Jewish clubs shutdown in Canada

Student Jewish clubs in Queens University of Ontario, Canada, were shut down on charge of recruiting Jewish students to join the Israeli military.

Alternative's correspondent wrote that the Canadian law prohibits that any country recruit from among Canadian citizens for emigration or military drafting.

In one of their secret leafleting activity, Jewish clubs in Queens urged students to make Aliyah to Israel, to consider moving to Hebrew universities and to join the Israeli military.

"The reason behind the closure of the Jewish clubs is the rising anti-semitism," Gideon Poraz, the president of the Jewish Clubs Federation in Queens, told the university's journal.

But Mohammed Khalil, the president of the Arab Student Congress, told Alternative that "anti-semitism is rubbish." He added that Jews fail to understand that Arabs are semites too. "If there is rising anti-semitism, then it should hit us as well. Yet Jewish students enjoy victimizing themselves," said Khalil.

The university's student government is expected to give its final say on the issue after Jewish students appealed for reopening.

Meanwhile, Arab student organizations are lobbying to make a case against the closed Jewish clubs.

"We have no problem with them being Jewish. But we certainly have a problem if they are recruiting more murderers to kill the helpless Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories," said Qais Rashed, the Arab Congress' vice president.