University of BC students back Gaza funds
VANCOUVER - The UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS) voted tonight to support a $700 donation to the 2011 Canadian Flotilla to Gaza by the campus Social Justice Centre. The meeting came after two weeks of hardline anti-Palestine rhetoric and bullying on campus by pro-Israeli government groups.
The vote came after three and a half hours of failed ammendents and concerns about the "consequences" of allowing the donation. Among the concerns voiced by some AMS members were whether they could be sued in the future, whether their careers might suffer and whether allowing the aid would upset the Canadian government. In the end, AMS members voted 26-10 in favor of the small donation.
AMS president Bijan Ahmadian unilaterally froze the centre's donation to Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights two weeks ago and at one point called campus security when SPHR president Omar Shaban confronted him. Social Justice Centre members say they have been harrassed and bullied despite the centre's mandate to support struggles for social justice. The AMS provides a $10,000 budget for the students’ union resource group, part of which is earmarked for funding humanitarian aid.
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Comments
Fantastic
Great story and thanks Mr. Flux!
Justice is served!
Tami
Deleted a comment
I just deleted a comment that was rude towards VMC journalists and called a member of the SJC an idiot. Folks, if you have something to say, please be respectful of others.
Why is this article so
Why is this article so biased?
'Suits against Gaza'? Really???
Even if you want to be a progandist, doing it more in a more subtle way would make your journalism at least appear somewhat legitimate.
If you can't handle criticism, don't write
In response to the deleted article and the article as a whole:
You cannot write an article from such a narrow-minded scope without being prepared to handle the criticism. This is clearly very weak journalism: if you're going to pose a bias, at least TRY to make it subtle.
It is one thing to disagree with "the other side" but ignoring the claims, mocking them and deleting further claims is not journalism but child's play. I understand that you don't want to embarrass the "journalist" but he should be able to stand by his work, correct?
For example:
"The meeting came after two weeks of hardline anti-Palestine rhetoric and bullying on campus by pro-Israeli government groups"
A Zionist is not necessarily a supporter of the Israeli government. This is such a clear conflation! By making such disparate accusations, one creates a sense of misunderstanding of the issues and discredits the entire article. It's as ridiculous as claiming that all Palestinians are terrorists because they democratically elected a terrorist organization as their government. This is such a ridiculous and false assertion that one would ignore any further statements of anyone who proposes this.
"Anti-Palestine rhetoric" - there was none of the sort. Not one person spoke to their beliefs that they did not support Palestinian statehood. This is a clear and desperate plea for sympathy. Same goes with the caption "suits against Gaza". And the list goes on.
RESPECTFULLY,
The field of Journalism
Critical post should not be deleted
You cannot write an article from such a narrow-minded scope without being prepared to handle the criticism. This is clearly very weak journalism: if you're going to pose a bias, at least TRY to make it subtle.
It is one thing to disagree with "the other side" but ignoring the claims, mocking them and deleting further claims is not journalism but child's play. I understand that you don't want to embarrass the "journalist" but he should be able to stand by his work, correct?
For example:
"The meeting came after two weeks of hardline anti-Palestine rhetoric and bullying on campus by pro-Israeli government groups"
A Zionist is not necessarily a supporter of the Israeli government. This is such a clear conflation! By making such disparate accusations, one creates a sense of misunderstanding of the issues and discredits the entire article. It's as ridiculous as claiming that all Palestinians are terrorists because they democratically elected a terrorist organization as their government. This is such a ridiculous and false assertion that one would ignore any further statements of anyone who proposes this.
"Anti-Palestine rhetoric" - there was none of the sort. Not one person spoke to their beliefs that they did not support Palestinian statehood. This is a clear and desperate plea for sympathy. Same goes with the caption "suits against Gaza". And the list goes on.
weak.
RESPECTFULLY,
A Fellow Journalist
Can you post this one?
After refusing to post my first two responses that RESPECTFULLY rejected this article, you surely cannot refuse this one. There were and are no rude comments and all was and is respectful.
If you do not give me freedom to comment on your journalism, at least the National Post is mocking it: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/12/03/terry-glavin-university-of-b-c-students-inglorious-700-victory-on-behalf-of-gaza/
Awesome captions
I just noticed that your photos have some pretty awesome captions, Murray.