After viewing a random number of university school newspapers, I noticed that the student newspapers seem to be primarily pro-Palestine. Despite this, one student newspaper story said that the Palestinian perspective was being silenced in the media. But all I see in my LinkedIn are the atrocities from the Palestinian perspective and nothing from the Jewish viewpoint. The only pro-Jewish sentiment I saw in my review of several university newspapers was one article written by a Jewish Ph.D. student and one about lawsuits against three universities due to antisemitism. However, the vast majority of the articles were pro-Palestine.
I decided to include the titles and links of each student newspaper story I viewed. Here are the links that indicate the content of each story:
Opinion: Blockading media on Palestine is a bombardment against freedom of expression: https://thevarsity.ca/2023/11/12/opinion-the-media-blockade-of-palestine-is-a-bombardment-against-freedom-of-expression/
U of A students rally for a ceasefire in Gaza: https://thegatewayonline.ca/2023/11/u-of-a-students-rally-for-a-ceasefire-in-gaza/
Vote YES for the Policy Against Genocide in Palestine: https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2023/11/vote-yes-for-the-policy-against-genocide-in-palestine/
Student Rally for Gaza: https://www.mcgilldaily.com/2023/11/student-rally-for-gaza/
Students raise funds to address humanitarian crisis in Gaza: https://thevarsity.ca/2023/11/13/students-raise-funds-to-address-humanitarian-crisis-in-gaza/
Pro-Palestine rally held at MacEwan Hall: https://thegauntlet.ca/2023/11/01/pro-palestine-rally-held-at-macewan-hall/
Letter to the Editor: Jewish fears on campus are real: https://thevarsity.ca/2023/11/12/letter-to-the-editor-jewish-fears-on-campus-are-real/
Diamond and Diamond Files National Class Lawsuit Against Three Canadian Universities (this was not a student newspaper article but relates to antisemitism at the universities): https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/diamond-and-diamond-files-national-class-action-lawsuit-against-three-canadian-universities-881828007.html
UBC and student unions facing class action lawsuit for alleged antisemitism: https://ubyssey.ca/news/ubc-class-action-lawsuit-for-alleged-antisemitism/
The pro-Palestine protests hit home with me, as someone financed the 9/11 protest I was involved in decades earlier that I believe also had ties to Palestine, as I was invited to a speech about the Palestinian movement. I was unable to attend, so I sent my Christian friend, who spoke up at the event in defense of Jews, as he disagreed with the perspective of the meeting.
As further background, someone appeared to have funded the 9/11 protest I participated in, although the organizer would not reveal the name, telling me it was an “inappropriate question.” As for the recent protest, it struck me that the protests were way too big, way too fast. Speaking from experience, I don’t believe protests get that level of feedback unless they are organized.
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the Founder and President of the New York-based American Center for Democracy and the Economic Warfare Institute. She has a PhD in Criminology from the Hebrew University School of Law in Jerusalem, Israel. She was recently interviewed in a Christian Broadcast News video on the pro-Palestine marches titled “Soros and the Middle Easterners Funding U.S. College Protests.”
Ehrenfeld says Soros “Actually works with high schools throughout the country, not only funding and calling for the demonstrations but also having instructions, giving instructions to High School students: what to chant and what to tell during the demonstration and what would be their talking points in order to counter anybody who criticizes Hamas.”
She continues, “Before 9/11, there was a lot of money coming from Saudi Arabia, major universities received money, millions and millions of dollars from them …. This was given supposedly for Middle Eastern departments, so they changed there, and they brought in Palestinians, radical Muslims, Muslim Brotherhood, in order to change the curriculum.” She says many universities have branches in Qatar. “Now Soros himself has Soros University …. He gave actually a billion dollars a few years ago to fund this. It includes many universities, for example, Birzeit [a Palestinean university],” she said.
As for George Soros, he is Jewish, yet in a 60 Minutes interview with George Soros, the commentator stated:
When the Nazis occupied Budapest in 1944, George Soros’s father was a successful lawyer. …. But knowing there were problems ahead for the Jews, he decided to split his family up. He bought them forged papers, and he bribed a government official to take 14-year-old George Soros in and swear that he was his Christian godson. But survival carried a heavy price tag. While hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being shipped off to the death camps, George Soros accompanied his phony godfather on his appointed rounds, confiscating property from the Jews. (George Soros interview on 60 Minutes, (2016)
To sum up, George Soros was along watching the Nazis confiscating Jewish property. When asked if it was difficult, Soros replied that it wasn’t, and he had no sense of guilt about it:
Not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t see the connection, but it created no problem. …. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there because that was well, actually in a funny way, it’s just like in markets, that if I weren’t there, of course I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would be taking it away anyhow whether I was there or not. I was only a spectator. The property was being taken away, so I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt. (George Soros interview on 60 Minutes, (2016)
According to MSN.com,
George Soros, through his grant making network called the Open Society Foundation, has funneled over $15 million in the last seven years to pro-Hamas groups involved in the recent protests against Israel. The Tides Center, a left-wing advocacy group, received $13.7 million from Soros and distributed it to various nonprofits that have justified Hamas’ attack. (MSN, n.d.)
It can’t be assumed that George Soros used the money to directly fund the pro-Palestine protests, but the above contributes in an explanatory way as to how the pro-Palestine movements gained such rapid momentum, especially relative to the lack of Jewish response within the student newspapers I reviewed.
I discovered, watching a recent election, that one vote, our vote, could swing an election. We all play a role in the pursuit of everyone’s humanitarian treatment. When I write about my love for all people, including for our beloved Jewish community, I wonder if it makes a difference in the wider world. But every act of love matters; every act of love is never wasted, and every act of love goes on for an eternity.
I want to encourage academia and academics to commit to a policy of love for all groups and never hatred for any group, never pitting one group against another or labeling one group an oppressor and the other a victim. Theories must move away from the oppressor/victim mentality and toward harmony, love, and empathy for everyone. That speaks to me of actual academic progress. Therefore, universities must mandate a curriculum for cooperation and, even better, love for all groups and people.
And when we donate to a university or club, that money must go toward love for all and never to the persecution of any person or group. That’s academia’s moral responsibility that should be written in policy: funding knowledge that loves and never harms, provides safety and protection for all, and never hates. That isn’t just knowledge; it’s wisdom.