The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) faced opposition from Jewish student groups on campus over a proposed pro-Boycott, Divestment and Santions (BDS) policy at a Board of Administration meeting on Nov. 5.
The Equity Policy, put forward by the SFUO’s vice-president (equity) Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi, proposed that the federation support a number of political campaigns.
Calling the SFUO a “political organization,” the policy proposed seven clauses that would see the SFUO declare support for pro-choice groups, the BDS movement, fossil fuel and pipeline divestment, Black Lives Matter, Idle No More, anti-Islamophobia, and trans rights.
According to the University of Ottawa (U of O)’s student newspaper The Fulcrum, Moumouni-Tchouassi said she had received death threats over the proposed policy.
Daniel Prudkov, a first-year civil law student at the U of O, said he attended the meeting with members of Jewish student group, Hillel.
“Two days before the board meeting, the members of Hillel got a memo saying [SFUO] would be voting for a pro-BDS motion,” Prudkov said. “I told myself that regardless of their political opinions, I just don’t think that a student government should be getting involved in political issues that ostracize students on campus. So I told myself that I’d go there and I’d voice my concerns.”
Prudkov said many members of Hillel and the Israel Awareness Committee (IAC) showed up to voice their concerns about the pro-BDS motion.
BDS is a campaign that aims to put economic and political pressure on Israel to end its oppression of Palestinian people, according to the BDS movement’s website.
“A lot of student testimonies did get very emotional because students had already gone through anti-Semitic encounters on campus,” Prudkov said. “People were saying that although the concept of BDS itself is not anti-Semitic, it leads to a lot of anti-Semitism on campuses in North America.”
He added that the pro-BDS and pro-choice proposals seemed to be the only ones in the policy that would marginalize communities on campus if passed.
“If you’re voting for the Black Lives Matter movement or you’re voting for transgender rights, for Aboriginal rights, you’re not excluding anyone on campus,” Prudkov said. “You’re endorsing a position, but you’re not belittling anyone else. The only people in my opinion who were kind of belittled were Hillel, the IAC and pro-life [groups].”
Prudkov said students were told that the boycott was proposed because of Israel’s human rights violations.
“A lot of students said, ‘hey, why aren’t you boycotting other countries as well who violate human rights?’ ” Prudkov said. “There was no answer for that from the floor.”
After hearing student opposition, The Fulcrum reported that Moumouni-Tchouassi amended the proposed policy to read “the SFUO will do all in its power to promote peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” instead of “the SFUO will support [the BDS movement] as well as take a pro-Palestinian stance.” The board voted in favour of the amendment.
Prudkov said he was “very happy” with the amended policy.
“Everyone from our side really wants to co-exist. We want to work together to ensure peace first and foremost on our campuses, and we want to ensure peace in the Middle East,” he said. “No one really wants war.”
The Charlatan reached out to SFUO president Hadi Wess and Moumouni-Tchouassi for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
Graphic by Manoj Thayalan
