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{mosimage} I have been informed that after erecting an educational display, a University of Western Ontario-ratified student club, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), has been denied the right to use public space within the main University building. According to the information provided to me by SPHR, this sanction took place despite the fact that SPHR went through the necessary approval process for erecting the display...
I have been informed that after erecting an educational display, a University of Western Ontario-ratified student club, Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), has been denied the right to use public space within the main University building. According to the information provided to me by SPHR, this sanction took place despite the fact that SPHR went through the necessary approval process for erecting the display, which was a mock “Apartheid Wall” depicting the “Separation Wall” that cuts deeply through the West Bank in violation of the ruling of the International Court of Justice. (The only dissenting Justice, US Justice Buergenthal, agreed that any part of the wall that is built to protect settlements is “ipso facto illegal.” That means over 80 percent of the wall.) While I am not in a position to verify the information provided to me by SPHR, or other possibly relevant circumstances, I would like to join those who are concerned with the situation, which appears to be the silencing of a club that supports the human rights of the Palestinian people and protests actions that are in violation of international law.
These reports from the University of Western Ontario are particularly worrying in light of the ongoing, utterly fraudulent, campaigns in the US by organizations that describe themselves as "supporters of Israel" to silence academics and students who support the human rights of the Palestinian people. These campaigns have had a serious effect, especially in state legislatures, but even at major universities such as Columbia. One hopes that Canada will not follow this path.
Noam Chomsky
June 27, 2006 |
