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<H1 class=nposttitle>Dean of Osgoode Hall Law School responds to comment by Avi
Benlolo</H1>
<DIV class=npostcontent>
<P><EM>The following, a response to a comment published last week in the
</EM>National Post, <EM>was sent to the newspaper by Osgoode Hall Law
School Dean Lorne Sossin:</EM></P>
<P>In his comment in the <A href="http://bit.ly/1gOAtWP" target=_blank>National
Post</A>, Avi Benlolo, the president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal
Center for Holocaust Studies, suggested a work of art hanging in a student
centre at York University, which depicts Palestinians, is not only Anti-Semitic
but akin to the display of posters for a “White Student Union.” He
suggests because this depiction includes a Palestinian holding rocks behind his
back that it is a “call to murder.” As a proud member of York University’s
community and the Jewish community, I passionately defend the rights of Jewish
students, staff and faculty to engage in their work and study in a safe and
supportive environment, free from harassment, and I passionately disagree with
Mr. Benlolo’s position. Mr. Benlolo suggests he believes in “free speech,
but with limitations on spreading hate and intolerance” and then he arrogates to
himself the right to determine what constitutes hate and intolerance for the
rest of us.</P>
<P>As Jewish people around the world gathered to mark Yom Kippur last week, it
is important to reflect on the very real and genuine threats around us, which
include vandalism and attacks on Synagogues (in Israel and around the world) and
the conflating of criticism of Israel with derisive stereotypes and vilification
of the Jewish communities around the world that identify with and support
Israel. The enduring scourge (and, indeed) resurgence of Anti-Semitism has no
place in our public discourse or our University, and ought to be subject, where
the circumstances warrant, to the principled and fair application of the hate
speech laws contained in Canada’s Criminal Code, the standards of
anti-discrimination embedded in Human Rights Codes, and the University’s own
Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities as well as other applicable
policies. A similar approach should be taken to the growing and troubling
incidence of “Islamophobia” and other instances of speech (or art) being used to
denigrate a group not for what they have done, but simply for who they are.</P>
<P>The idea that any group, be they students or outside advocacy groups, should
be able to unilaterally declare the views of others in our community as “hate,”
and call on the University to censor them, cannot be a point of departure for
building a community. Rather, we need to respect the breadth and depth of
others’ views, take seriously the experiences and reality on which those views
are based, and work together to find common ground (or where community members
must agree to disagree on a particular issue). I hope the complaint about the
art in the Student Centre serves not to divide who is “pro-Palestinian” or
“pro-Israeli” but rather as a catalyst for exploring our collective and
individual approaches to human rights, discrimination, tolerance, censorship and
decision-making over the spaces we share.</P>
<P>I know there are students who are discomforted by the piece of art in
question. Mr. Benlolo’s organization has launched a complaint and that complaint
should be addressed fairly, fully and in its own context. This is an example of
the University community working to ensure a forum to sort out how disputes can
best be considered and resolved.</P>
<P>It is easy to cast aspersions at the University; it is, by contrast, hard
work to build pluralist and vibrant communities of learning where all feel safe,
and that their perspectives matter. The fruits of this hard work are lasting and
meaningful, and I am enormously fortunate to be part of a University committed
to this goal.</P>
<P><STRONG>Lorne Sossin</STRONG><BR><STRONG>Dean </STRONG><BR><STRONG>Osgoode
Hall Law School</STRONG></P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>