If you needed further evidence that the Israel-Palestine issue is complicated - despite the black-and-white that both sides seem to be able to find in it - take just one of the demands of the University of Toronto pro-Palestine encampment.
The UofT protesters are calling on the university to boycott and cut all ties with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in addition to disclosure and termination of the school's investments in Israel and in weapons manufacturers that enable Israel's war in Gaza.
Hebrew University is located at Mount Scopus in East Jerusalem. East Jerusalem was annexed by Israel in the 1967 war, and is still claimed by Palestine as their capital city, despite being part of Israel's illegally occupied territory. Canada, like the UN and most other countries, "does not recognize Israel's unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem", and regards it as part of the illegal occupied territories, "stolen land" in less polite terms.
The UofT administration argues that it has had a working relationship with Hebrew University for some time (actually just since 2007), and that academic relations transcend political considerations and should be regarded as sacrosanct. The phrase that springs to my mind in this connection is "yes, but not at any cost" - such esoteric sentiments should not be used to justify abuses of human rights.
It is further argued that the university has been at Mount Scopus since 1925, long before the establishment of the state of Israel, when the area was part of British Mandate Palestine, and that it "maintains continuous private property rights in East Jerusalem, regardless of the area's sovereignty status", a highly suspect claim either legally or morally. But, anyway, it closed down there in 1948, and then re-opened again in 1967, at a time when the area was officially illegally occupied by Israel. So, bit of a red herring.
And should we care that 17% of the student population of Hebrew U are Arab? Or at least they were in 2022 - I've a suspicion that may well have changed in the past few months.
It should be noted also that Hebrew University has programs directly associated with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), the outfit current laying waste to the remnants of Gaza. It also hosts Havatzalot, an IDF intelligence training program. The university describes this association as "purely academic", but somehow I don't think so.
So, complicated, perhaps, but not THAT complicated. As even a Jewish Faculty Network member at UofT concludes, citing academic freedom in this situation is "totally disingenuous and misleading ... how can the collaboration with such an institution be defended in the name of academic freedom?"
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