UWindsor vows to come to agreement with Jewish community amid criticism of encampment deal

The University of Windsor says it will engage with the Jewish community amid backlash — both on and off campus — about the deals it reached with pro-Palestinian encampment protesters and the University of Windsor Students' Alliance last week. 

In a statement on Tuesday, the university said it was committed to combating all "identity based violence," including Islamophobia and antisemitism.

The university says it will be focused on "formalizing our dialogue with Jewish students and the Jewish community and developing an agreement outlining tangible actions and strategies." 

The school says its leaders have also engaged with federal and provincial government officials on the issue, including the Ministry of Colleges and Universities and Windsor-Tecumseh MPP Andrew Dowie.

To combat antisemitism, the university says it is committed to creating a toolkit. President Robert Gordon in April announced that antisemitism training would be mandatory for all board of governors members and senior administration, and the school is hiring a Jewish student support advisor. 

Much of this is outlined in the agreement the university made with encampment organizers and the students' alliance. 

"We are dedicated to building on these efforts, addressing the concerns of Jewish students and community members, and providing increased support and resources," Gordon said.

"The university appreciates the advocacy and involvement of community and campus organizations in helping us advance our efforts. We look forward to continuing this dialogue and developing formal relationships with these groups to help support and address the needs of our Jewish students, faculty and staff."

Organizers with the encampment say it feels "inequitable" that the university has quickly committed to a deal in response to concerns from some members of the Jewish community.

"We have worked extremely tirelessly sleeping out in the tents and in the heat, in the cold... And we have done everything we possibly could to have a meeting with President Robert Gordon," said Leila Obeid, a student and organizer with the encampment.

Bilal Nasser, another organizer with the encampment, said that while there was backlash, it was in the the minority of reactions. 

"There's such an overwhelming consensus of this deal as a major victory and step forward that puts the University of Windsor in a position where it is championing human rights for all," he said. "I think these are the voices we need to focus on."

The university last week reached two deals, one with pro-Palestinian encampment protesters and one with the University of Windsor Students' Alliance. 

Ghallia Hashem is the president of the the University of Windsor Students' Alliance. She says the focus of the UWSA agreement is to encompass a broad variety of support for students, including Jewish students. That agreement included the Jewish student support advisor and more kosher food on campus. 

"When making the agreement, the UWSA asked the University of Windsor to speak to diverse Jewish voices in all discussions so that all voices are represented — those that are pro-Israel and those that are not," Hashem said. 

Hashem says they've also asked that antisemitism training differentiates between anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitism.

The deal with encampment protesters includes more anti-racism initiatives, support for students impacted by the crisis in Gaza and annual disclosures of direct and indirect public fund investments. 

The agreement also includes boycotting institutional partnership with Israeli universities until the "right of Palestinian self-determination has been realized."

Protesters at the time called it the most comprehensive and far-reaching agreement to come out of encampment negotiations at Canadian universities. 

But the deal has also attracted criticism from the Jewish community on campus and at large. 

Deal attracts criticism from some Jewish community members

Justin Hebert, president of the Jewish Law Students Association at the University of Windsor, says the deal appears to align with boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) policies against Israel, which in his view are "inherently antisemitic."

The school has a very small Jewish population, he says, and to his knowledge, they were not consulted on the deal.

The Windsor Jewish Federation also responded Thursday, saying it is "profoundly disappointed and concerned" with the agreements reached Wednesday between the University of Windsor and pro-Palestinian protesters.

Stephen Cheifetz, president of the Windsor Jewish Federation, called the agreements "far reaching" in a statement on Thursday.

"Making such agreements further emboldens lawlessness on campus and will only serve to further marginalize Jewish students and discourage them from attending the University of Windsor," the letter reads in part.

The university has said the protest was without significant incidents.

But Obeid also said that support from the university "is not a competition."

"Our liberation is not the antithesis of someone else's. A success for Palestinians is not a defeat for Jewish people. A success for Palestinian human rights is a win for all human rights," she said. 

"One person's liberation is not meaning that it should come at the cost of another group's liberation.

Jillian Rogin is an associate professor with the university's Faculty of Law, and a member of the group Independent Jewish Voices. She says framing of the deals as antisemitic is "laughable."

"When you read the agreement, it is about it is fundamentally rooted in international law, human rights principles and addressing anti-Palestinian racism," Rogin said. 

Jewish community 'not a monolith:' Jewish professor says

She says the university's statement does not identify which members of the Jewish community they'll be engaging as part of this process, saying the Jewish community is "not a monolith."

"I'm interested, obviously in addressing antisemitism as part of my own experience and as part of my work, decades of of work as an anti racist activist and scholar," she said. 

"The issue I have is who is the Jewish community because it's not identified clearly in that communication. I hope that I'm people like me are part of the Jewish community considered by the university as they move forward to address antisemitism.

"For me, being part of the Palestine solidarity movement is part of my Jewish identity."

While the deal calls for boycotting institutional partnerships with Israeli universities, individual academics are free to collaborate with academics at Israeli institutions and there are no current institutional partnerships in place.

The university's statement says it is formalizing a framework beginning this fall to bring all partnerships wo the university's senate for approval.