Skip to content

Letters to the Editor: October and November 2016

“Response to Article Regarding IJV in October 3rd Issue”

If McGill students wish to create yet another club to promote BDS and campaign against the Jewish state on campus, they are certainly entitled to. But to masquerade as a group that seeks to educate students about Judaism and “celebrate diasporic Judaism and Jewish culture” is deceptive at best, particularly when IJV’s expressed mandate is to delegitimize the Jewish connection to the land of Israel. IJV has nothing to do with Judaism—the actions of IJV’s chapters across Canada make it clear that the organization’s sole purpose is to denigrate Israel, Israelis, and anybody who believes that Israel has an integral role in Jewry— historically, culturally and spiritually.
It is very telling that IJV at McGill is being spearheaded by vehement proponents of the rejected BDS motion, who are tokenizing Jewish voices and exploiting them in order to advance their own narrow-minded political agenda. The constant propagation of this narrative, under endlessly new pretences, coupled by the push to keep opening up new fronts from which to attack Israel is simply abhorrent. And the notion that pro-BDS Jewish students feel the need to create their own space, outside of the multitude of established anti-Israel groups on campus, is a clear reflection of the growing anti-Semitism in social justice circles at McGill.
Regards,
Colin Seltzer, U1 Management

“There is nothing right wing about hate”

I have a problem with neo-Nazis (the “alt-right”) trying to define themselves into the mainstream by piggybacking on the much milder racism borne of understandable ignorance which results from lack of contact, and which reflects uncertainty about the vigour and staying power of diverse cultures and identities across Western nations.

Most especially, allowing neo-Nazis to define themselves as “right wing” whereas there is nothing right wing about them, is a problem.

If fiscal and social conservatives are unwilling to define the Nazis out of the “right wing”, they will have to shift their own ways of calling themselves.

I propose “there is nothing right wing about hate” as a starting point.

While the “alt-reicht” tries to brainwash us …

— N Weatherdon
Toronto
Anti-Brainwashing League (A-B-L.org)
905 920 7018

The McGill Daily does not endorse the views expressed in Letters to the Editor. To submit your own letter, email letters@mcgilldaily.com.