Members and supporters of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) banged drums, blew whistles, and chanted during a peaceful rally in the Unicentre atrium Nov. 7, urging Carleton president Roseann Runte not to “dine with apartheid.”
But SAIA was unsuccesful in their attempts to see Runte step down as “honorary co-chair” of the annual Jewish National Fund (JNF) fundraising dinner, which she attended Nov. 8. Carleton was listed as one of the event’s “proud [supporters].”
The JNF is a non-profit organization that buys and develops land in Israel and Israeli-occupied land in Palestine, according to Dax D’Orazio, a SAIA spokesperson and fourth-year public affairs and policy management student.
He said the JNF strictly prohibits the selling, renting or leasing of their land to non-Jewish people, who he said account for roughly 20 per cent of Israel’s population.
“We find this [support for the JNF fundraiser] to be incredibly hypocritical on the part of the administration and the president because they’ve refused to take a stand on Palestinian human rights,” D’Orazio said. “Yet, the president of the university has no moral qualms about putting their weight behind an openly discriminatory organization.”
Runte said her decision to attend the dinner wasn’t political.
“We thought we were doing the right thing by being representative and including everybody,” Runte said. “When people started making a big political thing about it . . . you just can’t back down. You just have to say no, because the other side is saying, ‘Well now if you don’t go, then are any Jewish students welcome on campus?’ I think the point was I was trying to be welcome to everybody.”
Members of the community invited Runte to co-chair the dinner months ago, she said, adding that she’s attended other religious events such as a Diwali celebration, a Muslim dinner on Parliament Hill and speaking in a church.
“My goal on campus is to try and bring people together in dialogue,” Runte said. “I understand that . . . religion and politics, it’s a touchy issue. There are two sides to the issue and I just think we need to make sure that everyone feels welcome on campus.”
Part of the protest also addressed funds raised by JNF Canada for the creation of Canada Park, which D’Orazio said sits on top of the ruins of three Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were forcibly displaced.
Students weren’t alone in their protest Nov. 7. Members of the Radical Relics and Bill Skidmore, a human rights professor and active member of Faculty for Palestine Ottawa.
“There have been complaints about the noise we will create today,” Skidmore said during the rally. “Well I [say] this: consider what it sounds like when you’re in your home and a bulldozer comes and the house collapses on top of you. What does that sound like?” he said, referring to the houses he said were destroyed in Palestinian villages in 1967.
As a symbolic gesture, the protesters marched to Runte’s office where they left three trees “in recognition of the demolished Palestinian villages that lie under Canada Park,” according to a SAIA press release.
Runte reinforced her views in a message to students, but D’Orazio said it didn’t address the demands for the university president to step down or disassociate herself from the JNF.
The protest “over-exaggerated” the importance of the dinner, said Brandon Wallingford, a fourth-year history student and Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) councillor.
“The president is involved in almost every single community organization, international affairs organizations and other organizations that run high-profile events in the City of Ottawa,” Wallingford said. “This is just such an event.”
D’Orazio disagreed.
“This is about standing up for Palestinian human rights which are consistently ignored especially within our education institution,” he said.
Runte said she’s “bent over backwards” to make sure students know they can voice their opinions, citing all the emails she’s read about this issue and a two-hour meeting she had with SAIA members a few years ago. But the whole thing has “blown out of proportion,” she said.
“Whatever I do or say is not going to change what happens in the Middle East,” Runte said. “If I could make life good for the students at Carleton . . . that’s a very, very good thing.”
— with files from Jane Gerster
