Jan. 27: Calling All UofT Graduate Students, Defend Freedom of Speech on Palestine!
Monday / Jan. 27, 2020 / 6pm
5:30pm registration & food / T-cards required for registration
JJR Macleod Auditorium (Rm 2158), Medical Sciences Bldg, 1 King's College Circle, M5S 3K1
Contact: [email protected] | RSVP on facebook!
The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Committee at the UofT Graduate Student Union (UTGSU) is calling on all graduate students to come out on Monday, January 27 to the UTGSU’s Annual Meeting, which was readjourned from last month due to a lack of quorum. At the Jan. 27 Annual Meeting, UofT graduate students will vote on a motion in solidarity with protestors at York U who were physically and verbally assaulted by the hate group, the Jewish Defence League (JDL) on Nov 20. The motion also calls on UofT to take measures to stop the ongoing JDL harassment of students on our campus. With this motion, the UTGSU would join the York University Graduate Students’ Association (Local 84), the York Federation of Students (Local 68) CUPE Local 3902 at UofT, and many others in pushing back against racism, harassment and alt-right violence on our campuses. The use of intimidation and violence to shut down campus debate on Palestine is a serious threat to democracy, and an assault on the most basic principles of equity and freedom of speech. Regardless of your view on Israel-Palestine, the issue here is the right of all to freedom of speech and equity for students and campus communities. Join us on Jan. 27! Casting your vote in support of our motion is an easy, simple way to provide crucial support for freedom of speech and the struggle for justice for Palestine!
The UTGSU Annual Meeting will take place at JJR Macleod Auditorium (Room 2158) in the Medical Sciences Building, 1 King's College Cir, Toronto, ON M5S 3K1. Registration begins at 5:30pm and the meeting is at 6pm. All full-time and part-time graduate students at UofT across all campuses have a right to vote at the meeting. Bring your T-Card! Please note only graduate students are allowed to attend this meeting.
On November 20th, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University organized a peaceful protest against an event by Herut Canada featuring Reservists on Duty, an organization of Israeli military veterans. The peaceful protestors were physically and verbally assaulted by members of the JDL, who were acting as ‘security’ for the Herut Canada event. Since then, York U has launched an inquiry into the JDL violence on November 20, while SAIA York has justly called on their administration to ban the JDL from their university. We also urge our University administration to ban the JDL from the University of Toronto, where it has a long history of intimidating and harassing students and members of the University community working in solidarity with Palestine. Of course, the harassment and aggression the Palestine solidarity movement and its supporters deal with in Canada is but a small microcosm of the daily violence and systemic human rights violations that Palestinians face under Israeli apartheid. It is designed to silence all criticism of the Israeli state so it can colonize Palestine and eliminate the native population with impunity.
For more context:
Like all Palestine solidarity organizations, the UTGSU BDS Committee has faced ongoing attack and intimidation since our launch event was disrupted in 2014 by the hate group, the Jewish Defense League (JDL). As the Southern Poverty Law Center documents, the JDL “has orchestrated countless terrorist attacks in the U.S. and abroad, and has engaged in intense harassment of foreign diplomats, Muslims, Jewish scholars and community leaders, and officials.” Since our launch event, the JDL and its allies like Herut Canada have disrupted our events, harassed our organizers and supporters, and publicly slandered us with the usual baseless accusations of antisemitism and terrorism. Herut Canada is the Canadian branch of an Israeli political party. As noted by a recent SAIA statement, “In 1948, shortly after Herut’s founding, Herut was denounced by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arrendt and dozens of Jewish intellectuals as ‘a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.’” Since it’s founding, the Herut movement has aggressively supported the illegal Israeli settlement of Palestinian land and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which are war crimes under international law. To continue our work, we implemented safety protocols, marshalling procedures, and equity guidelines, we were able to continue our work and eventually the JDL ceased its attacks for a period. The JDL, with its ally Herut Canada, reemerged this September on campus to harass us and disrupt our activities.
Soon after, at York University on Nov. 20, JDL members were recorded spitting at, punching, verbally assaulting, shoving and choking peaceful protestors who assembled to oppose an event featuring Israeli soldiers organized by Herut Canada. JDL members, acting as ‘security’ for the November 20 event, urinated on a flagpole, threw garbage at protestors, threatened sexual assault and stabbing, and tried to rip off Muslim head scarves. The York U Graduate Students’ Association and York Federation of Students state that, “There is overwhelming evidence of aggression and violence by the Jewish Defense League members inflicted that evening. [...] It is deeply concerning that York’s senior administrators allowed this event to take place, and failed to take the appropriate steps to maintain the safety of all students present at the event.”
We need your vote on January 27th to ban the JDL from campus, stand against racist violence and to express our solidarity with York University!
