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MONTREAL — The McGill University student union was obliged to shelve a proposed anti-Israel resolution after a motion brought by opponents was carried at a general assembly last week.
SSMU president Kay Turner
By a vote of 436-263, undergraduates agreed that the resolution should be “postponed indefinitely” because the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU) is not the appropriate forum for debate over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. SSMU president Kay Turner told The CJN that the decision means the resolution is “effectively killed,” but does not prevent a similar resolution being put forward for consideration at a future SSMU general assembly.
Activists with the Hillel Jewish student association, which had mobilized many of the opponents, were behind the motion to shelve. “This is a very symbolic victory,” said Dan Hadad, Hillel director of advocacy, “It sends a message that the SSMU is not the forum for discussing Middle East issues. The right place is on campus, between students and clubs… “It also sends a message that we will not stand for injustice. It’s a victory not only for Jewish students and Israel, but for all of McGill.” The SSMU represents the nearly 20,000 undergraduates attending McGill. More than 700 students attended the assembly, which was closed to the media. This was an extraordinarily high number, and about 50 had to be turned away, Turner said. The SSMU fall general assembly did not attract even the quorum of 150. Hillel had criticized the resolution as a "one-sided" and inaccurate condemnation of Israel, and warned that if it passed would “turn McGill into an environment where hate, fear and division flourish” and result in an “unprecedented polarization that will isolate and marginalize” students and staff. According to the rules, the SSMU was obliged to entertain the opponents’ motion, Turner said, as it was to put the resolution, proposed by the student club Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), on the agenda. Any undergraduate or student club can present a resolution if the signatures of at least 100 undergraduates are attached to it. The resolution called on the SSMU to condemn “the bombing of educational institutions in Gaza, including the Islamic University in Gaza City and the UNRWA-run schools,” and asked McGill principal Heather Munroe-Blum and the Canadian government to do the same. The group also wanted the SSMU to undertake a public campaign to support the right to education of Palestinian students in Gaza. The resolution stated that the educational and other civilian institutions, including hospitals, were deliberately targeted. Hillel said the figures cited by SPHR concerning the number of schools struck and the number of casualties in Gaza and who they were is still in dispute. The resolution was unprecedented at McGill, where debate over Middle Eastern politics has been low-key compared to some other Canadian campuses, and it touched off heated debate in the week before the bi-annual general assembly. The resolution was the subject of much space in the student press and online, through the Facebook social networking site. Hillel had attempted to prevent the resolution from being entertained by the SSMU, arguing that the SSMU constitution states that the body’s council “will not take a position on external political issues that council deems to be extremely divisive among students at McGill University.” The SSMU speaker did not agree with this interpretation, Turner said. SPHR spokesperson Khaled Kteily said before the assembly that the intention was to have the student body “recognize that, without the basic human right to education, no real progress will ever be made [in the Palestinian-Israel conflict] and that through the destruction and damage of schools and universities, Israel is infringing upon the Gazan civilians’ basic human rights.” Turner said that in the five years of her association with the SSMU, it has not received any resolution proposal so emotionally charged. “Certainly, the resolution caused a lot of controversy, and it is a divisive issue because there are incredibly strong views on both sides. But even though passions were high, the debate was substantive and as civilized as one could expected when the issue is so personal to so many people.” Another indication that Middle East politics are becoming more contentious at McGill is the public endorsement by 30 its professors and employees of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, including such respected professors as Gregory Baum and Margaret Lock. Their names appeared among the more than 80 staff of Quebec universities and colleges signing a manifesto published in Le Devoir last month. |
