An excellent extended article by award-winning journalist Robyn Doolittle in the Globe and Mail does a really good job of looking at the complexities, the misunderstandings and the high emotions involved in the reactions of students and faculty to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
She does this in the context of the Lincoln Alexander School of Law at Toronto Metropolitan University, an avowedly progressive school that embraces equity, diversity and inclusion. Specifically, it investigates the reactions and pushback caused by a pro-Palestinian petition circulated in the early days of the conflict.
In among all the detail that Ms. Doolittle sets forth, and all the interview clips she reports, a few things jump out at me:
- The importance of distinguishing between criticism of the state of Israel (its politics, its rhetoric and its beliefs) and antisemitism (hostility to Jewish people in general).
- The extreme conservatism of the legal profession (or at least the high-end, commercial wing of the legal profession, as often described as "Bay Street lawyers").
- The way in which the Israel-Palestine issue polarizes people, unlike almost any other single issue.
- The way in which law students (and even teaching staff) are in existential fear of the legal establishment, which expects them to toe the line on pain of excommunication.
- And finally, be careful what you put your name to, and read it carefully first.
Several other thoughts occurred to me too as I read the article. It's worth a read.
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