May 18, 2020 Suzanne Fortier Principal & Vice-Chancellor, McGill University University 845 Sherbrooke Street West Montreal, Quebec H3A 0G4

Dear Principal Fortier,

I am writing to you on behalf of Hasbara Fellowships Canada, a national nonprofit organization committed to combating antisemitism and anti-Israel discrimination on college and university campuses from across Canada.

I am writing to you in the face of a well-organized campaign of disinformation against Israel that is encouraging McGill University to “ban Zionist speech” at McGill as well as divest from Israel under incredibly misleading and often explicitly false pretences.

As you are no doubt aware, the majority of Jewish students at McGill identify as Zionist. Look no further than this landmark survey of Canadian Jews conducted by York U and University of Toronto faculty confirming that the overwhelming majority of Canadian Jews identify as Zionist. Legitimizing any attacks on Zionism is akin to legitimizing any attacks on Jews.

Furthermore, the very demands listed in the campaign are antithetical to academic freedom, freedom of speech, academic integrity, not to mention erroneous, dangerous, and antisemitic. Please read this op-ed published in The McGill Daily by a Jewish student who has faced continuous harassment as account of her Jewish (and thus Zionist) identity. Students like her will be subjected to further vitriol if this campaign were to succeed.

Rather than challenge, point by point, each assertion made in this campaign, it is important to briefly address some of the most common claims made to suggest that McGill University should divest from Israel:

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• The news from Eastern Jerusalem is a story of tenants who have refused to pay rent for ideological reasons, and nothing more. The current round of violence between Israel and Islamist groups Hamas & Islamic Jihad has essentially no origin in the landlord and tenant dispute in the eastern Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

The Eastern Jerusalem buildings in question were purchased in 1875 by two Chief Rabbis, and in the 1940s the possession transferred to two communal Jewish organizations that remain the legal owners. Even a 1982 case in the Jerusalem District Court had Arab residents of these buildings acknowledge the legal landlords. The Israeli supreme court even upheld the legality of the evictions, in light of the nonpayment by the current tenants.

• The current violence is nothing more than a cynical attempt by Islamist terrorist groups to hijack political sensitivities and use them for their own ends. When Hamas fires rockets – indiscriminately – into Israeli population centres, they are doing no favours to the Palestinian people, nor to any realistic progress for peace in the region.

• Beyond the specifics of the current violence, enacting a boycott against Israel would be unhelpful to the cause of peace and also counterproductive. No university in Canada has ever boycotted Israel, and McGill would be staining its sterling academic pedigree by adopting a dangerous and misleading, ideologically-driven campaign to delegitimize Israel.

• The path to peace between Israel and the Palestinians cannot be legislated by any third party. Rather, it can only be as a result of direct negotiations between the two parties in question. By boycotting Israel, any party would be condoning the history of intransigence on the part of the Palestinian leadership (which has rejected multiple offers made in good faith by Israel).

949 Clark Avenue West, Thornhill, ON L4J 8G6 The best way for McGill to make a positive and constructive contribution to the cause of peace in the Middle East is to deepen its relationship with the only liberal democracy in the region, Israel, where more than one in five citizens is Arab, who enjoy full democratic rights in all areas of life.

On behalf of Jewish McGill University students, many of whom were subjected to antisemitic death threats, violence, or worse at this weekend’s pro-Palestine rallies in Montreal, I ask that you voice your support for McGill’s Jewish community as we need it now more than ever.

Indeed, banning Zionist speech would be akin to banning Jewish speech. This campaign’s resemblance to Nazi-era campaigns of intimidation are both unsettling and uncanny. Furthermore, it will only fan the flames of hatred, lead to further antisemitism, and set a precedent against academic freedom and speech.

More importantly, it looks to isolate and ostracize the vast majority of McGill’s Jewish student population.

Sincerely,

Daniel Koren Executive Director Hasbara Fellowships Canada

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