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February 19, 2009
Dear President Roseann Runte, I write this letter as a concerned Canadian, and the mother of a former Carleton student. It seems to me that the Israel Palestine conflict has triggered knee jerk reactions that have no place in a university. I note that student groups challenging Israeli policies are having a hard time these days, not only in Carleton U. but on other campuses. No other official university student club speaking on behalf of human rights in Canada and abroad is being singled out as those speaking on Palestinian rights. Various factors explain this, one of them being the intense advocacy drive on behalf of Israel and its policies. The advocacy include an Israel Fellows Program, a partnership between the Jewish Agency for Israel, Hillel and Birthright Israel, which "places young Israelis on key North American campuses for a year of educational service as Hillel staff members." According to their website, “fellows focus on Israel programming on campus, working with birthright returnees and recruiting for Israel programs.” Another important element of the Hasbara is a program that targets politicians and leaders - from University, high schools, police and more. You took part in such a program in 2005. According to the blog you published then from Israel, you “heard the poignant story of a severely burned victim of a terrorist attack. This tale was all the more poignant as at the same time in Netanya, 3 people were killed and 70 injured in a suicide bombing.” You had dinner and attended "a talk by Aviezer Ravitzky, professor of Jewish Philosophy at the Hebrew University ” who “showed how they [Israeli Palestinians] are treated democratically but inequitably.” To you, the wall that has disrupted the lives of so many Palestinians and separates them from their farms, “looks like a sound barrier along one of our highways only in four places. You also met with Avraham Infeld, President of Hillel, who “gave a sage and perceptive talk on the challenges Hillel faces” and the “need to define what is meant by ‘Jewish’.” This trip, which was organized by the UJC/JCPA Israel Advocacy Initiative for non-Jewish Community Leaders, was meant and has obviously had a profound effect on you and probably all other participants. This is the purpose of such organized and tightly managed trips. Given the leading position you hold, I trust that, in the name of balance and fairness, you did take the time to visit the Palestinian Occupied Territory (OPT), see first hand and listen to what Palestinian life under occupation is like, to balance the advocacy program for Israel and its policies. If your connection to Palestine is through Israeli eyes only, I trust that you will oppose any decision that seeks to curtail the freedom of students to hang their posters for, and hold without harassment their “Israel Apartheid Week.” SAIA presents a point of view based on international law, human rights and humanitarian law, not on public relations campaigns. They offer those who have been exposed to only one side of the issue to have a better grasp of the conflict, and understand how Israeli policies are in flagrant violation of the rule of law. I invite you to take the time to read A Call from Within - signed by Israeli citizens – 540 of them, who yesterday called for a boycott of Israel, because “ Israel 's destructive criminal policy will not cease without a massive intervention by the international community.” Instead of being part of the problem, SAIA wants to be part of the solution, in the best Canadian tradition. They are walking the same path as the earlier Carleton alumni who led the boycott of South Africa. They must not be punished for being active in the name of a just cause. Sincerely, **************** February 19, 2009
On February 8, Students Against Israeli Apartheid Carleton put up 100 posters which feature one of award-winning graphic artist Carlos Latuff depictions of the recent assault on Gaza . The posters announced international "Israeli Apartheid Week", a series of public lectures on campuses in over 40 cities around the world March 2 – 5, 2009. On February 9, Carleton's Equity Services directed that these posters be taken down, Carleton administration’s rationale being that the posters "could be seen to incite others to infringe rights protected in the Ontario Human Rights code" and that they were "insensitive to the norms of civil discourse in a free and democratic society" Third, there is an odd parallel with Carleton administration’s actions and that of the attack helicopter in the Carlos Latuff graphic, in that you are using your disproportionate highly leveraged power against those whose only power is their call for truth and justice, those who not only have not encouraged Human Rights violations but are encouraging discussion and debate about Human Rights violations at a series of upcoming campus events. If the underlying goal for your assault on S.A.I.A. was the derailing of these events, you have only added urgency to the need for them to take place. On February 18, 2009 Terrence Watson commented on a Western Standard blog that your administration was calling upon “human rights” to justify the suppression of free speech. He went on to say, “Censorship should be opposed. And universities should be shining examples of the benefits that accrue from the unhampered, free exchange of ideas -- even bad ideas.” Fourth, while it is understandable that aggressors and occupiers would want to wall off the truth about their egregious violations of international law and human rights, it is more than puzzling that Canadian University Presidents, yourself at Carleton included, would become agents for aggressors and occupiers, and use Canadian taxpayer money to do so. I suggest you redeploy your considerable discretionary power against those who are manipulating you to collude in a cover-up of what many in civil society consider to be war crimes. Moreover to be on the ‘right side of history’ you would be wise to support the courageous Carleton students who are using democratic means to bring this issue to the academic commons for discussion and debate. Finally, I leave you with but one picture—and not the worst-- of what happened after the assault scene artist Carlos Latuff depicted in his Israel Apartheid Week poster.
