Intolerance by any other name

Re: Hypocrisy On Campus, Avi Benlolo, Sept. 22. Avi Benlolo, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, suggested a work of art hanging in a student union at York University that depicts Palestinians is anti-Semitic and akin to the display of posters for a “White Student Union.” He suggests because this depiction includes a Palestinian holding rocks behind his back that it is a “call to murder.”

As a proud member of York’s University community and the Jewish community, I passionately defend the rights of Jewish students, staff and faculty to work and study in a safe and supportive environment, free from harassment, and I passionately disagree with his position. Benlolo suggests he believes in “free speech, but with limitations on spreading hate and intolerance,” then arrogates to himself the right to determine what constitutes hate and intolerance for the rest of us.

The idea any group should be able to unilaterally declare the views of others as “hate,” and call on the university to censor them, cannot be a point of departure for building a community. We need to respect the breadth and depth of others’ views, take seriously the experiences and reality on which they are based, and work together to find common ground (or where people must agree to disagree on an issue).

I hope the complaint about the art in the student centre serves not to divide who is “pro-Palestinian” or “pro-Israeli,” but rather as a catalyst for exploring our collective and individual approaches to human rights, discrimination, tolerance, censorship and decision-making over the spaces we share. Lorne Sossin, dean, Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto.