War of Words
Palestinian and Israeli students shoot their mouths off during university debate
BY Micah Toub
Calling its five-day February lecture series Israeli Apartheid Week was all it took for the University of Toronto’s Arab Students’ Collective to set tempers on edge. Besides boldly stating its agenda, the name was undoubtedly meant to bring out a crowd and provoke serious discussion on the Israel-Palestine issue. And while it succeeded in filling seats, the tone of the dialogue was far from serious—it was enough to make you think you were back in grade school.
Despite demands from B’nai Brith and other Jewish groups that the event be cancelled, the university defended it on the grounds of free speech. As it happens, “free speech” became a rallying cry for the week, most often used by pro-Israel audience members to defend any kind of outburst. Meanwhile, one of the collective’s moderators often tilted her head, rolled her eyes and sighed like a pissed-off teenager during some questions.
One of those questions was a request that the panel address the issue of “the promotion of violence within the Palestinian culture,” which was met with sarcasm from some, while one panelist visibly suppressed his anger to ask that we not think of millions of people as one entity. “In the process of dehumanizing a people, you have to come up with certain myths,” he said. “You’re not answering my question,” the audience member replied. The speaker’s final word on the matter? “Aw, shut up.”
Toward the end of Thursday night’s question period, a woman near the front rose and asked, “So, what is the final solution?” Well, for one, it was the name coined by Nazi official Adolf Eichmann for the extermination of the Jews during the Second World War. The unfortunately phrased query was met by a chorus of jeers. Certainly, the woman was wildly misinterpreted, meaning in no way to suggest another Holocaust. But did she apologize for misspoken phrasing? Nope. Instead, she turned around and shouted, “Can’t you all just let somebody ask a question without jumping all over them?”
Here’s another question: Will peace ever be achieved in the Middle East if attempts at open dialogue are met with insensitivity and pig-headedness? At times, I found myself thinking the students’ passion for the issues was encouraging, if childish and immature. But then it struck me that some people never grow up, and outside the university context, in the larger political sphere, the consequences of that can be disastrous.
