THIS WEEK'S TRIBUNE  THIS WEEK'S TRIBUNE Jewish students being probed by York U for throwing copies of ‘alternative’ YU Free Press in trash
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Jewish students being probed by York U for throwing copies of ‘alternative’ YU Free Press in trash |
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Written by Atara Beck
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Tuesday, 21 April 2009 |
TORONTO – The latest development in the ongoing confrontation at York University between pro-Israel and anti-Zionist students concerns the dissemination of YU Free Press, an Israel-bashing ‘alternative’ campus newspaper that recently featured blantantly antisemitic cartoons by Brazilian-born pro-Palestinian cartoonist Carlos Latuff.
Two Jewish Zionist students, after being seen throwing a stack of the antisemitic papers in the trash, have been accused of obstructing freedom of speech and received a request for a meeting by a representative of York University Investigation.
Several pro-Israel students contacted the Jewish Tribune to express their dismay at what they see as a racist publication being permitted on campus. Meanwhile, the YU Free Press Collective organized a “major distribution event” that was expected to take place on Tuesday (after the Jewish Tribune’s weekly deadline), “as one final push to disseminate our most recent issue….
“Supporters will have an opportunity to help hand out issues and refill stands in a strong statement to the York community, which will reaffirm our right to free speech.”
Also on Tuesday, which happened to be Yom Hashoah, an event on campus, organized months ago by B’nai B’rith International and Jewish fraternity AEPi, was to take place in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
One of the cartoons in the YU Free Press issue being given out by the anti-Israel crowd depicts an emaciated Palestinian Arab in a pinstriped uniform, similar to those worn by concentration camp inmates during the Holocaust, lying face-down next to what appears to be a barbed-wire fence.
“Under the guise of freedom of expression and activist politics, the YU Free Press has gradually evolved from a criticism of Israel to one of unbridled antisemitism,” York student Moe Levin stated. “While the former is debatable, the latter has no place in civilized society. The publication is an untoward affront to the Holocaust of six million Jews. To publish a mockery of the Holocaust in a newspaper that can potentially be viewed by tens of thousands of students during Holocaust Remembrance week is intolerable and is an insult to the memory of the Six Million.”
Meanwhile, the anti-Israel agenda on other campuses continues. At OISE, for instance, the graduate student association recently twinned with Birzeit University near Ramallah, which is known as a hotbed of terrorist anti-Israel activity.
Neither is YU Free Press a unique campus development. As noted by several Ryerson students, Ryerson Free Press is equally biased against the Jewish state, without any pretense of balance. They say it goes completely against the recent London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism, which states that anti-Zionism is the new antisemitism, especially when criticism is exclusive to the Jewish state.
According to Ryerson student Tamara Winegust, “it is unfortunate that this newspaper has become a public platform for those who seek to delegitimize a democratic nation that is committed to multiculturalism and human rights, just like Canada. My hope is that intelligent students would be able to distinguish between the one-sided reporting in newspapers like the Ryerson Free Press and the honest and balanced perspectives that respectable newspapers strive for.”
First-year Ryerson journalism student Michelle Bitran said she hadn’t experienced any discomfort as a Jew on campus at the level of what’s been happening at York, “which is what makes reading Ryerson Free Press all the more shocking.” |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 29 April 2009 )
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