The University of Manitoba has torn down “antisemitic propaganda” that appeared on campus — dozens of posters that characterized the late Izzy Asper as a fascist sympathizer — and contacted police to investigate.
Administrators are also facing internal pressure to quell rising tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war and reinstate a final-year nursing student who was suspended after repeatedly condemning the Israeli government on social media.
Over the last week, the local divide about the conflict reached a new height with a series of developments on the Fort Garry school grounds.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
University of Manitoba administrators are facing internal pressure to quell rising tensions related to the Israel-Hamas war and reinstate a final-year nursing student who was suspended after repeatedly condemning the Israeli government on social media.
A protest was held to condemn Arij Al Khafagi’s expulsion from the College of Nursing for the remainder of the 2023-24 school year.
A pair of Jewish academics penned letters requesting senior administration reconsider the severe penalty issued on Nov. 21.
And university staff removed 70 bulletins demanding U of M stop honouring Asper, the late Jewish lawyer and media magnate, after whom countless campus sites are named.
Ben Baader, an associate professor who researches Jewish history, called the decision to suspend Al Khafagi “a political act” and warned it is bound to create a hostile and divisive climate.
“(U of M) has been immensely fortunate not to have been experiencing the type of confrontations, intimidations and hostilities in matters of Middle East politics and antisemitism among students and faculty that are common on campuses across North America,” Baader wrote in a recent memo to president Michael Benarroch.
“I am deeply concerned that this will change now.”
The historian is one of two faculty members involved in the Judaic studies program who have requested Al Khafagi be reinstated immediately; his colleague asked their name not to be published.
Baader’s Dec. 3 letter urged three recipients — including nursing dean Netha Dyck and Eleanor Coopsammy, director of issues management — “limit the damage already done.”
A modified version of the email was published as a column in The Manitoban student newspaper.
Last month, the president of the Nursing Students’ Association was ejected from her program until September 2024.
The penalty was announced after senior leaders called Al-Khafagi into a meeting to discuss Instagram activity on her personal page, which she sometimes uses to publicize school events, and relay reports of antisemitism they had received from community members.
Al Khafagi shared a controversial cartoon that equated the Israeli military’s actions to those of Nazis during the Second World War over the Oct. 14-15 weekend. The accompanying caption stated: “The irony of becoming what you once hated…”
Around the same time, she re-posted a video of people searching the rubble for a child in Gaza that included a paragraph criticizing supporters of Israel for backing a government responsible for killing Palestinian civilians.
The 25-year-old was told her posts were discriminatory and, along with allegations of wider unprofessional conduct, responsible for the penalty. She told the Free Press her intention was simply to condemn the Israeli government and military — not her Jewish neighbours, and has submitted an appeal.
The university has repeatedly declined to weigh in on the specifics of the case due to privacy laws.
“(U of M) does not discipline students for exercising freedom of speech,” said Eleanor Coopsammy, a spokeswoman, in a statement Wednesday.
“The (university) values and upholds the principle of freedom of expression; however, we are also responsible to maintain a respectful and safe environment for all members of our community.”
Many of the anonymous posters about Asper, which suggest the philanthropist supported the radical right-wing and promoted division in the world, were hung up in and around the Asper School of Business.
The post-secondary institute denounced them as hateful and antisemitic, and touted the family’s contribution to the school and province at large.
“The situation on campus is awful.”–a Jewish master’s student at the U of M, who asked his name not be printed for fear of his safety
Noah Greenfield, president of Hillel Winnipeg, said Jewish students continue to “trudge on” although he personally knows about a handful of peers who have specifically sought mental health support in connection to the conflict.
“I wear my Star of David every day. I wear my kippah every day because I live in Canada, we’ve got the right to freedom of religion,” Greenfield said, adding he does so to show solidarity with other Jews who are grappling with rising concerns about antisemitism on and off campus.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance describes antisemitism as a specific perception of Jews that can be expressed as hatred and directed at people, community institutions or religious facilities.
The alliance states that antisemitic acts include comparing Israeli government policies to that of Nazis and claiming Israel’s existence is a racist endeavour.
In contrast, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism has a more narrow definition that it is “discrimination, prejudice, hostility or violence against Jews as Jews (or Jewish institutions as Jewish).”
The Canadian and Manitoba governments adopted the former in 2019 and 2022, respectively. The U of M’s undergraduate students’ union has also endorsed the IHRA view at the request of Jewish student advocacy groups in early 2021.
But Baader disagrees with the categorization that has become increasingly popular. As far as he is concerned, Al Khafagi’s posts may be controversial and distasteful to some, but they are “completely in the realm of free speech.”
Discussions about the definition of antisemitism should be debated rather than shut down with sanctions, he noted.
“The situation in Gaza is beyond, beyond desperate. Speaking out about it is a moral imperative. Yet as to how to do it, is more complicated,” Baader said.
In recent weeks, the faculty association has encouraged academics to exercise their right to weigh in on the conflict in the Middle East.
President Orvie Dingwall said the union will always defend its members’ rights to academic freedom.
“For academic freedom to work, the university generally has to be a place where faculty and students are free to express their opinions,” Dingwall said.
Greenfield, however, defended the university’s decision to suspend Al-Khafagi.
“Part of being a nurse is you have to treat all people equally,” the U of M student said, adding there is no need to tear down others while defending one’s views.
