On May 13, 2024, members of the University of Manitoba’s administration met with Students for Justice in Palestine [SJP], a non-recognized student group, to put forth SJP’s  demands  which SJP  say must be met before it willingly disbands its encampment on the U of M quad that began May 7, 2024. (SJP has been demanding that the U of M admin divest from Israeli companies, cease exchange programs, cancel Prof. Tami Jacoby's class on the Arab-Israeli conflict alleging its is bias, and adopt specific measures against anti-Palestinian racism). 

In my view, there are a number of items which Students Supporting Israel, a student club recognized by UMSU, and/or Hillel and/or our communal leadership ought to seriously consider raising now with the administration of the U of M in order to best serve and protect our community's interests going forward.  I write this in light of what we have been witnessing occurring on university campuses across the country, and in light of the fact that the pro-Palestinian encampment at U of M was initially set to continue for three days only, and was also supposed to have been made up of students only, but has continued with many non-students and with no clear end date in sight. There is no real downside in my respectful opinion to putting these items forward now in interfacing with the U of M. It is, in my view, especially worthwhile to do this as we have seen that other university administrations in Canada have shamefully made concessions to pro-Palestinians demonstrators encamping illegally on their premises as a way of getting these students to agree to voluntarily shut down these encampments.   We ought not to be naive and think that U of M may not follow other universities in making concessions in order to get the encampment protesters to agree to disband their encampment.  I fear that if we fail to advocate pro-actively for our communal interests, we may find regrettably  after the fact that these interests have not been protected nearly as much or in the way that we would have liked or expected. I shall now set out the areas in which I believe we ought to actively advocate for our communal interests.

ANTISEMITISM
In my respectful view, we ought to request that the U of M in all of its policies, including concerning discrimination and Equity Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies acknowledge the following:

1. Antisemitism is a form of hatred and discrimination that is as serious and unacceptable as any other form of discrimination

2. Antisemitism has its own history and profile, and ought to be addressed in its owns right, including acknowledging the distinct long history and nature of antisemitism, and its historic impact at the U of M, especially in light of quota systems.

3. The IHRA definition adopted by the governments of Manitoba and Canada, including the examples set out in the definition, is a useful tool in identifying antisemitsim and educating to overcome it. 

4. Jews in Canada are disproportionately the target of hate crimes, and Jew hatred is the oldest hatred in the world.

5.  The campus climate on U of M, as with other Canadian universities has become hostile enough that many Jewish students and faculty since Oct 7 have been concealing their identities, by not wearing Stars of David or other religious symbols, including kippot, or choosing to not disclose their being Jewish on admission forms.

6. The U of M’s anti-discrimination and EDI policies ought to expressly and distinctly address antisemitism (as of now antisemitism is not specifically referred to in these policies). 

7.The U of M ought to specifically acknowledge for all purposes that the Jewish people have a distinct history and identity, and ought never be characterized as merely a subset of  "white"  and demeaned as "privileged.”

DISCRIMINATION ON BASIS OF POLITICAL BELIEF OR ETHNICITY

Further, in my view our community ought to request that the U of M recognize that discrimination on the basis of political belief (i.e. Zionism, the belief in the right of the Jewish people to self-determination) or ethnicity (Jews) is contrary to the Manitoba Human Rights Code. As such, discrimination against Zionists or Jews and will not be practiced directly or indirectly for any purpose such as in regard to admission, hiring or promotion. This means the U of M will not allow discrimination against/ or marginalization of anyone who supports Israel’s right to exist, who affirms that Israel is a tenet of their Jewish identity, or who positively affirms their Jewish tradition. This will also mean that it will be impermissible now or in the future to use “diversity statements” in any way to select for or against anyone in the basis of ethnicity or political belief. In this way, we will ensure that EDI policies in the future will not be used in any way to negatively impact on the participation of Jews and/or Zionists in higher learning, as students or faculty.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION OR ACADEMIC FREEDOM

In my view, our community ought to ask U of M to ensure that policies of freedom of expression  and academic freedom policies are equally applied to all in an even handed manner. Whatever balance is struck between these freedoms and discrimination, this balance must be applied equally to all.

This means it will not be permissible to seek to rout out “micro-aggressions " against  some groups while permitting micro-aggressions  against  Jewish students, faculty, the community and the Jewish homeland. 

REJECTING UNREASONABLE DEMANDS OF SJP AND ENFORCEMENT OF LAW

1. In my view, the U of M ought to publicly identify and reject the demands of SJP that are attacks on academic freedom, including attempts to use political pressure to dictate who can teach a course or how it is taught and attempts to cancel academic exchanges and programs with institutions of higher learning in Israel.

2. It ought not negotiate with or make concessions to SJP simply because they have set up an encampment, and the U of M fears using the police to enforce trespass laws or any other laws to shut down the encampment. The U of M can not be held hostage by those in the encampment. It further ought to be transparent about its meetings and negotiations with SJP.

3. The U of M ought to enforce its rules and policies in an even handed manner, without selectively favouring political viewpoints or demographic factions, and without allowing activities that are unlawful or contrary to UM rules.

* I’d like to thank Dr. Bryan Schwartz, Professor of Law at University of Manitoba, for his input and suggestions with this piece.*