Due to the cold weather, the celebrations have moved to POD 152. Event starts at 7pm
Have ran into a couple of students from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) trying to find Pod 152. I'm lost too. Is it in Narnia?
Found it. Event will start closer to 8 pm.
A small gathering in POD 152. I've been told the event may be postponed to a later date.
The event has been postponed for next Thursday at 4pm on Gould St.
I did manage to speak to Mohammad Horreya, who is the president of Students for Justice in Palestine tonight about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As stated in Jackie Hunter's article, BDS aims to shun companies that do business with Israel. Some of these companies include Costco, Sears, Home Depot and Canadian Tire. The movement says those companies indirectly fund what it calls Israeli war crimes, occupation and oppression.
On why Ryerson's support for the BDS movement is important, Horreya said, "Every institution’s support is important. And that’s what ultimately makes Boycott, Divestments (and) Sanctions successful is the accumulation of economic pressure put on these institutions to divest from the occupation directly."
On the polarization this has caused on campus, Horreya said, "We just have to look at the facts and try to figure out what makes sense to most people and what is right and what is ethical and what is not."
Horreya also stresses that this movement isn't against the Jewish community.
"It’s the Zionist community who has been very upset about this motion. And I mean if somebody is going to align to themself the rules of the state, then they are gonna get upset at something like this because that is what we are against. We are against the state of Israel and how they exist today. And that is what we are fighting against because the regulations and laws need to change there and their conduct of humans, Palestinians and others need to change. And that’s what we’re targeting. We’re not targeting Jewish people at all."
Continued, "In fact... in the union debate last night, I mentioned the fact that the first person to endorse this motion last year was the former president of the Bike Club, Micah Markson, who was Jewish and proud. He told me he absolutely supported this motion and it brings him great shape to be associated with the state of Israel as it is today."
Horreya also says another misconception of the motion is that the majority of supporters are Muslim. He says he thinks this is motivated by Islamaphobia and calls this "a blatant lie."
He says SJP's work at Ryerson is not finished.
"I suppose the following steps would be actually trying to figure out what Ryerson is invested in so we can begin putting that into effect to try to pull out from unethical investments."
Horreya said future plans is to educate the student body and create more dialogue among students through teach-ins and being out on Gould Street now that they have the support of the RSU.
Horreya says everyone has been "expressing their extreme gratitude towards Ryerson University for adopting this motion."
And by everyone he means, "students from other campuses and other universities across the country and America." He said, "It's about time."
Jackie Hunter was at the Ryerson Students' Union annual general meeting Tuesday night when the members voted in favour of the RSU joining the Palestinian BDS movement.
">as reported in a previous article by The Ryersonian
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