The University of Ottawa’s (U of O) French-language student newspaper has taken a strong stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict by denouncing what they call Israeli apartheid in a March 4 editorial.
La Rotonde, which is an independent student newspaper, published the editorial, which is written by its editorial board and reflects the views of the paper.
The editorial criticizes U of O president Allan Rock for his support of Israel, using the subheading “Apartheid and Allan Rock: A Great Love Story.” The editorial cites Rock’s time as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations as a clear source of bias.
The editorial also calls on the university to divest from two companies involved with the Israeli military.
“We play a role in this conflict when our student fees used to invest in companies such as General Electric and Hewlett-Packard that are two companies we named in our editorial,” said Vincent Rioux, La Rotonde’s editor-in-chief.
Rioux said he had not heard of any other student newspaper in the country that had published such a piece.
The editorial listed some of their concerns with the Israeli occupation, like bureaucratic hassles for Palestinians, home invasions, and constant road checks.
It criticizes an exchange program between U of O and the University of Haifa in Israel. It says the U of O faculty of common law dean who promotes the exchange program reminds them of pro-Soviet activists “who visit the USSR but never see the gulags.”
“La Rotonde . . . has a role in telling students stuff they won’t normally hear in the traditional media,” Rioux said. “Having that in mind, we wanted to underline the unethical investments of our student fees in companies that actively participate in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
The editorial came as Israel Apartheid Week was held on campuses across Ottawa. The week sees a series of events at both Carleton University and U of O that criticize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
Israeli “apartheid” is a concept used by some activists to criticize the Israeli occupation. The editorial compared the Israeli government’s policies to South African apartheid, a policy that saw the white ruling class in that country suppress and deny full citizenship to the black majority.
“’Apartheid’ is the absolute incorrect way to label the situation,” said Andrea Sarkic, the U of O president of the Israel Awareness Committee (IAC). “Using the term ‘apartheid’ to describe Israel is not only false, it is insulting to the sufferers of true apartheid in South Africa, and elsewhere.”
Sarkic said La Rotonde had approached the IAC before the editorial was published with questions about the IAC’s initiatives. Sarkic said that while the newspaper is independent and can publish what it wants, “it is unfair for them to use their position, as a publication, to write such material.”
“Personally, I believe the editorial is very one-sided, fear-mongers, and gives an incorrect example of apartheid in the context of Israel,” Sarkic said. “[Israel Apartheid Week] oversimplifies and misrepresents the complex realities of the Middle East.”
Rioux said that while student newspapers need to be objective in their reporting, they can take stances through their editorials.
“There is no paper that is purely objective, everybody has their editorial line, an editorial stance. La Rotonde has chosen to take a stance on this conflict,” Rioux said. “An editorial is not necessarily neutral. It’s meant to take a stance.”
