Israel-haters at York U think they are above the rules

Last March, the "Students Against Israel Apartheid" at York University held a "victory" rally for getting a student group to pass a BDS resolution. Here is part of the rally, held indoors at Vari Hall:



As you can see, the haters have no problem enthusiastically calling for a new terror spree against Israeli civilians, as they chant for "intifada" (7:15) led by Hammam Farah, an alumnus of York and head of the SAIA.

The haters also intimidated Jewish students:



York University had no problem with any of the hate speech calling for the destruction of Israel and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East. They have no problem with forcing Jewish students to move away from a rally designed to make them into some kind of criminals.

But they did have a problem with the use of loudspeakers indoors, a violation of university rules. As their "University Policies, Procedures & Regulations" states:

Sound amplification devices, including bullhorns, megaphones and speaker systems, shall not be used in interior corridors, lobbies, foyers and atria that are adjacent to rooms/facilities used for teaching, examination, study, research and/or administration.

This was not the first time that SAIA violated these rules - so the University temporarily de-listed them:

Students Against Israeli Apartheid’s status as an officially recognized student group at York was revoked by the university following a rally held in Vari Hall on March 27.

Janet Morrison, vice-provost students, who makes decisions with respect to club statuses, de-listed SAIA as an official club until January 2014 for “repeated disruption of academic activities,” according to Joanne Rider of York media.

“Specifically, SAIA will not be able to book space or otherwise access university resources directly or through another student organization,” says the notification letter from Morrison. SAIA is also “debarred from re-registering for official student group status” until January 1, 2014.

Rider says this isn’t the first time that SAIA has “disrupted academic activities” during one of their rallies and that this action wasn’t taken lightly. The university follows a similar process with any student club, association, or organization when university policies are violated, she explains.

“We followed due process including warning SAIA a number of times before we made the decision to sanction them,” says Rider.

SAIA was notified on May 3 by York that their club status had been revoked via email and letter delivered by Morrison.

Excalibur obtained a copy of the letter sent from the university to Arshiya Lakhani, one of the students who spoke at the March 27 rally.

“By this letter, the University is giving you notice that should you in future fail to comply with applicable regulations of the University [...] York University may invoke disciplinary action against you in accordance with applicable University rules,” the letter said.

Letters were also sent to the presidents of YUBSA and the Middle Eastern Students’ Association, among other students.

“The warning letters sent from the university definitely felt threatening,” says SAIA member Huda Al-Sarraj.

In a post on SAIA’s Facebook page, the group writes that the university’s decision to revoke their status is an “unprecedented attack on academic freedom and freedom of speech on the York University campus.”

When asked for a response, Rider says, “York University encourages freedom of expression and debate of controversial issues, and values diverse perspectives. The university does not permit such expression to compromise or disrupt classes or other academic activities.”

Following the same rally, York alumnus and SAIA activist Hammam Farah was banned from entering York property as of April 25.

According to a letter sent to Farah by Gary Brewer, vp finance and administration, Farah was banned from campus because of his participation in two demonstrations — the first on November 29, 2012, and the other on on March 27, 2013, — where he was observed by York security using an amplification device to speak to a gathering of students and others.

Rider says Farah was banned for violating university policy.

SAIA, instead of admitting the obvious - that they violated university policy - instead pretend that their freedom of speech is being violated. For them, the rules simply don't apply.

Now look what happened on June 24.

During a regular meeting of the Board of Governors at York U, members of SAIA again violated the normal procedures and disrupted the meeting. This video that SAIA put out doesn't show most of the Board of Governors' reaction, since the full story is not something SAIA wants people to see, but it shows enough to see that SAIA again disregarded the rules.

The board states to SAIA, "If you are not prepared to abide by the conditions I am going to declare that we are going to move in camera with this meeting..."

But the haters just keep disrupting the meeting - forcing the entire board to walk out and continue the meeting without the public.



Once again, the Israel-haters believe that they are above any rules and they whine when they are forced to suffer consequences for their puerile actions.

Come to think of it, they act a lot like their Palestinian Arab heroes.

(h/t Harry A)