May 12, 2014
Students at Dalhousie University are asking the high profile chair of their school’s board of governor’s to reject an award he’s being offered by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). A coalition of students from diverse backgrounds has sent Jim Spatz a letter asking him to decline his position as guest of honour at the JNF’s Negev Dinner. The JNF, which caters exclusively to Jews, has a reputation for being an obstacle to the peace process in Israel and Palestine. In addition, the group of students asks that a bike path named after Spatz, funded by the Negev dinner and slated to be built in Tel-Aviv’s independence park, be relocated due to that park’s position on top of a sacred Muslim burial ground.
“This dinner and the JNF are hugely offensive to me as a Palestinian-Canadian and to the many other students of Arab descent at Dalhousie University” said Amer Hussein, a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid Dalhousie (SAIAD). “We have respectfully asked Dr. Spatz to decline this award for the sake of promoting diversity on our campus,” said Hussein, who is going into his third year of engineering at Dalhousie.
Hussein and the other members of SAIA Dalhousie say that this award jeopardizes their school’s reputation as an institution that welcomes students of all backgrounds. They will be organizing responses to the Negev dinner over the next week and ask that Haligonians refrain from attending the $200 a plate event until they know all the facts surrounding the JNF and its controversial projects.
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