Did McGill Student Board Bar Pro-Israel Students?

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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.