Shourideh Molavi, E-Bulletin No. 190, 2 March 2009
This is the fifth consecutive year of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). Launched in Toronto, this week-long initiative hosts a string of lectures, film screenings, panels, demonstrations, cultural performances and other events across campuses and community centers around the world to inform the public about the continuing violations of one of the longest and devastating occupations in modern history.
IAW seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards Palestinians and to mobilize support for the growing international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign initiated in July 2005 in a statement by over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations.
But if you didn’t support IAW in the past, now is the time to start.
McCarthyism on Canadian Campuses
In February 2008, the McMaster Student Union (MSU) and McMaster’s Human Rights and Equity Services (HRES) office banned the IAW poster due to allegations that it was “inflammatory.” That decision was made in the shadow of attempts by the McMaster administration, to unequivocally ban the mere usage of the phrase “Israeli Apartheid” by student groups on campus. What was then an explicit and unprecedented attack on the right to academic freedom, the right to organize and freedom of speech has become the norm for Canadian universities during this year’s IAW – all of which was successfully documented by organizers.
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