In a historic first, the University of Toronto will withhold over $10,000 from the Graduate Student Union as punishment for their antisemitic boycott of Israel.
By Nosson Shulman: Licensed Tour Guide of VIP Israel Tours & Authentic Virtual Tours (click here to check out his free trailer videos)
Maksim Sokolov (Maxergon) – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
North American Universities have long been a bastion of anti-Israel activities and commentaries (in Europe, the situation is often worse). Blatant anti-Semitism on campus has festered for decades, with the school’s administration turning a blind eye. Last year’s vote by the University of Toronto’s Graduate Student Union (GSU) for the passing of a motion calling for the boycott of Israel (including divesting the school’s investments connected to Israeli firms and businesses) surprised no one. What is causing shockwaves, is the University’s (unheard of) decision to punish the GSU by withholding funds from it. Even though it took the University more than a year to react following an official complaint, this marks the first time in Canadian history that a university has withheld money from groups supporting BDS and anti-Semitism!
According to U of T’s Vice-President and Provost Cheryl Regehr, $10,918 (or 0.86% of its entire budget) will be withheld from the GSU. This sum is the amount the student’s union would have spent on promoting anti-Israel activities on campus. These payments are collected from mandatory student fees, meaning that every student on campus (even Jewish and Pro-Israel students) were essentially being forced to fund anti-Semitic activities that they do not agree with! This was a clear violation of the school’s Statement on Freedom of Speech, which states that “the University’s primary obligation is to protect the free speech of all involved. Debate must not be limited by preordaining conclusions. Individuals can also not be forced to hold specific views on controversial issues in order to participate in any aspect of university life.”
The University of Toronto (my Alma Mater) has long been considered one of the world’s most prestigious universities. In almost every yearly ranking, the school is listed as being within the top 15-30 institutes of higher learning in the world. Yet even with this distinction, the University (like many other top colleges) has allowed anti-Israel activities to flourish, creating an environment where pro-Israel students are afraid to speak up. In 2005, the school hosted the world’s first “Israel Apartheid Week” which has since become an annual event in universities in at least 55 cities around the world (as a Pro-Israel activist on campus, I was heavily involved in exposing the lies of the event). In 2011, Professor Rupaleem Bhuyan from the Faculty of Social Work encouraged her students to do a “Jew count” to show how Jews were overrepresented by population in the University’s staff (she is still employed at the school). In 2018, a professor of Middle Eastern studies refused to meet with a Jewish student, claiming by email that his pro-Israel views “posed a great threat to academic freedom” (the university declined to punish the professor by saying that while the professor’s email was overly harsh, it did not constitute discrimination). In late 2021, U of T’s Scarborough Campus Student Union voted to place restrictions on Kosher Food on campus because doing so would “normalize Israeli apartheid.” These are just some of the many incidents which have occurred on campus in the last several years and while (up until now) little action has been taken to make Jewish and pro-Israel students feel safer, it is hoped (though certainly by no means a foregone conclusion) that this action by the university is the start of a wakeup call to stamp out the world’s oldest form of hatred from its halls!
Nosson Shulman is a journalist and Licensed Tour Guide in Israel specializing in Biblical tours. To allow tourists to experience Israel during the Corona era, he created the new hit Israel tour video series which brings Israel to the home of viewers by simulating actual tours. To check out his free sneak preview tour videos, click here. To view sample tour itineraries or to inquire about private tour opportunities with a personalized itinerary on your next trip to Israel, click here.
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