Okay. Thank you.
Campus protesters have simply replaced the word “Jew” with “Zionist” in order to make our exclusion and intimidation more palatable. Would a sign on the McGill campus reading, “No Jews Allowed” ever be tolerated? It is therefore essential that the Government of Canada recognize that the intimidation of Zionists is, effectively, the intimidation of Jews.
Yes, there are some Jews who are not Zionists, and they are entitled to their own opinions. However, as Prime Minister Trudeau stated himself on Yom HaShoah, the vast majority of Jews are Zionists. It is an integral part of our identity, and it needs to be legally recognized as such so that our peers cannot continue to use this label to exclude us from the universities that we deserve to be full members of.
Unfortunately, our universities are currently failing to protect us. According to Elia Nissan and Julia Langleben, co-presidents of the StartUp Nation McGill, despite McGill's commitment to inclusion and zero tolerance for hate on campus, they have completely failed to uphold the promises they've made to the McGill community.
We did not get to this point overnight. The consistent failure of our universities to take action against the hate taking place on our campuses has emboldened anti-Israel activists to become more radical. Our universities must take a stand, and where they fail to adequately protect their Jewish students, they must be held accountable.
Despite the intimidation of Jewish students on campus, we have consistently embodied the resilient flame of our ancestors, who refused to give up their Judaism to be accepted in the diaspora. With us, we have the strength of every generation of Jews who chose to stand up against anti-Semitism and who persevered, and I'm confident that we will too.