"For civility to mean anything it must apply in all universities, including those in Palestine and Israel, as well as our own privileged academic enclaves."
Of course they edited this key sentence out of my letter, but I suppose this shouldn´t surprise me: normally The Star doesn´t even publish my online comments, let alone letters to the editor in print. Unfortunately, by removing that line (which obviously hit just a little too close to the bone) they subtly divert the emphasis away from my criticism of the empty rhetoric of "civility" and "security" on Canadian campuses, to my indignation over general slandering of protestors. Bastards.
The full text of my letter to the editor:
The protests sweeping global campuses are a response to Israel's recent invasion of Gaza and its ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories. It's not about "student security and campus civility." What space can there be for Palestinian civility when their universities are closed or cut off by checkpoints, settlements or the creeping wall enclosing their land; when they are destroyed by Israeli missiles, their students killed and their civil and human rights daily curtailed?
For civility to mean anything it must apply in all universities, including those in Palestine and Israel, as well as our own privileged academic enclaves. Diverting the issue from the Israeli occupation, and urging professors to teach their students that the real issue is security and civility on campuses, makes a mockery of your idea of engagement. Obviously, violence has no place on campuses, which is why the great majority of activists opt for non-violent forms of protest. Lumping thousands of conscientious activists together with a few racists and hotheads by only mentioning "radical student hooligans" is unfair. If it's true that day after day we read about aggressive student protesters, maybe it is because they are angry; they certainly have every right to be.
Palestinians do not need to "try equating Israel with the now-defunct racist South African apartheid regime." Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter and other prominent activists have already let us know that life under Israeli apartheid is much worse.
Owen Rafferty, Toronto
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