“It is
always important to confront injustice wherever it is,” says Charlotte Kates, co-organizer
of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), an event occurring from Mar. 5-9 across Canada.
“In
Palestine, the struggle to end that injustice has become a symbol and a flashpoint
around the world, standing for confrontation of oppression and colonialism,”
Kates continues.
The
conflict over the Israeli and Palestinian territories is one with a complex
history that goes back centuries, in part due to Israel being the “promised
land” for several world religions.
The Israeli
Apartheid Week is a movement that sprung up among university and college
campuses across North America in response to the ongoing Middle East conflict.
It started in 2005 at McGill University in Montreal, and has since gained
momentum within various student bodies. According to Ed Lavalle, a political
science teacher at Capilano University, this issue appeals to students for a
number of reasons.
“The whole
Israeli Apartheid Week phenomenon is about eight years old, and over those
eight years there have been some very strong campus actions, calling on the
board of governors of various universities to withdraw their endowment and
other investments from companies that have cooperated with the state of Israel
or have done something in particular to show that they are opposed to the
rights of the Palestinians,” he summarizes.
He
continues, “Students have gravitated towards the Israeli Apartheid week because
they like the issues and because of the scope of what it does. The scope is
BDS; Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. It’s neatly packaged, and put in a way
that students can access and relate to it.”
Although
the IAW has been gaining momentum since its commencement, there have also been
many critics. A commentary from the McGill Daily student newspaper condemns IAW and the
BDS movement: “Though the IAW’s stated intent is to advocate for Palestinian
human rights, their actions end up serving to demonize and de-legitimize Israel,”
says the article, which was signed “the McGill students for Israel.”
Lavalle says
that the quality of life of Palestinians is very different to their Jewish
counterparts in Israel: “Basically Palestinians are discriminated against,” he
says. “For example, they can’t use certain highways that connect settlements as
they’re banned from using them. Their minimum wage levels are lower than for
Israelis, or the Jewish population. And there is price discrimination. It was
established a couple of years ago that the Palestinians had to pay four times
as much as Israelis do for water.”
Charlotte
Kates says that the main objective of the IAW is to raise awareness about the
issues surrounding the conflict: “IAW is an educational week that raises the
level of awareness about the apartheid nature and policies of Israel against Palestinians,
as well as the Palestinian civil society call for Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions against Israel, and the substance of the Palestinian movement,” she
explains.
Kates
believes that students have many questions about the issues, and what Canada’s
role is in the debate: “What is the occupation of the West Bank? What is the
siege of Gaza? How can people support 7 million Palestinian refugees struggling
to return home? Why are Palestinian citizens of Israel subjected to mass
discrimination? IAW events cover all of these topics and more. Here in Canada
(the birthplace of IAW), it's particularly important to draw attention to both
the official Canada/Israel relationship.”
Canadian
politicians have been vocal about the debate. In 2011, ex-Liberal leader
Michael Ignatieff
stated that
the IAW was “a dangerous cocktail of ignorance and intolerance, and threatens the
mutual respect of Canadian society.”
Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney has publicly criticized the IAW, saying, “In reality,
this week is nothing more than an unbalanced attempt to paint Israel and her
supporters.”
Professor
Lavalle believes that speaking out against Israeli Apartheid is particular to
the current government: “Canadian governments have been careful and followed
the UN line, which says that there should be two states in the region, one for
Israel and one for Palestine,” Lavalle explains. “Our previous governments have
always been very supportive of a diplomatic and negotiated settlement to
produce a two-state solution in which both people could live in peace. The current
government has changed that, and had been much more vocal in support of the
State of Israel and much more blameworthy towards the Palestinians.”
According
to Lavalle, current attitudes toward Israel may be informed in part by
historical events involving the Jewish population: “There is a huge amount of
guilt in the West over two very real things: the historical role of
anti-Semitism in the Western Christian society, and secondly, the facts of the
Holocaust, in which very few states played a positive role in the defense of
the Jewish population against the genocide that was planned and then
substantially executed by the Germans.”
Because of
the polarizing nature of the issue, tension is often high between the opposing groups,
along with sharp criticism that they have for each other.
“There is
opposition to IAW from defenders and promoters of the Israeli apartheid system.
They don't like the discussion of Israel as an apartheid state,” Kates says.
“IAW and
the BDS movement are an impediment to peace,” writes the McGill Daily. “Their fight to delegitimize Israel
precludes discussion, serving only to further divide the two states. IAW efforts
are not progressive and are based on a dangerously distorted reality.”
As Lavalle
says, “There are very few people who are interested in the issue that don’t
have an opinion on it. It’s hard to fall in the middle on this one.”
//Leah Scheitel, writer
//Graphics by Jillian Aquino
//Leah Scheitel, writer
//Graphics by Jillian Aquino
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