Yesterday, on the third night of Israeli Apartheid Week 2011, professor and renowned public intellectual Judith Butler spoke to packed auditoriums at the University of Toronto. With so many people interested in attending the event, organizers were forced to turn close to 500 people away.
It has become increasingly difficult for student groups and clubs to find affordable and accessible space on campus. That we could not accommodate all those who arrived to see Professor Butler yesterday evening is a testament to the University of Toronto’s failure to provide adequate space for student clubs and community groups organizing events on campus. Students Against Israeli Apartheid is a student-based grassroots organization with limited resources. It is unfortunate that the University of Toronto could not cater the necessary space required to accommodate the interest generated by Professor Butler’s lecture. There remains, however, no justification for leaving organizers with no other option but to turn people away from such a thought-provoking and engaging lecture.
Advocating for more affordable and accessible space remains a key element of our work as Students Against Israeli Apartheid.
That said, we are grateful that Professor Butler had the opportunity to speak on the importance of Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) to an audience of 450, and we are excited to see so much interested in Israeli Apartheid Week.
This week, Students Against Israeli Apartheid at the University of Toronto and York University have launched campaigns demanding that our universities divest from companies complicit in Israeli apartheid. We have released a trailer as part of our launch:
This is the seventh annual Israeli Apartheid Week, which will this year take place in a record 80 cities worldwide, including cities across South Africa and Palestine. The week highlights the successes of the BDS campaign along with the many injustices that continue to make BDS so crucial in efforts to end Israeli Apartheid.
There are three more events to look out for this week.
Please stay tuned for more divestment news!
Visit our website for more information: www.toronto.saia.ca
Israel Flaunts Int’l Law, Attacks Civilian Aid Flotilla
Ghadeer Malek – BASICS Issue #20 (July/Aug 2010)
The Israeli attack on the Freedom Flotilla that sailed to break the illegal siege on Gaza was not discrete nor was it intended to be. Israel, with the help of its complicit supporters of which Canada tops the list, has been trying to massage the media to make itself appear like the victim. However, the violence enacted aboard the ships of the flotilla was a clear attack on international activists and civil society actors in Israel’s attempt to deter any future attempts at solidarity with Gaza. And to that end, they stopped at nothing.
Fully armed IDF soldiers boarded the flotilla ships at 4:00am on May 30. They killed 19 humanitarian activists, injured 50 and held another hostage 600+ unarmed civilians on international waters. It was clear that Israel not only behaved with complete disregard to international laws, but it is also asserting itself as an exception to any human rights code of conduct. Israel’s meting out of collective punishment that night extended far out into international waters with the threat clearly not being Hamas but anyone willing to speak out on Israel’s violence.
6th INTERNATIONAL ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK: Solidarity in Action: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
March 1-7, 2010 - Toronto, and across the world
The 6th annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will take place in Toronto from March 1st to March 7th 2010. IAW will feature lectures, film screenings, cultural activities, and demonstrations aimed at raising awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies toward Palestinians and to gather support for the international boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. Speakers will be joining Apartheid Week from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, including Palestinian academic and journalist Rabab Abdulhadi, South African writer and community leader Na’eem Jeenah and representatives from First Nations communities in Canada and the United States. Concurrent events will be held in dozens of cities throughout Canada and internationally, including United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and Palestine.
For further information visit www.apartheidweek.org
by Lama El Choufani and Salma Al Atassi
BASICS #17 Student Edition (Jan/Feb 2010)
Following Israel’s brutal assault on the Gaza strip in December 2008 and January 2009, public criticism of Israel has risen globally, but the forces working to censor criticism continue to rebrand and reframe.
In a speech made to a Toronto audience in March of 2009, Conservative MP and minister of citizenship and immigration Jason Kenney warned against the “rise of a new form of anti-Semitism cloaked in debates about Israel’s actions in the Middle East.” And so, the concept of ‘anti-Semitism’ has undergone a reinvention to include any criticism of Israel’s extreme and excessive policies towards Palestinians.
