McMaster completes probe into anti-Semitic remarks
Penalties for tweets remain unknown
McMaster University has completed its investigation into numerous alarming tweets from students linked to a campus Palestinian rights group which lauded Hitler, supported terrorist organizations, and vilified Jews.
But McMaster officials refuse to say what penalties were imposed upon the culprits under the student code of rights and responsibilities.
Director of communications Gord Arbeau says it’s not the university’s practice to provide details about actions taken against individual students.
“The investigation is complete and the code has been applied to those individuals who are current McMaster students with regard to postings made during their tenure as students,” Arbeau said by email, noting the university has no jurisdictions over former students.
Punishments for violating the code range from warnings, completion of specific tasks, restitutions, issuing of behavioural contracts, fines, loss of privileges, suspensions and expulsions.
McMaster became aware of the disturbing personal social media posts — which started in 2011 and continued into 2017 — via internet reports published in mid-December by anti-Semitic watchdog Canary Mission and Algemeiner.com, an American-based Jewish and Israel news service.
The tweets in question were linked to students allegedly associated with the campus group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). Tweets included comments such as “Hitler should have took you all” and “Where is Hitler when u need one? I literally ask this every day.”
Other tweets ranging from suggestions of violence, anti-Semitic stereotypes and political hatred against Israel are viewable at https://canarymission.org/campaign/mcmaster and https://www.algemeiner.com/2017/12/12/anti-israel-students-spread-jew-hatred-at-mcmaster.
The Spectator has not authenticated the source of the tweets and was unable to contact an SPHR spokesperson. But in a Facebook response posted in December, SPHR said anti-Semitism has no room in the Palestinian liberation movement and called “vile comments” in supporting the genocide of Jews as “intolerable.”
The statement also said two of the tweeting students have no direct affiliation with the group and two of its “execs” cited in the stories “have long shed anti-Semitic sentiments” and have “received education on the differences between Judaism and Zionism.”
When Mac learned of the issue, it posted a message on its website stating it was reviewing the tweets and condemning anti-Semitism, hatred and discrimination.
“The university has also suggested to the McMaster Students Union that it review its policies on student clubs in relation to this matter,” said spokesperson Arbeau.
Arbeau notes Mac supports Jewish students on campus and is committed to addressing these “important issues” and combatting anti-Semitism.
But that doesn’t go far enough for Steven Scheffer, a member of the Hamilton-based Never Again Group (NAG), an outspoken defender of the Jewish community and Israel.
Scheffer argues that without divulging which students did what, there’s no accountability and without public knowledge of the punishment, there is no deterrent.
After learning of the “vile” tweets, Scheffer says several NAG members wrote letters to Mac president Patrick Deane and other university officials demanding to know what steps were being taken. He is “unhappy” none of them received a response.
Arbeau says Mac believed its online message served as its reply to the community “but perhaps we should have considered other methods of communication.”
Regardless, Scheffer says Mac has a responsibility to tell people what measures have been taken. Unless the guilty are properly punished, he says, some students are going to go out into the world to become the politicians, lawyers, judges and police officers of tomorrow “thinking they can get away with this kind of crap.”
“Perhaps the greatest reason this kind of activity continues year after year and even gets bolder with time is that no (one) is held accountable and there is no debt to pay,” Scheffer said.
According to Statistics Canada, cross-country hate crimes against Jews have increased significantly, spiking from 178 incidents in 2015 to 221 reports in 2016.
Scheffer is deeply troubled that similar things are happening throughout the world. He thinks it’s time people, including McMaster officials, got as angry about it as NAG is.“But all we get are empty words that mean nothing.”