Did McGill Student Board Bar Pro-Israel Students?
Image by wikimedia commons
MONTREAL (JTA)—McGill University is investigating charges by Jewish groups and pro-Israel students that three undergrads are being barred from sitting on its undergrad student union board because they are too pro-Israel.
At a Monday meeting of the General Assembly of the McGill’s Student Society, or SSMU, seven students were voted onto the board.
But three others – one of them Jewish and a previous board member, and all known for their pro-Israel stances –- were denied seats.
Outraged Jewish and pro-Israel students stormed out of the meeting after the vote.
For the first time, the voting for seats on the SSMU at the assembly took place individually for candidates, not as a group.
“I was blocked from participating in student government because of my Jewish identity and my affiliation with Jewish organizations,” Noah Lew, a third-year arts student, posted on his Facebook page.
B’nai Brith organized an online petition signed by 1,300 supporters demanding that McGill principal and vice-chancellor Suzanne Fortier intervene in the controversy.
Lew and B’nai Brith allege that behind the bid to keep pro-Israel students off the undergraduate board are campus groups supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel. One group, called “Democratize SSMU,” includes Igor Sadikov, a student who earned notoriety last February for his “Punch a Zionist today” tweet.
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs also was critical of the vote, but unlike B’nai Brith, allege that anti-Semitism was also behind it.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
