A group of Jewish students were forced to barricade themselves inside York University’s Hillel in what the Jerusalem Post called a “hostage” situation.
Jewish students at York University in Toronto were forced to take refuge in the Hillel office last Wednesday night as anti-Israel protesters banged on the glass doors, chanting, “Die, bitch, go back to Israel,” and “Die, Jew, get the hell off campus.”
[…]
During the clash in the hallway, Jewish students were singled out and pursued by a mob of more than 100 students. Tepper and the 15-20 other Jewish students escaped upstairs to Hillel’s offices, where the situation worsened.While students sat in the shelter of the Hillel office, listening to the “pounding” from the York Federation of Students office below, demonstrators reached the Hillel office, banging on the glass doors and made it impossible for students to leave.
Campus security personnel arrived and advised the Jewish students to stay in the Hillel office.
The police arrived almost an hour after the incident had begun and tried to “remain neutral,” Tepper wrote.
The students in the Hillel office were evacuated soon after by police escort, amid cries of “Get off our campus” and “Shame on Hillel.”
“I have never in my life felt threatened and hated like I did that night,” Tepper said.
Ferman, the Hillel president, who was called a “f*****g Jew” and a “dirty Jew” by the protesters, said, “We were basically being held hostage in our own space.”
The incident was somewhat “ironic,” Ferman said, because 45 minutes before the press conference, members of Hillel and the Hasbara student organization had met with members of Students Against Israeli Apartheid, in an attempt to “decrease tensions” between the groups.
Ultimately, the students had to leave Hillel under police protection. You can get an eye-witness account by one of the Jewish students here.
The event that precipitated the scenario actually had nothing to do with Israel at all, though the mob besieging the Jewish students nonetheless yelled “Zionism equals racism!”, “Viva, viva Palestine” and one student declared “Zionism does not speak for Jews. Zionism is an embarrassment. Shame on the Zionists.” Rather, the situation flowed out of a press conference Hillel students participated in support of impeaching the York University student government for its support of a TA strike which had crippled the university for months.
I know nothing about the specifics of the labor dispute, and thus take no position as to what position on the matter is correct. I do know that it is distressing that (a) Jewish political advocacy on a topic of general concern immediately manifested itself into hatred and threats towards Jews qua Jews and (b) those threats manifested themselves in the guise of anti-Zionist talk, even though Zionism had nothing to do with the putative controversy.
This piece from the National Post is reporting a lot of rumor, so take it with some salt, but one thing he mentions is the possibility that the York Federation of Students is trying to change the subject from its support of the strike to the question of Israel and the Gaza operation. That would help explain how a move by Hillel to support an end to the strike was transformed into an opportunity to threaten Jews, and would also explain why Israel was used (as usual) as the “hook” in order to do so. It would be the same thing we’re seeing in Venezuela: drumming up rage against Jews to cement shaky political support.
Unfortunately, this event was not isolated. Police already had to be called after death threats were made against a Jewish student earlier in the week. In general, Jewish students have been alleging a rapid deterioration in the security of their environment at the school over the last several years.
The Jerusalem Post is a bit far from Toronto–so I asked around about this as I have dear ones and friends who teach at York & since I was surprised that I hadn’t heard of an incident that sounded (from the Post) rather brutal. You seem to have the sense that Jewish students happened to be voicing an opinion about the strike at York, but were then attacked as Jews. This is what I found out. There is a long-standing conflict at York between a small but vocal group of conservative, Zionist (not all Jewish) students and a small but vocal group of leftie pro-Palestine students. The student government this time around happened to be run by the lefties (other times, other gov’s–usually only 100’s of students out of tens of thousands vote). This leftie student council supported the strike and also has made pro-Palestine statements. The small, rightie group of students included a number of Jewish students, some of whom are also involved with Hillel, as well as non-Jewish students, who were speaking for “Drop YFS” (whose aim is to impeach the student council). Their position is that the student council doesn’t represent the student interest both with regard to support of the strike and with regard to their political position. And they were wanting to impeach the student government. Out of this melange of issues, the Middle-East situation is the one that arouses the most violent emotions. This is not representative of the student body as a whole–but these two small groups of students get into it a lot. Whenever they meet anywhere on campus, they end up in these kind of vitriolic attacks on each other. For people reading here who aren’t aware of it, The National Post is a right-wing Canadian newspaper & their account of the situation has to be taken with that knowledge. This is the reason I hadn’t heard about this incident. It’s a long-standing feud at York between these groups of students. Another important part of the context is that York is a particularly political university–with both a strong left-wing presence & traditionally a strong Jewish presence because of its location. It’s easy to imagine what that leads to.
I understand that — that’s also part of the reason I caveated the National Post article.
But, but, the events that transpired here go way beyond political disagreement — even intense one. The press conference wasn’t about Palestine (even if the battle lines were the same), it was about the labor strike, and that makes it problematic to begin with that the event was immediately “turned” as an excuse to yell at the Hillel students about Israel (though “Die, Jew, get the hell off campus.” is just flagrant anti-Semitism). Couple that with the apparent clear anti-Semitic insults that were thrown, and siege scenario that transpired that required the Jewish students to be escorted out under police protection, and we’re looking at something very different and very scary.
I understand you were trying to provide some context (that this wasn’t spontaneous but the off-shoot of a long-simmering conflict on campus), but I think it’s important to label this manifestation of it as anti-Semitism of a rather dangerous and frightening variety.
I agree with David. Context can’t mitigate this.
Pretty much the only thing I could imagine that I’d find mitigating, would be if the events reported in the Jerusalem Post were completely false. If the events happened more or less as reported, though, then it’s just inexcusable and rather frightening antisemitism.
Pingback: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » York Strike
“I think it’s important to label this manifestation of it as anti-Semitism of a rather dangerous and frightening variety.”
I guess that I didn’t provide enough context then. My point was that the press conference was about the impeachment of the student government, not the strike itself, and that the student council’s statements about the Middle-East as much as the strike was the the reason for the impeachment. These kinds of extreme and nasty and violent statements also are made by the Jewish students. If you went to a leftie meeting then you would have had the same kind of “Die bastards” statements coming from the conservative group. The pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students fight and they fight nasty, all of them, but not all of the time. Sometimes they can be found in in Vari Hall just arguing loudly. That has been happening at York for as long as I can remember. I was a student there embarrassingly long ago and I remember shouting and screaming in what we called the “pit,” where at other times posters were sold.
There is antisemitism and it can be dangerous, I just don’t think this is one of those situations.
The Jews found it dangerous enough to call the police, and the police found it dangerous enough to recommend they be evacuated under armed guard. That’s pretty dangerous. Another Jewish student received a death threat against him and his family last week (prompting another police investigation). Another Jewish student said he was specifically threatened with assault by a protester who objected to him taking pictures — a threat he believes was because he was identifiably Jewish (he says other students taking pictures were not similarly threatened). There’s also the fact that the mob here specifically targeted Jews — the press conference was not only Jewish students, but the mob only attacked the Jews.
If lefties at York are being barricaded in their offices with an angry mob yelling for their deaths, that is political repression of the worst sorts, and it deserves strident condemnation. But that doesn’t appear to have happened (yet), and in any event it wouldn’t excuse this event or make it anything but anti-Semitic.
Pingback: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » Dialogic Respect and the Segue