“Viva viva Intifada.” “Go back to Poland.” “Yemen, Yemen, make us proud, turn another ship around.” “Resistance is justified when people are occupied.”
These are just a few of the hateful chants heard blaring across campus that have caused me and thousands of other students great pain and immense fear over the past seven months.
My name is Nicole Nashen. I just finished my second year of law school at McGill University. I am the granddaughter of immigrants who came to Canada seeking a better life for their children. My grandparents were so proud when I was admitted to McGill for law school, but are now horrified by the rampant anti-Semitism that I and my Jewish peers are experiencing on campus. Jewish students in Montreal have been intimidated by hateful posters glorifying violence and terrorism, and by protesters chanting for the destruction of our ancestral homeland.
As Michael said, on October 8, clubs funded by McGill and Concordia universities posted on Instagram, “Last night, the resistance in Gaza led a heroic attack against the occupation and has taken over 30 hostages.”
These are the same groups that have been organizing the campus protests and the current encampment at McGill University. They have not tried to hide their hateful and anti-Semitic intent. Our universities have chosen to turn a blind eye, rather than stand up for their Jewish students.
A student at the Université de Montréal said that, before October 7, her Jewish identity always seemed natural and readily and wholeheartedly accepted. However, at this time, a cloud of doubt or unease looms over her sense of belonging among her peers at school as a Jewish person.
As Michael said, on November 8 at Concordia University, my alma mater, where I served on the Concordia Student Union and as the president of Hillel, Jewish students were violently attacked during a tabling event to raise awareness for the hostages. They were assaulted by an anti-Semitic mob, which was only brought to an end by police intervention. Adam Goren, VP of Israel Affairs for StartUp Nation Concordia, said that the events of November 8 had fundamentally changed the way he felt on campus, making him feel unsafe and nervous to attend classes, with his constantly looking over his shoulder. That feeling had persisted to this day.
The right to peaceful protest is a fundamental tenet of democracy, and criticizing the policies and actions of the Israeli government is not inherently anti-Semitic. Having said that, the sign on the McGill encampment facing Sherbrooke Street that reads, “Agitate, escalate, shut it down” is not criticism of the Israeli government, nor is it peaceful, and the sign on the McGill encampment that reads, “No Zionists Allowed” is overtly anti-Semitic.
Zionism should not be controversial. It is simply the belief in Jewish self-determination in our indigenous homeland, and it does not preclude the existence of a Palestinian state too.
While anti-Israel activists on campus tolerate the religious aspects of Judaism, they have created a litmus test by which Jewish students are told we must denounce our affiliation to our ancestral homeland in order to be accepted. They do this by distinguishing us as Zionists. However, Judaism is more than just a religion. We are also a nation, an ethnic group and a community. Our identity is a package deal that cannot be dismembered through western standards. Thus, Jews as a religious group have been deemed acceptable, while Zionists are demonized for refusing to conform and give up the package deal that is our identity—