By Yves Engler
Eight hundred and eighty-five to fifty-eight. That was the result of a recent Concordia student vote in favor of the university severing ties with Israel.
At a Special General Meeting of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) undergraduates voted more than 15 to 1 to adopt two motions in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). With twice the quorum required for a special CSU meeting, the January 29 assembly drew more students than any room at the university can handle.
The impressive display of direct democracy follows on from 11 student associations representing over 11,000 Concordia students voting to strike for two days in late November for Palestine. That mobilization was part of a Quebec-wide strike with 35 associations representing over 80,000 college and university students voting to strike on November 21 and 22.
The General Assembly vote confirms that Concordia students overwhelmingly back action against genocide and remain mobilized for Palestine. It also highlights the hollowness of Jewish Zionist campus groups. Despite funding from the Mel Hoppenheim Fund to Combat Antisemitism at Concordia and support from top Jewish community figures, StandWithUs’ failed miserably to get students to vote against the resolutions. Considering the overwhelming vote, it’s near certain more Jewish students voted to divest than against.
But the vote also highlights the power of the older pro-Israel Jewish donor class. Hours after the impressive display of direct democracy, Concordia president Graham Carr released a statement labeling the vote “deeply troubling”. It claimed “heavily masked individuals” employed “intimidation tactics”.
A week later, the administration sent a letter to the CSU announcing that they were barring the union from booking spaces on campus and launching an investigation against it for purportedly violating university policies.
The reason given for this move was the presence of food at the special meeting and the use of an area adjacent to the main room for the overflow crowd, which they say the CSU did not book properly. So, the administration is punishing the union for students turning out in droves to take seriously their responsibilities as members of the university and global community.
This is but the latest repressive, anti-Palestinian, measure taken by the administration. In the fall Concordia fired the director of its Art Gallery for opposing genocide. A month ago, five of the eight members of Concordia’s Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery Advisory Council resigned to criticize the dismissal of Pip Day.
Their January 9 resignation letter said they believed Day’s dismissal less than six months into her mandate was due to “her support of artists, students, and community groups who have spoken out on behalf of Palestinians.” A month before her dismissal, the administration canceled a screening of Resistance, Why? organized by the art gallery director in conjunction with Regards Palestiniens.
Last year, the administration also abruptly canceled a Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) event with journalist and Concordia alum Aaron Maté and another organized by the Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council with Sami Hamdi. Over the summer, the administration effectively barred SPHR as an official student club after 25 years.
In another sign of their repression, the administration has repeatedly called the police on to campus to arrest anti-genocide student protesters. Despite having its own large security apparatus, Concordia has also turned to an outside security firm with ties to the Israeli military.
Between September 30 and November 22, the University spent $33,683 on private security firm Perceptage International, which was founded by former Israeli soldier Adam Cohen. He is currently national director of community security for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and director of community security for Montreal’s Federation Combined Jewish Appeal.
In response to a Concordia Link investigation documenting Perceptage International’s ties to the Israeli military, Concordia deputy spokesperson Julie Fortier, reported the student paper, said that “all Perceptage agents hired by the university were Canadian armed forces veterans.” So, the administration is admitting to bringing former soldiers onto campus to repress students opposing genocide!
Hiring a firm set up by a former Israeli soldier to repress opposition to Israel’s holocaust in Gaza sends a clear message. And the message is largely directed at Federation CJA and wealthy pro-Israel donors.
Based in a city with a 250-year-old Jewish community that was long Canada’s largest, Jewish Zionist donors have substantial weight at Concordia. Maxwell Cummings, Leo Kolber and Mel Hoppenheim have given millions of dollars to Concordia in recent years. Part of the ultra-wealthy Bronfman clan, Miriam Roland has also given many millions of dollars to Concordia. In 2023, the longtime member of Concordia’s Board of Governors put up $1 million for a sustainability initiative between Concordia and Ben-Gurion University in Israel.
The Azrielis are another billionaire Zionist family that has given large sums to Concordia. In 2022 the university produced a video on the “five decades-long partnership between Concordia and the Azrieli family that started with their gift to help launch our Concordia University, Faculty of Fine Arts.”
The family also funded the establishment of Concordia’s Jewish studies institute and gave $5 million to create the first minor in Israel studies at a Canadian university.
After attending an Association for Israel Studies’ conference organized by the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies, prominent anti-Palestinian activist Gerald Steinberg described the institute as part of a “counterattack” against pro-Palestinian activism at Concordia. During an August 2022 trip to Israel as part of a university Presidents’ tour organized by CIJA, Carr signed a multi-faceted research and exchange collaboration between the Azrieli Institute of Israel Studies and Bar-Ilan University.
Concordia’s partnerships with Israeli universities have mostly been instigated by anti-Palestinian donors. Amidst Israel’s genocide and apartheid, students want to end these accords. They also voted for the university’s foundation to divest of its stock in corporations assisting Israel’s genocide.
In 2019, Concordia conceded to students demands to divest from fossil fuels. Its Israel intransigence is largely due to the influence of wealthy Zionist donors, its well-resourced lobby and their antisemitism stick. But the divergent position of donors and students has become increasingly stark.
So, what will happen next? Will the administration’s refusal to respond to students’ democratic and pacifistic means of political expression invite escalation, especially if Israel restarts its mass slaughter in Gaza? A previous Concordia administration that failed to listen to students’ righteous fury – against anti-Black racism – ended up with the 1969 “computer center riot” that cost the university two million dollars. Or will it be less dramatic?
One thing is guaranteed. A vote of 885 to 58 proves a genocide in Gaza, together with an administration willing to hire ex-military to police its campus to protect the reputation of a foreign country, isn’t working out well for supporters of the country committing that genocide.
Yves Engler was elected vice president of the Concordia Student Union in 2002. He was expelled from the university in the aftermath of a protest against Benjamin Netanyahu.
– Yves Engler is the author of Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid and a number of other books. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle. Visit his website: yvesengler.com.
