An article in last week’s Imprint, “UW & Israel: Justice and Politics in Academia” incorrectly claimed that during his recent trip to the Middle East, Prime Minister Harper “declared all criticism of Israeli policies to be anti-Semitic.” In fact, what the prime minister said was quite the opposite.
During a speech Jan. 20, the prime minister stated that “criticism of Israeli government policy is not in and of itself necessarily anti-Semitic.” However, Harper did highlight the unusually selective criticism of Israel on the world stage, asking “what else can we call criticism that selectively condemns only the Jewish state and effectively denies its right to defend itself while systematically ignoring — or excusing — the violence and oppression all around it?”
Indeed, when one singles out the world’s only Jewish state for unique condemnation, demonizes Israelis, and denies the Jewish people the right to self-determination (i.e. by calling for Israel’s destruction), what would one call it other than a new form of anti-Semitism?
With the support of Canada and other major world democracies, Israel continues to flourish as an oasis in the midst of the harsh political climate of the Middle East. By endorsing and aligning ourselves with the Technion Institute of Technology (which has produced Nobel Prize winners in the sciences in 2004, 2011, and 2013) along with other Israeli institutions, we can confidently claim to be on the side of democracy, freedom, and what is right about today’s modern Middle East.
Shane Morganstein
2B Knowledge Integration & Philosophy
