York students gathered to present their perspective on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which aims to isolate Israel in the same manner applied to South Africa during the apartheid era.
The event, moderated by the National Post’s Barbara Kay, included a panel of speakers, including York alumna Zina Rakhamilova, who travels across Canada to equip pro-Israel students with tools for fighting the BDS movement.
Rakhamilova references recently being able to help defeat the BDS motion in the University of Toronto’s Students’ Union.
“When we first started, we had 12 BDS motions that were endorsed in this country, and zero wins, and in one short year we’ve been able to bring it to five wins,” she says.
Aiden Fishman, first-year law student at UofT who led the charge against the BDS motion, put forth two arguments against the student union.
“There is a somewhat obscure piece of legislation known as the Ontario Discriminatory Business Practices Act, which bans any corporations (including students unions) operating in Ontario from boycotting another person or corporation based on, among other things, nationality. 
“Thus, if the UTSU or any other student unions was to attempt to actually enforce BDS and avoid purchasing goods from Israeli companies, for example, it would be in criminal violation of this act,” he says.
Fishman says most student unions have very broad anti-discrimination policies embedded in their bylaws.
These anti-discrimination policies typically prohibit discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, citizenship, and geographic origin.
“Thus, once again, we find that BDS necessarily violates the bylaws of most student unions.”
“Corporations are not supposed to act in violation of their own bylaws, and if a member of the corporation, such as an Israeli or Jewish student, takes offence, this constitutes solid grounds for a civil court action against the student union in question.”
The UTSU Board of Directors appreciated and agreed with this line of argumentation, as they ultimately voted by a margin of 8-11-4 not to forward a BDS motion to the UTSU’s annual general meeting, he adds.
Unlike the York Federation of Students, the UTSU is now incorporated under the new Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act.
One of the new provisions of this updated act is the extension of the right of “oppression remedy” to members of corporations, which allows them to apply for a court order against corporate actions that are unduly prejudicial to their interests.
Although the YFS has endorsed the BDS motion, there is a separate military divestment motion in place.
Elisa Alloul, York student and StandWithUs Emerson Fellow, says the problem with this campaign is that “it is tied to a racist movement called BDS.”
These supposedly limited measures are simply stepping stones towards BDS’ ultimate goal, says Alloul, which is to deny Jewish people the right to self-determination in their homeland.
“If this were simply about arms divestment the focus would be on conflicts and human rights issues around the world, not on singling out the only proven democracy in the Middle East. This is about tearing down Israelis, not supporting Palestinians or helping both sides build a better future together.”
Ryan Moore, News Editor
Featured images courtesy of Tatiana Prisiajniy, Features Editor
