On September 22, Hillel York, a student group at York University, organized an event off campus called “October 7 Survivor: Hear Their Story and Help Move Forward.” This event featured three speakers, including one Israeli “border observer” (Ariella Ruback) and two IOF soldiers (Eytan Berman and Nadav Levin), to supposedly offer their “powerful testimony” of their “heroic” experiences.
By inviting IOF soldiers to speak at an event hosted by Hillel York, zionist institutions are attempting to recover eroding legitimacy for the “Israeli” state and manufacture consent for their nearly year-long genocide in Gaza and their 76-year settler colonization of Palestine. By hosting IOF soldiers, Hillel York is in clear violation of the regulations governing student organizations.
As the zionist entity intensifies its colonial assault on Palestinians in the West Bank and wreaks terror against the people of Lebanon and Yemen, the celebration of IOF soldiers for their genocidal violence at this event seeks to invoke October 7 as a perennial threat to Israeli “national security.” It also creates an opportunity for these zionist organizations to recruit potential settlers, soldiers, and investors from communities based in Ontario.
York admin is complicit
One of the invited IOF speakers was a member of the Duvdevan Unit, which engages in extrajudicial assassinations and surveils Palestinians by pretending to be Arab community members. This military force receives funding from Mizrachi Canada, a registered charity which has co-sponsored the event. In the name of poverty reduction, Mizrachi Canada directly channels financial support to this same Duvdevan Unit. Such practices are in violation of Canadian and international law, and the relationship between a student organization and a financier of war crimes contributes to the militarization of York University.
Why did York University approve the speakers list for Hillel York? Why has York’s administration enabled foreign military intervention on our campus? Over the past year, York president Rhonda Lenton has avidly supported zionism and Hillel York in particular, who have made their admiration of the IOF abundantly clear for years. At the same time, Rhonda has enlisted TPS and private security forces to target Palestinian students and workers with violence, including surveillance, disciplinary threats and action, and the denial of resources. York University continues to invest tens of millions of dollars in companies directly complicit in the colonization of Palestine.
Keep militarism off campus
The York administration knows very well that Hillel York’s job posting for their director position includes monitoring “anti-Israel activities on campus” and maintaining “strong relationships with the university administration.” This recent event and these developments signify the extralegal surveillance of students and workers by a “cultural organization” at York, and they will only intensify anti-Palestinian racism and the militarization of Canadian universities. Across Turtle Island, Hillel acts as a propaganda and surveillance arm for the zionist entity.
Our universities are places of learning and critical engagement of ideas and the world. They should not be places for war and military recruitment. There should be a ban on foreign militaries from spreading genocidal propaganda on our campuses and in our communities. Likewise, the university should end its support for organizations to extralegally surveil students and workers. All students and workers deserve a university free of militarism, racism and surveillance. The IOF and Hillel York should not be allowed free reign to spew hate and fear on our campus.
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