False Allegations @ York

This is an exerpt from an article on the false accussations made against members of YFS and SAIA at York University in regards to an anti-DROP YFS demonstration that took place. Read the full article here: http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/20755 This is a prime example of media hype and blatant lies being made to spin events towards an established agenda:

During the course of the strike, a group of undergraduate students critical of the YFS for its perceived association with CUPE 3903 had organized themselves as "York Not Hostage" (more of a facebook and media than broad organizational initiative, it seems). As students returned after the strike, York Not Hostage merged into a "Drop YFS" campaign anchored by the leadership of Hillel and a closely allied but subsidiary Israel advocacy group, Hasbara Fellowships. Drop YFS launched a petition drive to impeach the YFS executive. The rally of February 11, so broadly cited since, emerged in opposition to a Drop YFS campaign press conference in the York Student Centre. When members of the YFS and supportive students were barred from the press conference (whether by political decision or as a result of limited room capacity, various parties disagree), an ad hoc demonstration emerged which disrupted the event. This rally, again, is taken to have been the major display of the purported anti-Semitic upsurge at York, so it is worth reviewing the available facts. In examining the fall-out, I will not give attention to accusations that Israel advocates made racist comments, but will confine myself to the allegations of anti-Semitism.

To the best of my knowledge and understanding, there are four individuals who were actually present on February 11 who soon after published reports of what took place. Ali Mustafa wrote a brief, supportive account of the ad hoc rally for an alternative left newspaper on campus, the YU Free Press. Jonathan Blake Karoly wrote by far the most critical report of the rally, a student account which was published online by Jonathan Kay through the National Post. The main campus paper at York, Excalibur, had gone to print the night before, but an Excalibur representative was present, and a report of the event ran in the subsequent week's issue. Blake Karoly reports that a representative from the Globe and Mail was also present, presumably either Elizabeth Church or Omar El Akkad, who co-authored the report for the Globe.
No specific allegations of anti-Semitism appear in the YU Free Press report (Feb. 12), the Globe and Mail report (Feb. 13), or the Excalibur report (Feb. 18). Chants including "Shame on Hillel," "Zionism is racism," and "Racists off campus" are reported. (Not messaging everyone can get behind, but hardly anti-Semitic.) No quotes from Hillel spokespeople are relayed in any of these stories alleging specifically anti-Semitic statements. The most substantive implication of anti-Semitism is made by Jonathan Blake Karoly himself. He writes: "...one pro-Palestinian student stood at the glass door of the Hillel, visible to the students in the Hillel, with his Kaffeiyah scarf pulled all the way up to his eyes. This is a tactic used by terrorist organizations such as Hamas and al-Qaeda to intimidate others, and quite frankly I was completely taken off-guard by the sight of this student and at that point fear began to trickle into me as well. This is something that goes beyond free speech and being anti-Israel and is tantamount to racism and discrimination."
But soon, Israel advocates began giving statements to reporters -- published only in the reports of journalists who were not present at the event -- alleging actual anti-Semitism.

This began modestly. A National Post reporter who was not present on February 11, James Cowan, came to the demonstration on February 12 and solicited quotes. His report, published on February 13, quotes Hillel@York president Daniel Ferman asserting that not only did demonstrators chant "Shame on Hillel" and "Zionism is racism," but that "he was also referred to as a 'dirty Jew' and 'f---ing Jew' by members of the throng." Shame on Hillel -- fine. Zionism is racism -- in its current operative sense, it effectively is, but yes, one can play the Magnes card and quibble; still, an admissible position for engagement and discussion. Using "Jew" as a term of derision, in contrast, would of course be anti-Semitic, a comment which it would be necessary to sharply distinguish from such slogans as "Zionism is racism" (even if one dislikes the formulation) for specific denunciation. But was this actually said? It is difficult to verify. No reporters who were present at the event seem to have heard it. Indeed, among all the stories written on these "tensions" at York in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and Excalibur, none have mentioned the allegation. In any case, the snowball kept rolling from there.
Later on February 13 came a story from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), followed, on February 15, by the Jerusalem Post. Both add a new pair of alleged (and unattributed) quotes: "Die bitch, go back to Israel"; "Die Jew, get the hell off campus". (The first two online comments under the JTA story read: "Where is the JDL when you really need them?" / "At some point, the Jewish students should learn to crack a few heads, as needed.") Frankly, these allegations are extremely suspect. Both statements would be construed, and certainly publicized, as death threats. And yet they were apparently neither reported to the police who came on campus on February 11, credibly mentioned to any reporter from Excalibur, the Toronto Star or the Globe (none have mentioned any allegation of the kind), written up in an Excalibur opinions piece, nor accompanied by any effort to determine who said these things or to whom the threatening comments were directed.

Since, the fabrications have steadily become more shameless and outlandish.
Frank Dimant, explaining to an Ottawa Citizen reporter why it was necessary to ban the poster for Israeli Apartheid Week at two universities in the city, cited the events of February 11: "'This [IAW] is part of an ongoing, well-orchestrated campaign of intimidation and harassment and now, at times, even resulting in physical attacks.' Two weeks ago, he said, Jewish students at York University were 'held captive' in a room surrounded by Israeli Apartheid Week supporters. 'People were banging on walls and screaming things like "death to the Jews,"' Dimant said."[20] And so it became public record. In a February 27 article for the Calgary Herald titled "Anti-Israel protests show ignorance," Naomi Lakritz counterposes Palestine solidarity activists' ignorance with her journalistic reliability: "maybe genocide is really what the IAW supporters want to see. After all, just two weeks ago, IAW activists surrounded a Hillel office at York University where Jewish students had taken refuge from them, and pounded on the walls yelling 'Death to the Jews,' and 'Die, Jew! Get the hell off campus.'"[21]

In an article calling for pressure to ensure that "York is purged of its hateful elements," the National Post's Matt Gurney provides some commentary that is worth quoting at length. Describing an alleged anti-Semitic assault, he writes: "a Jewish student was physically assaulted on campus after confronting a group protesting Israeli policies." He continues: "I haven't been able to verify that it happened at all; everyone I spoke to said that they'd heard about it, but had nothing to offer beyond hearsay and rumour. Nevertheless, the reports of a student being assaulted, even if it was only a minor scuffle, has the Jewish community at York rattled, and rightly so. Such an assault would cross a line which has been very much thinned by the recent protests, but which has remained a line nonetheless. If it has been crossed, then it's a whole new ball game, and it speaks to how poisonous the York campus has become for Jews that they are so readily willing to accept this unconfirmed story."
And to the integrity of the likes of Gurney that he is so eager to circulate it.

And of course the media seems to say nothing about the fact that DROP YFS members were banging on the glass outside a YFS townhall a mere week before this. There is no mention of a DROP YFS member calling a black member of the YFS the N-word. There is no mention of DROP YFS members calling Jewish students who do not support Israel blindly "self-haters". There is no mention of the female activist students in YFS and SAIA who have been routinely harassed and followed around on campus. There is no mention that members of Hillel surrounded the York U radio station CHRY 105.5FM after I interviewed Sid Ryan in an attempt to intimidate myself and members of the radio staff, or that my co-host was followed to her car. Nor is there mention of any of the constant harassment SAIA activists have endured, racist comments towards Arab and Muslim students. Only one side of the story is told, a heavily concocted and hyped up event and accussations of anti-semitism which simply never happened.