The 2016 elections for student government are underway at York University. A surprising issue has risen to the forefront of the political discourse – Israel. You might be asking yourself why this is surprising – after all, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a notorious flashpoint at York University.
The reason that it is surprising is that all things Israeli are already verboten on campus – why should the preeminent issue of the campaign be one that has already been so decisively settled? In 2013, the York Federation of Students endorsed a full boycott of Israel – financial, cultural, and academic. At the time, JSpace co-ordinator Karen Mock called the boycott of Israeli professors “the antithesis of academic freedom”. Short of outright barring Israeli nationals from campus, pro-Palestinian advocates have succeeded in every one of their initiatives. Furthermore, the competing candidates this year seem to be in relative agreement when it comes to the subject of weapons-divestment.
Nevertheless, a vicious and mostly anonymous campaign has been waged on social media against “YuLift” – a new electoral slate that aims to challenge the decade-long dominance of “Student Action” – the incumbent and fervently anti-Israel party. Individual members of the YuLift slate have been accused of a lack of solidarity with Palestinians and of being secret Zionists. Wild anti-Semitic conspiracies have warned that the “fucking Jews” will vote en-masse for YuLift and decide the election. Non-student anti-Israel activists and infamous anti-Semites have been prominently campaigning for Student Action on campus over the last week.
Why has YuLift been subjected to such a torrent of anti-Semitic and xenophobic abuse? The slate has not been endorsed by any Israeli or Jewish student organizations. It is has not proposed any Zionist or particularly pro-Israel policies. The simple reason is that anti-Semitism is a known vote-getter at York University. Portraying oneself as a bulwark against a vast Jewish conspiracy is an irresistible narrative. And when that vast Jewish conspiracy doesn’t exist, it is politically fortuitous to invent one.
This past November, a Jewish student submitted a motion to implement online voting in future elections for student government. Activists from “Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA) York” and OPIRG York labelled this student a “pro-Israel racist”. The justification provided for these serious accusations was that the student in question was an executive on Glendon Campus’ Hillel. Moreover, non-Jewish students who voiced support for the electronic voting motion were defamed as “racists” and “murderous extremists” by association and were accused of “collaborating” with the Jewish student in other pro-Israel activities. SAIA York and OPIRG York mobilized their considerable membership to successfully quash the “racist” and “Zionist” e-voting motion.
Just last week, a new student newspaper called “The Outcry” was inaugurated at York University. The newspaper is written by the “Revolutionary Student Movement” and headquartered in the OPIRG office in the Student Centre. The publication’s first-ever issue repeated the mendacious libel that “Israel lobby groups” were involved in pursuing the e-voting motion.
What does it say about a university when all that is required to win an election or defeat an online voting motion is to spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories? In light of such toxic and divisive rhetoric is it any wonder that Jewish students feel so marginalized and politically disenfranchised?
