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CALL FOR SOLIDARITY ACTION:
CONCORDIA PUNISHES STUDENTS FOR NETANYAHU PROTEST

Arab and Muslim students and their supporters call on fellow humanitarians
to stand up for human rights, social justice, truth and human dignity.

A report by Chadi Serhal

Several students have been 'identified' and charged for their participation
in the protest against Benjamin Netanyahu's scheduled speech at Concordia
University in Montreal, Canada, on September 9, 2002.

On that day, a number of Arab and Muslim students and their allies entered
Concordia's main building where former Prime Minister and current Minister
of Foreign Affairs of the Zionist state, Benjamin Netanyahu, was scheduled
to speak.

Entry to Netanyahu's speech was restricted to non-Arabs and non-Muslims.
The lobby of the university [an 11-storey building] was open for the
attendants of the speech only. A side door on the mezzanine was open to
some students. However, the elevators and escalators were shut down to
prevent the descent to the lobby of anyone who was not invited to the speech.

Several protestors, mostly Concordia students, managed to get inside through
the mezzanine bringing down with them the wooden blocks that separated the
escalators leading down to the event. They sat on the escalators and stood
above it. One of the protestors announced their intention to advance down
the escalators and stand in front of the auditorium where Netanyahu was
supposed to speak. The police blocking the protestors would not let that
happen. An hour and a half later, the police received a call in what seemed
to be a signal, as the security started clearing the area at the lobby. The
police then started attacking the protestors violently.

Several were injured and a few arrested and detained merely for resisting
their dispossession from the grounds of their university as they protested
the university's inviting a Zionist war criminal to a campus that has a
large number of Arab students.

In response to the police's violence, one of the supporters outside the
university building broke a window to distract the police and possibly aid
the protestors who were being brutally beaten inside. Several students inside
the building, still far from the police, threw chairs and magazines to
distract the police from beating the protestors inside. Some students broke
glass in order to use fire extinguishers to keep the advancing riot police
brigade from pursuing and beating them with metal batons on their heads,
shoulders and backs; while a group of non-Arabs caused more destruction
to the university property.

Netanyahu's speech was cancelled; and twelve students and seven non-students
of the some hundred protestors, were later 'identified' by security tapes of
the event. The university imposed a moratorium on all events related to the
'Middle East'.

In the Oct. 23, 2002 issue of The Concordian, Bram Freedman, the assistant
secretary general and general counsel for Concordia University was asked how
the identification process was carried out. He said that the security
officials and others reviewing the footage of the event recognised 'familiar
faces'. When asked if this meant that students who are more active in student
politics were targeted, Freedman said: 'this is the same thing that happens
in any similar situation. People who are well-known are the ones who are
picked out.'

This explains why some students were 'identified' and accused of acts
committed by others [including non-Arabs or Muslims] who were documented
by video footage to have been the ones who committed these acts; yet
remain 'unidentified' and hence, uncharged.

The story and footage released to the media was that the protestors acted
violently against armed police forces! It was also reported that the police
attacked because the university window was broken; whereas in fact, the
non-student acting alone who is documented to have broken the glass did
so to aid the students, and was on the outside of the building, which means
that even if the police attacked the students as a result of the broken
window, they had nothing to do with the glass-breaking.  In fact, the
people outside the building were banging on the window the whole time to
try and 'distract' the cops, while some of the protestors inside the
building were screaming for help. What was happening was horrific. At
one point, this gentleman asked the people to clear the way, so they
moved back and he broke it.

The non-students identified are facing criminal charges.


The charges, which are said to be in violation of the university's
Code of Rights and Responsibilities, include 'illegal assembly [for
students at their own university], harassment, intimidation, creating
a hostile environment, violent conduct, threatening the health, safety
and well-being of another member or group, damaging property and
unreasonably interfering with a member's work or academic, athletic
or artistic performance…'.  In addition to raising such accusations,
the university, in violation of its codes of conduct, is turning the
blame on some protestors.

Video footage shot by Arab and Muslim student groups as well as
independent media, showed what the Israel Asper Foundation failed
to give to the world. Asper, who owns prominent television networks
and over 130 newspapers across Canada, sponsored the event and aired
and publicized video footage, photos and news segments for the world
to see.

Bill Marsden, an investigative reporter for the Montreal Gazette [also
owned by Asper] stated that: 'they do not want any criticism of Israel.
We do not run in our newspaper op-ed pieces that express criticism of
Israel and what it is doing in the Middle East...'

Had the independent footage covering the Montreal event been aired,
the whole world would have seen a sequential video right from the
escalators, where the students were blocked by security, police, and
bomb-detecting dogs. They would have seen a policeman mocking a student's
plea to call the fire department because the security had locked the fire
exits of the building, and cursing another; the riot police in full gear
obstructing the cameras' views of what they were doing to the protestors.
The video would have shown the protestors standing up for human rights
and human dignity saying that freedom of expression would allow us to
protest a criminal's presence on our campus, not allow him the freedom
to speak in it. The film shot by the students would not have portrayed
hooligans or 'zealots' 'attacking' the armed police, as Netanyahu called
them from the distance of his hotel which he never left, in a press
conference following the cancellation of his speech.

