Saturday, February 19, 2011

Ottawa Israel Awareness Committee Condemns Intimidating Behaviour at last night's Carleton University Students Association (CUSA) Meeting

OTTAWA, Feb. 18 /CNW/ - The Ottawa Israel Awareness Committee strongly condemns the intimidation and bullying tactics used by members of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at last night's CUSA meeting. At the same time, the IAC commends members of the CUSA executive and council for their principled stance in upholding the democratic process at Carleton, and for not succumbing to these bullying tactics. "There can be no place on our campus for the kind of blatant disregard for student safety and due process that was perpetrated last night by certain members of SAIA",said Emile Scheffel, IAC member and student senator. "We must not allow Carleton to be politicized to the point where students' safety is in jeopardy. CUSA is to be applauded for standing up against such attacks on democracy, and for rejecting thuggish behaviour."

The events of Thursday night came in the context of SAIA's campaign to pass a motion demonizing the state of Israel. This motion was rejected by the CUSA council. At the same time, a motion calling on the university to divest from truly unethical situations was passed. "We commend CUSA for passing a resolution on ethical investments", said Mark Klibanov, IAC President and 4th year engineering student."This shows that they take real human rights abuses seriously, and have not bought into the obsession of some to demonize Israel."

"We want Canadian campuses to be peaceful," said Aaron Vomberg, President of the Canadian Federation of Jewish Students."We want any discussions to be open, inclusive and representative of the entire student body. The dangerous and toxic environment that we witnessed last night at Carleton is unbecoming of a Canadian university and is in complete contradiction of our core Canadian values."

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