I’ve been a professor at the University of Toronto for 37 years and I’ve never seen antisemitism as vicious and widespread on campus as it has become within the past few months. Yet, I’m not surprised. This is because I have seen this cancer slowly metastasizing for the past 25 years among the faculty, not only at my university but across North America and Western Europe.
For the past month, there has been an encampment of “pro-Palestinian” protesters occupying King’s College Circle, the main quad of the U of T campus. Some foolishly romanticize such encampments as the rebirth of 1960s antiwar and civil rights protests in favour of peace and love. Don’t be deceived. The encampments are led by pro-Hamas advocates who are seeking to justify Islamist terrorism by normalizing antisemitism. They do so by cleverly using a propaganda technique known as “inversion,” trying to hide their own genocidal ambitions by ascribing them to their victims. So, after the murder, rape and torture of Israelis on October 7, the advocates for Hamas immediately turned an act of incipient genocide on its head by claiming that it is the Israelis who are “genocidal.” And, for the most part, the faculty has gone along with it. In fact, many departments on my campus have issued wholehearted statements of support for the encampment. Our own professional faculty association has come out as an enthusiastic cheerleader for this mob of agitators, most of whom are not even students.
How do I know this? I went to see the encampment for myself. Yet, even on my way to King’s College Circle, I was given a taste of what to expect. I witnessed a group of toddlers from a local daycare centre being marched toward the encampment, presumably on a “field trip.” I later discovered a video of these same children being coached to raise their fists, while shouting “Free Palestine!” in a show of support in front of the encampment. Perhaps I should have been shocked to see three-year-old children being used as pawns to advance a political ideology. But if Hamas can cynically use children as human shields, why should I be surprised if its followers spread this practice to North America by manipulating children for crass political purposes.
Nevertheless, with my kippah perched proudly on my head, I tried to enter the encampment to speak with those inside. For my efforts, I was not only barred from entering but I was also cursed, sworn at, abused, and told I should go back to where I came from. This all happened in plain sight of the campus police, who merely stood back and refused to get involved when I asked for their assistance. And I was one of the lucky ones. I later heard there were other Jews who had been punched and kicked for trying to walk freely through that campus quad.
Special to National Post
Kenneth Green is a professor in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto.