up. Security has now broken through the barricade and people are being detained and suspended.

Instead of dialog and negotiation, the NYU administration has shown they prefer the authoritarian, dissent-quashing, dictator route. It is a true reflection of how they run their university. Nothing but thugs with suits on, interested in getting rich under the guise of "education."
Be prepared to defend any individual or group that is targeted academically or legally for their role in the occupation. Widespread support for the occupation and its demands will not be extinguished by NYU's hypocritical, tyrannical behavior.

Come out to 60 Washington Square South if you can.
Email NYU Administrators. Demand amnesty and no suspensions:

NYU President John Sexton: john.sexton@nyu.edu [25]
John Beckman, NYU Spokesperson: jhb5@nyu.edu [26]
Office of the Provost: provost@nyu.edu [27]
Office of the Vice President: