This story has received considerable
attention in the Chronicle
of Higher Education (but very little
in other media). If you are an
on-line subscriber, you can access
several stories at:
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i24/24a03501.htm
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i29/29b01701.htm
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i07/07a05202.htm
A news story and a student's report
from Concordia University.
Montreal protesters force cancellation
of Netanyahu campus speech
MONTREAL (CBC News) -- Former Israeli
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu
cancelled a speech at Concordia University
in Montreal on Monday, Sept.
9, after several hundred demonstrators
managed to get into a university
building.
The demonstrators, who called Netanyahu
anti-Palestinian and a
terrorist, threw chairs and newspaper
boxes at police, who were trying
to evacuate the building where Netanyahu
was supposed to speak.
Netanyahu was not present.
There was a long standoff between
the pro-Palestinian demonstrators and
the students who had come to hear
Netanyahu speak.
The demonstrators were pleased they
had stopped him talking. "There's no
free speech for hate speech,"
said Palestinian activist David
Battistuzzi.
Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister
from 1996 to 1999 as leader of the
Likud Party. Earlier this year, Likud
members voted against the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
Netanyahu was the driving force
behind the motion.
The following is from a student
at the university. The student's name is not
given here but the following was used elsewhere with permission
This morning my friends and I set
out to Concordia University, in the
heart of downtown Montreal, to hear
Benjamin Netanyahu speak. Many
articles were featured in the Montreal
papers leading up to today's
speech, warning of protest action. I had a good idea of what we would
face as we approached Concordia, but
I could never have predicted what
actually happened once we were there.
To enter the building we had to make
a giant circle around it, to get
to the supposedly "safe"
entrance. We had to walk right through a
volatile protest of hundreds of Palestinians
and their supporters in
keffiyehs, with flags, screaming vitriolic
hate. Once having run this
gauntlet, we waited patiently outside
the Bishop street entrance, held
back at the gate by security and police.
After about an hour they started admitting
us inside, but it was too
late because a huge group of Palestinian
'demonstrators' had appeared in
our midst. I was fortunately
right at the entrance, and as dozens of
violent protesters pushed their way
to the front, I tried to get
through. Right next to me appeared
the ringleader, who tried to push
his way in. The cop in front
of me ..... while
pulling me through the gate at the
same time.
I rested against the wall and watched
as at least a hundred (I think)
red-and-green coloured protesters
attacked the barriers and tried to get
in. Riot cops appeared, dozens
of them, and went to the gate as I and a
few others were herded into the building. There was yelling and
chanting, drumming and fighting going
on outside the doors, with
hundreds of our people stuck behind
the gate being abused by hundreds of
violent demonstrators.
A few of us were waiting after the
metal detectors for our friends to
come through, when all of a sudden
we heard loud chanting and yelling
INSIDE the building. The riot
cops came storming in and up the stairs
beside us, and we began hearing fighting,
crashing, yelling, punching.
Chaos broke out and riot cops made
us run for the door to the
auditorium. I thought we were going
to get killed, I swear. It was the
scariest feeling, because I knew that
these people wanted to hurt me and
anyone who supports Israel or is Jewish.
Once inside the auditorium, we were
told to be patient as more people
would drift in from the insanity outside. We waited inside for three
hours, as the commotion outside grew
increasingly loud. We could hear
chanting and yelling, and the protesters
began trashing the university
building. The police tear gassed
and pepper sprayed the entire building
and outside, and we began to feel
the effects if we stood too near the
doors.
After hoursof waiting, and bomb searches
by RCMP sniffer dogs, we were
informed that Bibi Netanyahu could
not speak after all - too much danger
to him and to us.
This was an incredible disappointment
and we were naturally upset. We,
however, managed to maintain a kind
of composure and instead of
fighting, the 650 of us inside began
to sing Hatikvah, the national
anthem of the State of Israel. We
sang peace chants and then just
waited to be let out, in groups of
10, escorted by police.
The scene as we exited was disgusting. Benches were overturned, papers
and garbage streaked across the hallways,
and broken windows. We were
shoved outside directly into a HUGE
Palestinian riot, where some of our
people were apparently attacked. The
cops did nothing. We stood on one
side of the barrier, while they stood
on the other, and we faced off.
On our side, we sang and danced and
celebrated being free and Jewish.
On their side, they threw bottles
at people's heads, screamed hatred,
and tried to break the barriers down
to hurt us. They started tossing
pennies and coins at us -- one of
the oldest ways to taunt Jews by
saying we're all "money-grubbing."
While we sang Hatikvah arm in arm,
they spat at us. Finally we
decided to disperse and leave them to their
hatred.
Today was a sick and sorrowful day
not only for the Jewish students and
community of Montreal, but for Jews
everywhere, the city of Montreal and
Canada.
Today a man was gagged and not allowed
to express an opinion; today
hundreds of people were denied the
opportunity to listen to him speak.
Today a riot broke forth on our peaceful
streets, and today no police
managed to restrain hate.
Today Montreal Jews were made to feel
afraid for our lives, and today
Jewish students were threatened in
our own home. If we cannot express
ourselves here in Canada, champion
of free speech and human rights,
where on earth can we do so? If
we cannot feel safe in our own cities
where we have grown up and thrived,
where are we to go?
