The Arab Students Collective – representing seven groups including Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and Al-Awda Toronto, the Palestine Right to Return Group – has organized “Israeli Apartheid Week” at the University of Toronto next week, the same week as Hillel’s Israel Fest.

“Hillel students want to focus on positive Israel programming through Israel Fest,” said Shames. In fact, she noted, they have added extra programs to the event as a result.

“These [anti-Israel] things happen all the time, but as a community we have to choose whether we want to concentrate on the negative or the positive, and we hope the community supports us in that stance,” said Johanna Herman, chair of Hillel at the University of Toronto.

Students at Betar-Tagar, the campus wing of Herut-Likud Canada, plan to counter the “Apartheid Week” events by attending the events and portraying Israel in a positive light, said Jonathan Jaffit, president of Betar-Tagar at U of T. “The facts are with us.” The students’ approach will be one of hadar (dignity) and tagar (tenacity), he said.

“We’re saying it’s not about free speech. It’s about hate speech. They’re denigrating one people, the Jewish nation,” said Jaffit. “We’re here on campus to defend Jews from this type of slander.”

The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) issued a news release last week condemning the event. One has to ask why the University of Toronto is hosting an anti-apartheid forum that vilifies a demonstrably non-apartheid state,” Alastair Gordon, vice-president of communications for the group, said in the release.

Israel, the release noted, is “the only country in the Middle East where Arabs, Christians and Jews can vote for their representatives in free and open elections with a real choice of candidates. Arabs are full members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) and sit as judges in the Israeli judiciary, including Abden Rahman Zuabi who is a permanent member of the Israeli Supreme Court… Ironically, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country where women enjoy full and equal rights, the stated mandate of IWSGS.”

And this is why it's an antisemitic action. To vilify Israel when it is the one place in the Middle East where citizens enjoy any secure rights and freedoms, while overlooking the states who routinely trample upon them... is antisemitic. It shows a willingness to criticize Israel—the Jewish state—for invented crimes, while ignoring real misdeeds in the same neighborhood.

And it is petty and mean-spirited how the thought of Jews celebrating their nation's heritage automatically moves these people to malice. I am wondering how long it will take the pro-Palestinian Arab side to get violent, as, regrettably, always seems to happen when anyone presents them with factual, affirmative information about Israel.

originally posted at Clarity & Resolve