Dr. Sean Egan, Associate Professor, Molecular Genetics
Dr. Sergio Grinstein, Professor, Biochemistry
Dr. Daniela Rotin, Professor, Biochemistry
Dr. Eldad Zacksenhaus, Associate Professor, Medical Biophysics

The University of Toronto is a world-renowned, world-class institution, generously funded by the taxpayers. It is the place where insulin was discovered. It is also the birthplace of “Israeli Apartheid Week” (IAW), an annual, week-long, anti-Israel symposium with associated anti-Semitic activities that in four years has spread to campuses throughout Canada, as well as in the United States, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The stated aim of IAW is “to push forward the analysis of Israel as an apartheid state and to bolster support for a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign”. The IAW includes presentations by individuals that are on record either calling for the destruction of Israel, supporting terrorism against Israel, denying the Holocaust, and/or expressing anti-Semitic views. This event has also been used as a platform to spread anti-Semitism outside of the university system. In 2007, the IAW at the U of T included a “Day of Action” to initiate a boycott of a book retailer owned and operated by prominent Jewish philanthropists with ties to Israel.

A UN resolution designates “apartheid” as a crime against humanity. Therefore, to label Israel as an “apartheid state” is to convict supporters of Israel at the university and elsewhere as accessories to a reprehensible international crime. IAW creates an atmosphere on campus that is hostile to Jewish students and to students and faculty that have affinity for the Jewish people or Israel. But this is more than an issue of unpleasantness on campus. The IAW comes at a time when Israel is being threatened with nuclear annihilation by Iran, when Israel is under constant attack from terrorists targeting civilians, and when anti-Semitic attacks world-wide have reached levels not seen since the Second World War.

A Jewish student organization on campus, Betar-Tagar@UofT, filed formal grievances with the University administration in response to this event. Faculty members have also asked the administration to shut it down. Indeed, last year, 70 non-Jewish and Jewish Professors from across diverse faculties signed a letter respectfully requesting that it be stopped. In addition to student and faculty groups, B’nai Brith Canada, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and Hillel have all expressed concerns over the hosting of IAW by the U of T.

The University administration has acknowledged that members of the University community have raised concerns about these events and have reported feeling deeply offended and hurt as a result. Despite this, the U of T administration allowed the IAW to take place once again this February, stating their position that freedom of speech must be protected. However, the application of this critical university policy would appear to be somewhat biased. The University would rightly prevent any student group from organizing an overtly racist or sexist symposium, but the IAW, which incites hatred of Jews, is tolerated. The administration notes that its Student Code of Conduct does not apply to IAW since the activities could not be described as “vexatious conduct directed at one or more specific individuals”. Surely, vexatious conduct against visible minorities or against women would be considered unacceptable, even if not directed against a specific individual.

While the administration insists that it does not endorse IAW, by allowing it to take place on campus, the University of Toronto legitimizes its message and goals. The University has stated that it will not tolerate homophobia, racism, and Islamophobia on campus. Why then does it host Israeli Apartheid Week?

Last Saturday, 125 faculty members at U of T published the following message in the National Post “We, the undersigned faculty members of the University of Toronto, oppose the hosting of the Israeli Apartheid Week at our Institution, and request that the administration stop this hateful and divisive event from returning to our University in future years.”

We hope Canadians rally behind us and call upon the administration to stop this anti-Semitic event.