Re: “Toward Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions at McGill” (February 8, Features, page 11).
Like clockwork, every year, around this time, a certain circadian rhythm calls forth the groundhog from his hole and brings out the radical Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) advocates from their den. Like clockwork, every year, they make grand claims about democracy, their value for the will of Redmen and Martlets, and their deep and abiding faith in the General Assembly process. Yet here we face a conundrum, for every year their resolution – always a slight variant on the same tired old message – is swiftly and widely shot down by a majority of McGillians who know that BDS is nothing but an unproductive, divisive, and wildly uninformed effort to stigmatize Israel by likening it to apartheid South Africa. Despite the factual inconsistency of their claim, and the clear, decisive democratic will that has now been demonstrated in not just a few GAs but, rather, all of them, Students in Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) has launched a satellite group to peddle BDS at McGill again. While most students are hard at work on midterms, these groups attempt to undermine the expressed will of sensible McGillians and regurgitate the same resolution we’ve rejected time and time again. When will SPHR and its satellite groups realize that their resolution has no place at our GAs?
Finally, for the record, part of that “land between the Mediterranean and Jordan River” is called the State of Israel, a beacon of hope and a far cry from the shameless smear image SPHR and its satellite group purvey. If you don’t believe me, ask our prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
—Chad Regan, third-year Law student