Please take a close look Dr. Runte and ask why you are abandoning these victims of those for whom you are an apologist. Now Dr. Runte, take a look at Human Rights Watch investigator Marc Garlasco's black and white images of Gaza and ask yourself about your leadership on the case of S.A.I.A Carleton and Israel Apartheid Week. http://marcgarlasco.zenfolio.com/p20100174
Marjorie Robertson Ottawa ****** Dear Dr. Roseanne Runte, President, Carleton University I thank you for returning my phone call yesterday and regret that you and I could not directly communicate. I attempted to call you but I had to leave a voice message, for the time was after business hours. I also thank you for sending me your list of claimed facts that appear to have been assembled to respond to concerns raised on the matter of Carleton University’s decisions and actions against its own students who are engaged in peacefully organizing Israeli Apartheid Week on Campus. I contacted some of the students, asked them about those claimed facts, and received their responses to the items on your list. I would expect that you would have received the students’ responses, and I hope that you would take them into consideration as you formalize your further decisions and actions on this matter. I, however, will restrict this letter to offer you my own responses to two of the claimed facts on your list, for your kind consideration. First: Your list included: “Fact: The Provost did not threaten students with expulsion. He said that offences would be treated within the parameters of the student code of conduct.” In the letter to members of the Carleton Community concerning this matter, the Provost dedicated the longest paragraph in the letter to describe punitive measures if students were not compliant with the Provost’s views on what constitutes intolerance or incitement of hatred, including stating the following: “Among other sanctions that may be applied under these policies, students can be withdrawn from their studies indefinitely.” If that is not a general threat of expulsion, then the Provost and entire Carleton University ’s administration need to refresh their knowledge of the English language. Threat of expulsion, Madam President, need not be specific or explicit. It is far more intimidating when the threat is general, all-encompassing, and implicit. The threat of expulsion against disobedient students is as clear in the Provost’s letter as snow in Canadian winters. Second: Your list included: “Fact: The posters removed were deemed by Equity Services to incite hatred.” If it was not so tragic, this could be entertaining. A poster that depicts reality is deemed to incite hatred…!!! Hatred against whom or against what? Did the “Equity Services” mean to imply hatred against war criminals or against murderous weaponry? According to the United Nations, during the December 2008 – January 2009 Israeli slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza , among more than 1,300 deaths, there were over 430 children slaughtered by Israeli fighter jets, apache helicopters, and other murderous weaponry. Additionally, thousands of civilians – including children – were seriously injured, and an entire people were made to live under the threat of being killed any moment for more than three weeks. The posters in question depict, in a very clean manner – I might add, fully documented Israeli indiscriminate military attacks targeting Palestinian civilians. The large volume of documentation includes detailed reports by United Nations officials and humanitarian aid workers. Death and injury by bombardment, Madam President, is ugly. If anything, the poster is mild if it was meant to reflect the destruction, the death, the injuries, and the fear under which the Palestinian children in Gaza were made to live for close to 32,000 minutes – that is THIRTY-TWO-THOUSAND MINUTES; each of which felt like an eternity in hell. Among the millions of Palestinian children were my three nieces and nephew (Manal, Hanan, Jeelan, and Mohammad), who are still terrified to enter a part of their home that was bombarded by an Israeli rocket as their mother (my sister-in-law; Suheir) was walking in that part of her home. Suheir was directly hit and subsequently lost her right leg that had to be amputated above the knee at the Shifaa hospital in Gaza City; a hospital that suffered from lack of medical supplies, medical staff, and electricity while being overcrowded by more than quadruple the number of patients it was designed to serve. That poster – and much more powerful posters – can never truly reflect the fear that Manal, Hanan, Jeelan, and Mohammad felt, and are still feeling to this very day. I – while living comfortably here in Ottawa – lose sleep when I think about the permanent damage to their personalities with which they will have to live for the rest of their lives, after seeing their father struggling to carry their mother who was incapable of moving, lying down in a pool of her own blood with parts of her body scattered around the room among the rubble and the devastating destruction. There is no poster ugly enough that can reflect the reality of my own family. Manal, Hanan, Jeelan, and Mohammad – whom I consider angels – are subjected to this horror only because they are Palestinians living in their own home in Gaza, and for no other reason whatsoever. So, please Madam President, save me the patronizing when you talk about preventing hatred and intolerance, and about promoting human rights, civility, respect, and peace. Finally: My intervention is intended to solicit your human reaction, to trigger your sense of responsibility, and to assist you in allowing Carleton University’s students to exercise their right to freedom of speech without being intimidated and without fear of losing their opportunities for education. Those students represent our future. From among them, there will emerge political leaders, judges, educators, business managers, inventors, health and social workers, civil servants, and indeed universities’ presidents. We do not want them to learn how to be compliant, obedient, timid, and hypocrite cowards. We want them to learn how to be bold risk-takers, imaginative inventors, brave leaders, and fearless innovators. I am still hopeful that you will reverse your earlier decision, release the posters, and bring this travesty of justice to an amicable end. Otherwise, you will leave me no other choice but to sever my relationship with Carleton University and end my support and contributions for so long as you are in office. Sincerely, Monzer Zimmo Ottawa
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