Monday / Jan. 27, 2020 / 6pm
5:30pm registration & food / T-cards required for registration
JJR Macleod Auditorium (Rm 2158), Medical Sciences Bldg, 1 King's College Circle, M5S 3K1
Contact: [email protected] | RSVP on facebook!
The Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) Committee at the UofT Graduate Student Union (UTGSU) is calling on all graduate students to come out on Monday, January 27 to the UTGSU’s Annual Meeting, which was readjourned from last month due to a lack of quorum. At the Jan. 27 Annual Meeting, UofT graduate students will vote on a motion in solidarity with protestors at York U who were physically and verbally assaulted by the hate group, the Jewish Defence League (JDL) on Nov 20. The motion also calls on UofT to take measures to stop the ongoing JDL harassment of students on our campus. With this motion, the UTGSU would join the York University Graduate Students’ Association (Local 84), the York Federation of Students (Local 68) CUPE Local 3902 at UofT, and many others in pushing back against racism, harassment and alt-right violence on our campuses. The use of intimidation and violence to shut down campus debate on Palestine is a serious threat to democracy, and an assault on the most basic principles of equity and freedom of speech. Regardless of your view on Israel-Palestine, the issue here is the right of all to freedom of speech and equity for students and campus communities. Join us on Jan. 27! Casting your vote in support of our motion is an easy, simple way to provide crucial support for freedom of speech and the struggle for justice for Palestine!
The UTGSU Annual Meeting will take place at JJR Macleod Auditorium (Room 2158) in the Medical Sciences Building, 1 King's College Cir, Toronto, ON M5S 3K1. Registration begins at 5:30pm and the meeting is at 6pm. All full-time and part-time graduate students at UofT across all campuses have a right to vote at the meeting. Bring your T-Card! Please note only graduate students are allowed to attend this meeting.
On November 20th, Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University organized a peaceful protest against an event by Herut Canada featuring Reservists on Duty, an organization of Israeli military veterans. The peaceful protestors were physically and verbally assaulted by members of the JDL, who were acting as ‘security’ for the Herut Canada event. Since then, York U has launched an inquiry into the JDL violence on November 20, while SAIA York has justly called on their administration to ban the JDL from their university. We also urge our University administration to ban the JDL from the University of Toronto, where it has a long history of intimidating and harassing students and members of the University community working in solidarity with Palestine. Of course, the harassment and aggression the Palestine solidarity movement and its supporters deal with in Canada is but a small microcosm of the daily violence and systemic human rights violations that Palestinians face under Israeli apartheid. It is designed to silence all criticism of the Israeli state so it can colonize Palestine and eliminate the native population with impunity.
For more context:
Like all Palestine solidarity organizations, the UTGSU BDS Committee has faced ongoing attack and intimidation since our launch event was disrupted in 2014 by the hate group, the Jewish Defense League (JDL). As the Southern Poverty Law Center documents, the JDL “has orchestrated countless terrorist attacks in the U.S. and abroad, and has engaged in intense harassment of foreign diplomats, Muslims, Jewish scholars and community leaders, and officials.” Since our launch event, the JDL and its allies like Herut Canada have disrupted our events, harassed our organizers and supporters, and publicly slandered us with the usual baseless accusations of antisemitism and terrorism. Herut Canada is the Canadian branch of an Israeli political party. As noted by a recent SAIA statement, “In 1948, shortly after Herut’s founding, Herut was denounced by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arrendt and dozens of Jewish intellectuals as ‘a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.’” Since it’s founding, the Herut movement has aggressively supported the illegal Israeli settlement of Palestinian land and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, which are war crimes under international law. To continue our work, we implemented safety protocols, marshalling procedures, and equity guidelines, we were able to continue our work and eventually the JDL ceased its attacks for a period. The JDL, with its ally Herut Canada, reemerged this September on campus to harass us and disrupt our activities.
Soon after, at York University on Nov. 20, JDL members were recorded spitting at, punching, verbally assaulting, shoving and choking peaceful protestors who assembled to oppose an event featuring Israeli soldiers organized by Herut Canada. JDL members, acting as ‘security’ for the November 20 event, urinated on a flagpole, threw garbage at protestors, threatened sexual assault and stabbing, and tried to rip off Muslim head scarves. The York U Graduate Students’ Association and York Federation of Students state that, “There is overwhelming evidence of aggression and violence by the Jewish Defense League members inflicted that evening. [...] It is deeply concerning that York’s senior administrators allowed this event to take place, and failed to take the appropriate steps to maintain the safety of all students present at the event.”
We need your vote on January 27th to ban the JDL from campus, stand against racist violence and to express our solidarity with York University!