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Campus Watch in the Media

• From survey: Concordia University

Resistance on Trial at Concordia University: Fighting the Criminalization of Palestinian Solidarity Organizing
by Karameh, Working Group of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Montreal
Marxist-Leninist Daily
March 15, 2003

http://www.cpcml.ca/tmld/D33056.htm

This is a callout to groups, organizations and individuals around the world to support Palestinian solidarity organizing at Concordia University, throughout Montreal and beyond. This call for support is grounded in a belief in social justice and has as its aim the reclamation of human dignity and human rights for the Palestinian people in the face of the ongoing Israeli apartheid and military occupation.

We write to you from Montreal, Canada, home of Concordia University, where on September 9, 2002, 1500 students and allies rose up in opposition to the presence of war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu on the university campus. In order to accommodate Netanyahu that day, the Administration spared no expense on security, deploying 150 riot cops, metal detectors, and bomb-sniffing dogs. Access to the 12-floor Main Building of the downtown campus was shut down to two entries/exits through which thousands of students attending regularly scheduled classes had to pass. This stands in stark contrast to the Administrations refusal, one-year earlier, to issue a permit allowing Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR Concordia) to hold an outdoor bazaar, citing spurious safety concerns.

It is within this context of double-standards and insensitivity to student and community concerns -- particularly those of Arabs, Muslims and other allies committed to issues of social justice -- that a group of 150 demonstrators entered the Main Building of the downtown campus through a side door that was overlooked in the University's security arrangements for that day. These individuals entered the building to reclaim that public space and deliver a community-drafted arrest warrant charging Mr. Netanyahu under the War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity Act of 2000. This direct action effectively prevented Netanyahu from delivering his speech to a pre-screened and essentially handpicked audience for what was to be a pro-Israel propaganda rally with no opportunity to pose questions or engage in debate.

The actual events of that day have been seriously misrepresented by Netanyahu and mainstream media outlets that kowtow to his brand of Zionist extremism so that the successful shutdown action was termed a riot. While the intolerant acts of a handful of the demonstrators in the action that day have received lengthy coverage, reciprocal intolerant acts perpetrated by pro-Israel attendees to the lecture against the demonstrators have received no coverage.

In reality, and of greater import, the majority of the violence of that day was perpetrated by Montreal riot police against students and members of the broader community who were asserting basic human rights of assembly and expression to further the cause of social justice.

In an attempt to abdicate responsibility for what happened that day, the Concordia Administration has laid university charges and sanctions against students and members of the Montreal community who were brutalized by police beatings and pepper spray.

Examples of the charges and sanctions laid by the university include: a three-year suspension for student organizer Samer Elatrash determined in a hearing he boycotted due to panelist bias; a five-year ban from Concordia for Chadi Serhal, a foreign student arbitrarily banned without a hearing or due process; and a five-year ban for non-student Jaggi Singh, again without any hearing or due process. Additionally, police charges have been laid against several people and include charges of conspiracy to incite a riot.

The Administration's poor decision to host a war criminal -- under pressure from the Asper Foundation who sponsored the event -- the undemocratic structure of the event and the continuing Administrative bias against Palestinian solidarity organizing, have thus escaped scrutiny while students and supporters who valiantly stood up for the rights of Palestinians under occupation and in exile are being criminalized. All those charged and sanctioned are filing for appeal.

The wisdom of deploying 150 riot cops on a university campus, which is illegal in many countries, remains unquestioned by the Administration who view their only failure that day as one of inadequate security. All the security in the world will not, however, prevent people from breaking the silence in the face of ongoing injustices both in Palestine and here at home. It is not only at Concordia University that Palestinian solidarity organizing is coming under attack. At York University, students protested against the invitation of Daniel Pipes, founder of Campus Watch, a McCarthyesque-era inspired blacklist for academics who are, in Pipes eyes, too sympathetic to the Palestinian struggle for dignity, too critical of U.S. unilateralism, or simply dare to cast American foreign policy in a less than favourable light.

Students successfully lobbied through official channels to have the speech cancelled, but were later surprised to find out from the media that the university caved in to outside pressure, specifically from the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC). The event went ahead with only 40 seats of the 225 seats open to the general public while the remainder were allocated to Jewish Student Federation (JSF) attendees only. All questions to Pipes were screened through a central feed. Security for the event comprised of 200 riot police, some 20 of them on horseback. Demonstrators against Pipes presence decided to occupy President Marsden's office instead of risking confrontation with the police, demanding an apology and explanation as to why Pipes was allowed to speak on campus. York University has now decided to require event sponsors to pay for 50 per cent of the costs of security deployed at all future events with the University deciding how much security will be required. This will prevent many grassroots groups from organizing at all since the costs will be too prohibitive. There are also calls from York faculty to charge the students involved in the occupation of Marsden's office: If they can do it at Concordia, why not here?

So, concerned individuals and groups have come together to form Karameh to fight the ongoing attempt to criminalize Palestinian solidarity organization at Concordia and other universities and communities, throughout Montreal and around the world. Karameh is a working group of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR Montreal) and includes individuals and members of other community groups committed to issues of social justice. The word Karameh means Dignity in Arabic and is also the name of a town from which the Palestinian resistance launched its first effective attack in the effort to reclaim their land and rights.

Below are the general principles to which Karameh is committed:

1) We reject the attempts of governing institutions to criminalize dissent and grassroots political organizing that challenges the status quo, and are particularly incensed by the cynical and inappropriate use of September 11 to justify this ongoing criminalization.

2) We reject attacks waged by Western governments on immigrant and refugee rights. We stand in solidarity with those communities who are subject to the policy of racial profiling, arbitrary arrest and detention. The rounding up of thousands of Arabs and Muslims by the INS and other government agencies amounts to a policy of internment that we view as completely unacceptable.

3) We reassert our fundamental human rights to freedom of assembly, expression and movement and remain committed to popular education, civil disobedience and direct action as completely legitimate and necessary means to challenging the injustices perpetrated by ruling authorities both here, in Palestine and elsewhere.

4) We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people whose decades-long and valiant struggle for their indigenous rights serves as an inspiring example to others advocating for social justice. Palestinian solidarity organizing in Montreal is intimately connected to social justice organizing in general, and is committed to values of solidarity, justice, and dignity, and stands in opposition to racism, anti-Semitism (in the dual sense of the word, as in against both Arabs and Jews), sexism and all forms of oppression.

Our demands of the Concordia administration are as follows:

1) A withdrawal of all charges and sanctions placed by the Administration against students and community members for their participation in the September 9 demonstration against Israeli war-criminal Benjamin Netanyahu.

2) A full inquiry into systemic racism and discrimination at Concordia University with a Particular focus on anti-Arab/anti-Muslim racism and discrimination and its relationship to the wider global context.

3) A formal commitment on the part of the University Administration to the rights of students and community members to access and use university space for community organizing and events free from harassment and intimidation in the form of a police presence on the university campus.

We strongly encourage you to phone and email the Concordia University Administration and to bring to the attention of the University Rector Dr. Lowy your support of the demands which Karameh has issued to Concordia.

Note: Postings in "Campus Watch in the Media" do not necessarily reflect the views of Campus Watch.

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