One of the students was wrongfully accused of assaulting a Zionist
student. The university security admitted to destroying the video
that would have been evidence that the Arab student did not physically
assault the Zionist. This student was also charged for planning the
protest and was expelled for three years.

Those 'identified' by the university have been charged with expulsion,
suspension, fines, community service and civil criminal charges. Other
students were denied a fair trial.  In the meantime, the students who
were suspended and fined are in the process of making an appeal to the
university and going to civil court.

The rector [director] of Concordia University, who was granted emergency
powers to expel students after Sep. 9 and is thus responsible for the
accusations and expulsions, defended Netanyahu on Canadian television.
During the day of the protest, he stood by the president of Hillel
[the Jewish student group] who screamed that the protestors were
anti-Semites and called them the viper's nest.  A History professor
spoke out and said that the protestors were anti-freedom and anti-democracy
and called them 'Islamic fascists.'  Finally, the rector stood by the chair
of Concordia's Board of Governors who broke the news to Netanyahu's
audience, announcing that the protestors were being tear-gassed, asking
the attendance to celebrate, chant and be merry; whereupon the pro-Netanyahu
crowd cheered.

In the past, the university has championed several anti-Arab and anti-Muslim
causes. 'Israeli' consulate employees were allowed to promote tourism to
'Israel' on student groups' space. In a university full of Arab students,
Pro-Palestinian events were fought off campus. Muslim students were
prevented from conducting two of their five daily prayers on the campus'
prayer-designated area on the excuse that they might cause destruction to
university property! Concordia obtained a court injunction to 'protect its
moratorium' and banned a member of the Canadian PARLIAMENT from speaking
at the school. Svend Robinson defied Zionist soldiers' restricting him
from entering the West Bank during the Jenin massacres. Concordia's excuse
was protecting its "moratorium on 'Middle East' issues", whereas Mr.
Robinson was there to talk about freedom of speech and NOT the Arab-Zionist
struggle.

Furthermore, a Concordia professor and Chair of the Zionist organization,
B'nai Brith Canada's League for Human Rights said on his organization's
website: 'This conduct by pro-Palestinian elements on campus is reflective
of 'Islamist Fascism'.  Concordia did not respond to that but has opted to
fight a decision by the Concordia Student Union to suspend funds to Hillel
for illegally [according to the Canadian Charter] distributing material to
recruit for the 'Israeli' armed forces.  The university then does not react
when Hillel distributes what the university classifies as 'hate literature'.
Hillel distributed pamphlets reading 'We've JIHAD enough; it's time to stop
using the Koran to justify murder…'

Pratt and Whitney, the company that produces F-16 engines for sale to
'Israel' is a major donor to the university and is on its external Board
of Governors; the highest policy making authority of the university.

The Moratorium on 'Middle East' issues was lifted, but Concordia and Hillel
continue to antagonize Arabs, Muslims, and their supporters.

Natan Sharansky, Minister of Housing and Construction and Deputy Prime
Minister of the Zionist state and leader of the Yisrael B'Aliya, the
right-wing party whose purpose is aiding and absorbing immigrants into
Palestine from the former Soviet Union and whose party platform declares:
'Israel cannot exist except as a Jewish state' and which supposedly
supports Palestinian autonomy but not statehood, is scheduled to speak
at Concordia in the winter semester of 2003.

Work is underway to call for an investigation into racism against Arabs
and Muslims at Concordia and to report to the Ministry of Education since
Concordia remains a public institution, funded primarily by the federal
[Canadian] and provincial [Quebec] Ministries of Education.

The protestors at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada; students and
non-students are urgently calling upon all of you who value human dignity
and wish to take a united stand against injustice and oppression to let
these youths from different backgrounds and cultures, including anti-Zionist
Jews to be your voice against injustice and oppression. The Zionists stand
united and support one another; and we must, in the same way, stand solidly
together against this outrage.  We call upon you to take immediate action
in support of the protestors. We can all do three things at this point…

A] Write and/ or call Concordia University, Concordia's office of Rights
and Responsibilities, members of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) who
are standing by the protestors and the protestors' supporters.

The rector's cabinet and other Concordia officials:
Rector Frederick H. Lowy
Tel.: (514) 848-4849
Frederick.Lowy@concordia.ca,
lowyfh@vax2.concordia.ca,
Peter.Cote@concordia.ca,
Danielle.Tessier@concordia.ca,
Michael.DiGrappa@concordia.ca,
bram@alcor.concordia.ca

The CSU:
communications@csu.tao.ca,
finance@csu.tao.ca,
campaigns@csu.tao.ca,
internal@csu.tao.ca,
prez@csu.tao.ca.

B] Help provide funds to cover legal counsel in aid of the protestors
who are facing the charges.  A chest is being set up for this end by
the non-profit Canadian Palestinian Foundation [CPF] that will be
reporting to all donors on how the funds are used. Contributions
could be made to:

Canadian Palestinian Foundation -
SPHR Legal fund,
5135 Notre-Dame St. West,
Montreal, H4C 1T4, Qc,
Canada.

For further information on CPF's fundraiser, please CPF contact
r.antonius@videotron.ca

C] Last but not least, we ask that you please publicize this information,
and any of you who are in the position to do so should make sure the real
events and incidents are covered comprehensively and accurately in your
local and national papers and television networks…

The network of truth calls for united action.

Thank you