The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition Combating Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), created in March of 2009 is one of the latest developments. The non-official, multi-party association of 22 MPs has the stated purpose of “confronting and combating anti-Semitism in Canada today,” but among its targets are the Canadian universities where pro-Palestinian activity has been gaining ground and attracting more supporters.
by Louisa Worrell
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)
This year’s international Israeli Apartheid Week was the largest ever – being held in over 40 cities all across the world – and its level of success was matched with an unprecedented level of repression from university administrations, the Canadian government and Zionist pro-Israel groups on and off campuses. Despite the sometimes-violent nature of this repression, the movement to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel is growing each year and is showing no signs of letting up until apartheid in Israel falls.
Israeli Apartheid Week is a weeklong series of events that spread information and analysis about the nature of Israel as an Apartheid State. The word Apartheid was the name of the government created in South Africa from 1948-1994 that separated the population by Black (majority of population), White, and Coloured. The laws made it legal to treat the “Coloured” population like second-class citizens, and the “Black” (native South African) population like third class citizens, refugees in their own country. This status meant little or no education, no voting rights, poor healthcare, checkpoints and police terror for Africans.
Israel is now recognised around the world by more and more people as imposing a similar apartheid system on Palestinians. This is why Israeli Apartheid week exists: to spread information about this system and promote the boycott of Israeli products. In Canada, one of the main boycotts going on right now is that of major book retailer Chapters Indigo, for its financial support of Israeli soldiers.
The forms of university campus repression this year included the outright banning of the Israeli Apartheid Week poster in two of Ottawa’s universities (Carlton U and U of Ottawa), as well as banning of the group Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) group at York University. SAIA York was also fined $1000 for holding a rally at York U and the SAIA chapter at U of T suffered physical and verbal harassment from Zionist groups and individuals.
As for repression coming down from the Federal level, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Party Leader Michael Ignatieff have both denounced the event, and Jason Kenney has pulled funding from the immigration settlement programs administered by the Canadian Arab Federation on the basis of its Palestinian advocacy.
Israeli Apartheid Week is against all forms of discrimination, including Islamaphobia, racism, and anti-Semitism. Despite the repression, the organisers stand strong against the racist Israeli state and takes a similar stand against the Canadian state for its racist genocidal policies towards indigenous peoples to this very day.
End Israeli Apartheid!
Boycott Chapters-Indigo!
Let the Palestinian Refugees Return Home!
If you are interested in getting involved in Israeli Apartheid Week 2010, you can contact [email protected] and check out the movement’s main website: www.apartheidweek.org
by N. Zahra
Basics Issue #13 (Apr/May 2009)
The American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has released a report predicting the fall of apartheid Israel within the next 20 years. The report points to the unexpected and quick fall of Apartheid South Africa after harsh and organized resistance by people all over the world. Similarly, there is growing support for a one-state solution as the only viable democratic solution in the region. According to an Al-Jazeera report, even American public opinion is rapidly shifting toward such a solution. After Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, public opinion continues to move away from supporting the continuation of Apartheid Israel or even the creation of two separate states. A one-state solution would allow for the return of Palestinian refugees who were driven from their homes in the 1948 catastrophe, as well as a return for 1967 refugees. According to the report, the return of the refugees and an end to apartheid-rule are preconditions for a sustainable peace in the region. The study also predicts that a one-state solution would lead to an exodus of millions of Israelis who hold passports in the U.S., the E.U., and Russia.
While the CIA report cites shifting moral opinion as the cause for the likely end to the apartheid regime, it is important to recognize that is has been the ongoing resistance of Palestinians and their supporters that the anti-apartheid movement is gaining ground. Furthermore, it is important to recognize the need for a sustained and continued resistance against other repressive regimes in the region that are supported by imperialism, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. While the end of Israeli-apartheid would be an incredible triumph of the Palestinian liberation movement, only the end to all forms foreign domination and occupation in the Middle East can open up the possibilities for genuine national liberation.
