CAEF responded to an article published in the University of Calgary student paper, The Gauntlet, which engendered an excellent response from a group of Jewish student organizations. The article carried slanders and misinformation about Israel, and thus exemplifies how lies lead to antisemitism on college campuses. CAEF sent this letter to the Editor.
Dear Ms Sophia Lopez,
I have become aware of the blatantly misleading, heavily biased and bigoted article written by Nazeefa Ahmed and published by The Gauntlet on October 5th, 2022. The article contained every stereotype and lie about the Jewish state that characterizes antisemitism today. It is quite outrageous that fantastical misinformation that purposefully ignores facts and demonizes a people, can be even considered for publication by university "educated" students. The article does as much for feeding fear and Jew hatred as the lies fed to university students in the 30s and 40s by the Chief Propaganda Officer for the Nazis, Joseph Goebbels.
Israel is a democracy, governed by the rule of law, granting rights to all its citizens, no matter their faith, creed, colour or other characteristics, and unlike all of its Arab Muslim neighbors, includes all citizens in all aspects of society. Muslim university students, for example, make up 20% of the student population, the same proportion as Muslim Arabs in the total population. Arabs serve in leadership positions in corporate life, in health care, education and in the government. Beauty queens, artists, soccer players come from the Arab as well as the Jewish communities, while no Jews are left in most Arab countries having been ethnically cleansed from all such countries where they had lived for as much as 2000+ years. They were expelled, stripped of citizenship and all wealth and properties. Yet, where do you see Jewish refugee camps? What dollar amount was ever expended by a donor country or the UN to settle over 880,000 Jewish refugees? Zero!
The Arabs of the Mandate area, along with 5 Arab armies attacked the nascent Jewish state as soon as it was declared in 1948, refused all settlement offers, refused to negotiate, refused to recognize the Jewish state, made false claims about Jewish heritage in the land and continue until this day to propagandize against the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Today, there is peace with many Arab countries but the descendants of the Palestinian Arabs continue to reject peace, refuse to recognize legal and historical rights of the Jews, and wish to have the world believe they will succeed in eradicating Israel, through their relentless propaganda and undeniable terrorism.
Enough! The Gauntlet is feeding hatred by spreading lies.
The opinions of a writer do not constitute facts and lies do cause damage. Words used by Ahmed have been weaponized and it is time that such word crimes were stopped. There is no apartheid in Israel, no ethnic cleansing, no massacre of Arabs, no denial of rights, no occupation, no colonialism. There is a cleverly orchestrated and well-funded campaign to discredit and demonize Israel. The Muslim Student Association is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a designated terrorist organization in several countries and a major source of Jew hatred across North America. Where are their programs calling for co-existence? Where are their campaigns to save Yazidis and other minorities from enslavement by Islamist extremists? Where is their defense for Iranian women who live under constant discrimination and persecution and suffer murder at the hands of their own government for not wearing a scarf correctly? Where are the Pro-Palestinian organizations who really value Muslim lives when they are being murdered daily by their kith and kin in numerous countries AND in territories governed by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority-- two terror-supporting, anti-human rights, anti-gay, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian, anti-women, anti-humanitarian organizations that pay people to murder Jews? Where is their moral outrage? Where is their human compassion? All we see in articles like that by Nafeez Ahmed is hatred for the Jewish people.
If these are the Guiding Principles of the MSA as advertised, then I would urge they be put into practice:
Love is our highest aspiration
Knowledge precedes our actions
Truthfulness is the mark of our speech
Patience is the hallmark of our planning
Sincerity is the foundation of our existence
Forgiveness precedes our reconciliatory efforts
Humility guides our conduct
Gratitude binds our hearts together
Tolerance is the banner of our outreach
Moderation is the compass for our journey
I am a graduate of U of C, founding president of Hillel on that campus, a member of a Jewish family that settled in Calgary before, during and after WWII, which contributed in countless ways to the society at large. I deplore what is happening on campus when a student run paper stoops so low as to disparage the only Jewish country on the globe and spread hatred.
I say ENOUGH!
Sincerely,
Andria Spindel,
Executive Director
Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation