Universities must take stand against hate-filled radicals

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Canadian universities and police departments cannot sit idly by as students and foreign anti-Israel agitators take over our institutes of higher learning, erecting makeshift tent cities and barricading themselves behind fences designed to keep “Zionists” and law enforcement out.

The protest movement — which seeks to force universities to divest from any organization that does business with Israel or Israeli companies and cuts ties with Israeli academics — started at Columbia University in New York last month and took root at Montreal’s McGill University last weekend.

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Since their hostile takeover of the campus on April 27, the McGill protesters have worked to fortify their position by bringing in fences adorned with communist insignia and calls for an intefadeh, as police ignore calls from the university’s president and Quebec’s premier to dismantle the camp.

An anti-Israel mob then began occupying a sports field on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus on Monday, demanding that the school not only boycott Israel, but that it respect “the right to resist from Turtle Island to Palestine” — a clear incitement to violence right here in Canada.

The UBChttps://twitter.com/AaronPyvr/status/1785008768830341220,” formerly known as MacInnes Field, is adorned with signs reading, “Zionists F–k Off,” and https://twitter.com/michaelasachs/status/1785074589716095381 on social media indicate that anyone looking to enter camp will be subjected to an ideological test — Zionists (ie, most Jews) and people hoping for Israelis and Palestinians to live side-by-side in peace are not welcome.

The https://twitter.com/MichelleGhsoub/status/1785026571902050803/photo/1 also forbid participants from talking to police officers, security guards or anyone who disagrees with them. This is not about engaging in a dialogue over foreign affairs or university politics. This is an attempt to strong-arm administrators into ceding to the demands of a group of radicals who openly support terrorism and shun Canadian values.

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Despite the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa’s attempts to get ahead of the situation at the start of the week by warning against similar encampments being set up on their properties, the lack of action at McGill and UBC sent the message that meek school administrators were unlikely to take action.

In the days that followed, encampments started popping up at U of T, uOttawa and the University of Victoria. By the time you read this, it’s likely that more campus lawns will resemble the campsite on the last night of Shambhala — if it was frequented by hate-filled terrorist sympathizers rather than pot-smoking hippies.

And if the experience south of the border is any indication, the protesters will grow increasingly brazen if left unchecked — police had to forcibly clear a group of anti-Israel demonstrators occupying an academic building at Columbia, while other colleges have borne witness to increasing violence and the destruction of property.

Acquiescing to the protesters’ demands is not an option, as what they’re asking for is completely unreasonable. Organizers of the McGill encampment, for example, want the university to stop doing business with three of Canada’s Big Five banks, all of our major supermarket chains and companies ranging from beauty-products manufacturer L’Oréal, to Coca-Cola, to tech firms like Cisco Systems and automakers like Volvo.

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Indeed, any company that either sells goods in Israel or makes Israeli products available for purchase is “supporting genocide,” in the view of these extremists. Any institution that followed these dictates would find itself without a solid investment portfolio, and very limited options for food and beverage suppliers and corporate partners, which are relied upon for donations and workforce-training programs.

The demonstrators also seek to prevent Canadian universities from partnering with Israel’s world-class academic and research institutions, which are already being ostracized by a global academy that’s rife with antisemitism.

According to a recent report from Israel’s Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, co-operation between Israeli and European researchers reached its highest level ever last year, but dropped off sharply after Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

In recent months, Israeli academics have seen funding for joint research ventures dry up, their access to European labs limited and have been disinvited from major conferences. This is a loss not just for Israeli scholars, but for scientific discovery in areas ranging from medicine and biology to physics and computer science — and ultimately, for humanity as a whole.

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We fully support the right of all Canadians to express their views on the Israel-Hamas war — and anything else, for that matter. But the right to free speech does not give people the right to take over private university property, to camp out on land that is not theirs and to create a hostile learning environment for other students.

University administrators must get a handle on the situation by disciplining students who do not abide by their codes of conducts and ensuring that police and campus security remove any trespassers who do not have a valid reason for being on campus, other than to stir up hate and division .

Ultimately, they have a responsibility to use any legal means necessary to ensure they maintain control over their properties. They cannot allow our eleven esteemed institutes of higher learning to descend into mob rule.

Too often in the past, universities have backed down in the face of woke campus radicals. It’s time to stand firm and let them know who’s boss.

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