[antiwar-van] Canadian union seeks to ban Israeli academics

[aliyerevani]

CUPE's leader stands behind ban despite criticis
Canadian union seeks to ban Israeli academics 
 
CAIRO (AlArabiya.net)
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/01/08/63826.html 


A Canadian union is seeking a boycott on Israeli academics speaking, teaching or doing research work at Ontario universities as a protest against the Dec. 29 bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza.

Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario section of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), is calling for universities to ban Israeli academics from Canadian campuses unless they first denounce Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. 

An Israeli raid had destroyed a science building at the Islamic University in Gaza - a centre of support for the Islamist Hamas group that controls the narrow coastal strip. Many top Hamas officials graduated from there.
The call for the ban followed the national president of CUPE Paul Moist's letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, in which he slammed the federal government's support for the Israeli war on Gaza.

Sid Ryan along with other union leaders, rallied against "the Israeli apartheid government" in Toronto and announced that CUPE would bring a resolution to its annual conference supporting the ban on Israeli scholars. 

"We are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general," Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said in a statement.

Ryan went on to say in the release that Israeli academics should only be allowed if they "explicitly condemn" the university bombing and the "assault on Gaza in general." 

CUPE is the largest workers union in the country, with 570,000 members across the country and representing a wide range of workers in the public sector including workers in education, universities and social services.
Pending passing the resolution, the union would then ask local universities to respect the prohibition.

>> Backlash from Jewish lobby
The Jewish lobby in Canada has fired back at Ryan's proposal for banning Israeli scholars, denouncing his analogy comparing Israel's bombing of the Gaza Islamic university to book-burnings and the bombing of educational centers by the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

Josh Matlow, a Toronto public trustee demanded that a the board send a letter to Ryan, "expressing the TDSB's strong disapproval of his recent comments comparing Israel with the Nazi regime and his support for a boycott of Israeli academics who do not hold his own views on the Middle East conflict."

Ryan signaled his Nazi references were inappropriate, yet continued to push for CUPE's proposal for the boycott that sparked the debate.

"I was wrong to say what I did," Mr. Ryan said in a statement. "It was never my intention to hurt or cause offence to anyone. I was attempting to draw attention to the terrible bombing of a learning institution."

>> Proposed ban not anti-Semitic
Some academics however think that despite being unfair, the proposed ban is not anti-Semitic.

Mira Sucharov, a Carleton University professor who teaches a course in Middle East conflict, disagrees with all boycotts against academia.

"Academic boycotts are never a good thing," the National Post quoted her as saying. "Excluding someone is fundamentally against the entire enterprise of academia."

Sucharov said that since the boycott would apply to all citizens of Israel only, and not to Jewish scholars, then it is "anti-Israeli" rather than anti-Semitic.

"Many people will accuse a certain action, unfairly, as being anti-Semitic," she said. "Where my criticism lies is that it is anti-intellectual and anti-global."

However philosophy professor Michael Neumann from Trent University supported the ban which would prevent Israeli academics from working in Ontario.

"It targets Israeli, not Jewish, professors," he said.
"If people believe these are extreme circumstances and it will do some good, then I think it's reasonable and perhaps justified," he added.

>> Human rights activism 
CUPE's Ontario leader Sid Ryan has campaigned against Israel's war crimes for years, organizing anti-Isareli Apartied protests to end the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for years, organizing protests and raising awareness of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In 2006, CUPE Ontario passed Resolution 50 calling for international boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel for its ongoing occupation of Palestine and war crimes in the Middle East. 

The resolution won the support of Palestinian universities. In a letter addressed to CUPE Ontario's leader, the Al-Aqsa University in Gaza expressed its support of Resolution 50 and advised Ryan to continue raising awareness despite biased media coverage. 

"The inevitable attacks of the pro-Israel lobby you are facing at the moment should not stop anybody but rather highlight the necessity of a widespread awareness raising campaign on the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and Canadian support for these practices," the letter said.
 
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