I can answer my own question with
what many of us already know - Israel
is our place. She is our homeland,
and opens her arms to us, willing to
protect us at all costs. The
Jewish people need Israel, and she needs
us.
Even so, we must voice our distaste
at the violence which occurred in
Montreal today. We must all
take our own individual stands against this
fascism, by which freedom of speech
was denied. What happened today in
my city cannot be condoned or allowed
to repeat itself. We must act.
So I am sending you all this long
letter, with my own personal feelings
and an eyewitness account. We
have a chance to fix these wrongs, but
only if we take action and don't sit
back as passive observers. We say
NEVER AGAIN, but unless we protest
these attacks on our freedoms, it is
fruitless to put up that chant.
Last, but certainly not least, a personal
lament on our situation:
Today I saw raw hatred, and it cut
me to the core. I have never feared
for my life as I did today. I
have never feared for our free society
the way I do today. I wish beyond
anything that we can one day fix the
agonizing rifts between our peoples,
and erase the hate from our and
their hearts alike.
It is most important for you to know
what really happened here today,
and it is vital that you see this
side of the story.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Another story
The War on Campus
by Daniel Pipes
New York Post
September 17, 2002
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/465
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/57135.htm
Last week, two prominent Middle Easterners
traveled to two North
American campuses to deliver speeches
mainly about the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Both met protests. One succeeded
in giving the speech; the other did
not. Therein hangs a tale.
On Monday, former Israeli prime minister
Benjamin Netanyahu went to
Concordia University in Montreal
to explain why "there is no alternative
to winning this war [on
terrorism] without delay." But
he never
spoke at Concordia - indeed, he never
made it onto the campus - because
a thousand anti-Israel
demonstrators staged a mini-riot with
the intent of preventing him from
speaking; "Benjamin Netanyahu
is coming to Montreal. Let's make
it clear he's not welcome," read their
signs.
The anti-Israel forces physically
assaulted the would-be audience. A
female professor of religion at
Concordia recounted how some of them
"aimed their punches at my
breasts."
They smashed a plate-glass window
and threw objects at the police
inside. They hurled furniture at police
from a mezzanine. As Toronto's Globe
& Mail put it, "By lunchtime, the
vestibule of Concordia's main
downtown building was littered with
paper, upturned chairs, broken
furniture and the choking
aftereffects of pepper spray."
The police, saying they couldn't assure
Netanyahu's safety, canceled the
event. To which Wassim
Moukahhal, an Arab leader at nearby
McGill University, crowed: "The man
is a war criminal. We don't want
our city and our universities to be
the harbor of such a war criminal."
Nor was this the first time Netanyahu
has been prevented from speaking
on campus. In November 2000,
"hundreds of raucous protesters"
managed to cancel his appearance at the
University of
California/Berkeley.
On Thursday, Hanan Ashrawi, the former
spokeswoman and colleague of
Yasser Arafat, went to Colorado
College in Colorado Springs to give
a keynote speech at a symposium on
"September 11: One Year Later."
Protestors noted that Ashrawi is smack
on the side of America's enemies
in the War on Terrorism. For
example, while the U.S. government
formally designates Hamas a terrorist
group, Ashrawi states she
doesn't "think of Hamas as a
terrorist group." Also, she considers
Israeli civilians living on the West
Bank
to be "legitimate . . . targets
of Palestinian resistance" - that is,
legitimate targets for deadly violence.
The many objections to Ashrawi's being
honored at Colorado College
centered on her obnoxious presence
at
an event dealing with the aftermath
of Sept. 11. Colorado Gov. Bill
Owens spoke for many when he said,
"It's
outrageous to be bringing this woman,
who has done so much to divide the
Middle East and has applauded
terrorism." Both of the state's
U.S. senators objected. Rudolph Giuliani
added: "I wouldn't have invited
her.
Cancel it."
But she did speak, without any interference.
The protests were
completely non-violent, including
nothing
more than scattered boos, hand-held
signs and a rebuttal after the
speech (given by this writer).
These two parallel yet contrasting
episodes point to several
conclusions:
* Both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict
are seeking to shift the terms
of the debate. The pro-Israel side
wants to delegitimize speakers who
effectively call for the destruction
of the Jewish state. The anti-Israel
side wants to block speakers sympathetic
to Israel.
* Both incidents point to profound
problems in the university, and why
Abigail Thernstrom calls it "an
island of repression in a sea of freedom."
In Colorado, the
administration made the morally idiotic
choice of
honoring an apologist for terrorism.
At Concordia, a weak-kneed response
let thugs inhibit free speech.
* The incidents also point to the
differing faces of pro- and
anti-Israel activism, with the former
acceptably political and the latter
crudely violent. The first resembles
the restrained actions of the Israeli
armed forces. The second represents
a North American face of the suicide
bombings.
Or, in the most elemental terms, we
see here the contrast between the
civilized nature of Israel and its
friends versus the raw barbarism of
Israel's enemies.
It promises to be a hot political
year on campus. How things turn out
will depend on which form of activism
prevails - the holding of pink sheets
of paper with "I disagree" written
on them, or the throwing of chairs
from balconies.
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from
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Daniel Pipes sends out a mailing of
his writings approximately twice per
week.
To comment on the article, please
go to
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/465#comment
Most articles are also available online
at: http://www.DanielPipes.org
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invitations, lecture summaries, and
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Forum, please
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