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The Dark Side of Israeli Apartheid Week

(Ottawa Citizen-Canada) Leonard Stern - Beginning Monday, Canadian university campuses play host to an annual event known as Israeli Apartheid Week, where Israel is assigned the role of Jew among the nations - singled-out, cursed and harassed. The whiff of something medieval hangs over this March ritual. One activist group behind Israeli Apartheid Week, the Ottawa Public Interest Research Group, refused in 2008 to promote a lecture on African development because Jewish students at the University of Ottawa happened to be organizing it. The event had zero connection to Israel, but OPIRG said it wouldn't partner with the Jewish students' union due to the latter's "relationship to apartheid Israel." Of all the sponsors of Israeli Apartheid Week, the participation of gay and lesbian groups is most disheartening. Harvard University's Alan Dershowitz reminds us that Israel is the one country in the Middle East where they'd be able to hold a gay rights sign in public and not be lynched. Criticizing Israel does not make one an anti-Semite anymore than criticizing the government of France makes one anti-French. But it's one thing to criticize France and another to declare the French nation illegitimate and to advocate its dismantling. For that's what Israeli Apartheid Week is about. It is the fanatical, disproportionate focus on Israel - no other country is subjected to a week-long hatefest at university campuses - that points to something darker going on.
2010-02-26 08:32:24
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