Concordia threatens Gaza protestors

University no longer a sanctuary for critical thought or dissent

by Stefan ChristoffProtest on university campuses is a tradition dating back centuries, rooted in the origins of academic institutions as sanctuaries for learning, critical thinking and the voices of dissent in society.

In recent weeks students around the world, from Johannesburg to Jerusalem, have been central in coordinating protests opposing the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Political currents at universities often indicate shifts in broader society, as students are often among the first to take collective action against injustice. Growing opposition on campuses throughout North America to Israel’s unrelenting attacks on Palestine, signals the beginnings of a serious social movement against Israeli apartheid.

Universities can provide the invaluable space necessary to question prevailing modes of political conduct. Students should be allowed to mobilize, and break political taboos in solidarity with the most marginalized of peoples.

From the civil rights movement in the United States, to the international campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, to the original sparks for environmental justice and sustainability, students were there.

At a grassroots level, Concordia University has been a key hub for organizing the unprecedented Palestinian solidarity demonstrations in Montreal. Tens of thousands took to the streets to protest Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, the largest demonstrations in support of Palestine in Canadian history.

As thousands of students joined the historic protests, Concordia’s administration has been attempting to suppress student participation in the growing Palestinian solidarity movement.

In late December, the Israeli military bombed the Islamic University in Gaza City in six separate air strikes, destroying the Science and Engineering buildings and damaged several others at a campus that serves over 20,000 students.

In response to the Israeli air strikes on one of the major post-secondary institutions in Gaza, students and community activists called for a solidarity gathering at Concordia for the next morning in an effort to broaden awareness to the increasingly devastating situation in Gaza.

Students and community members gathered at Concordia’s downtown campus and distributed information to students on the crisis in Gaza. They also called on the Concordia administration to issue a statement against the bombing of the Islamic University in Gaza and express solidarity with Palestinian students.

The Concordia administration’s response has come in the form of legal letters, sent to key Palestinian solidarity advocates in the city, threatening legal action for the gathering.

Citing “security reasons,” the legal letter signed by Concordia’s Office of the General Counsel claims, “demonstrations are not permitted to take place within Concordia’s buildings.” A reading of Concordia’s code of rights and responsibilities will clearly illustrate that the claim that protests or gatherings at the university “are not permitted” is weak and the administrations attempts to ban public protest on campus is not fixed in writing.

Beyond specific regulations, the attempts from the administration to stifle protest on campus must be denounced and opposed. Concordia has been a centre for progressive movements for decades, a campus that has historically nurtured and honoured voices of dissent.

Concordia’s legal intimidation of students and community activists is a disturbing encroachment on free speech and a stunning attempt to undermine the important role that students occupy in the struggle for social justice.

As popular sentiment in Canada, and internationally, continues to grow in support of Palestinian liberation, on campuses and beyond, institutions of political and economic power will be the last to shift on the issue, forced to take distance from Israel due to a groundswell of popular sentiment in solidarity with Palestine.

Canada’s minority Conservative government was the only country to vote against a recent resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council, outlining that, “the massive ongoing Israeli military operation in the […] occupied Gaza Strip, caused grave violations of the human rights of the Palestinian civilians […] and undermined international efforts towards achieving a just and lasting peace in the region.” Despite Canada’s lone vote against the resolution, it passed, signalling a growing willingness within the U.N. to oppose Israeli human rights violations.

Only last month the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel D’Escoto Brockman, endorsed the growing international campaign to boycott the Israeli government, stating; “more than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a non-violent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations.”

In the past month Israeli military forces killed over 1,300 Palestinians, injuring approximately 4,300 others. 1.5 million Palestinians, the majority refugees expelled by Israel in 1948, are denied adequate access to basic necessities like fuel, medicine, clean water and food, as the majority of the population relies on U.N. relief.

Desmond Tutu, the South African Nobel laureate, has repeatedly called for an end to the “abominable” Israeli blockade of Gaza, while U.N. officials have described Gaza as an “open air prison.”

As the situation continues to deteriorate in Palestine, the movement in solidarity with the Palestinians continues to grow. Concordia University will continue to be an important campus within the broader student movement around the world that is supporting the international campaign to boycott the Israeli government.

Attempts by the Concordia administration to suppress Palestinian solidarity organizing on campus will only strengthen the long term resolve of students and community members to crack Israeli apartheid, in the tradition of the important role that students have played historically in combating injustice.

Stefan Christoff is a community organizer and journalist based in Montreal. Christoff is a member of Tadamon! a collective of social justice activists in Montreal working for justice in the Middle East.